Melt and Pour Soap Recipes

By Carolyn Hasenfratz
Copyright 2005-2009

Contents:

1. Introduction
2. Supplies
3. The Recipes

Antibacterial Soap Bar | Embedded

Confetti Flowers Soap Bar | Wood
and Spice Fragrance Pastilles and
Car Air Freshener Trees | Basil and
Citrus Potpourri | On The Santa Fe
Trail Soap Bar | Hyacinth Garden
Soap Bar | Chunky Lavender Soap
Bar | Cream of Celery Soap Bar |
Oceanic Soap Bar | Sea Shell Guest
Soaps | Foot Scrub Bar | Foot Soak
Bath Salts | Foot Soak Bath Salts II |
Mega Flora Bath Salts | Peppermint
Lemongrass Lip Balm | Salt Dough
Leaf Ornament | Berry Good Soap
Bar | Icy Clean Soap Bar | Santa Fe
Ranch Soap Bar | Southern Breeze
Bath Fizzy | Honey and Oatmeal
Soap Bar | Coffee Soap Bar | Coffee
Dessert Soap Bar | Lime Delight
Soap Bar | El Don Soap Bar | Citrus
Mint Potpourri | Sunny Apple
Potpourri | Bath Tea | Prickly Pear
and Citrus Shower Gel | Favorite
Fragrance Blends
4. Packaging Ideas
5. Resources - Recipes, information,
and suppliers.

6. Recommended Reading

1. Introduction

I got my start in the extremely fun and addictive hobby of melt and pour soapmaking several
years ago when I bought a melt and pour soap making kit for my Mom for Christmas. She asked
me if I would make the soap in the kit for her. Well, she liked the results and I liked the process
AND the results, and I've kept making soap for gifts and for my own use ever since. Some of
you out there might enjoy some of my recipes if you are interested in trying this fun hobby
yourself.

The basic process of melt and pour soapmaking is very simple. You purchase a pre-made melt
and pour soap base from a craft supplier, melt it, add soap colorants and fragrances and other
additives as you like and pour the liquid into molds. As soon as it's cool and solidified, you pop it
out of the mold and it's ready to use. There are many ways to elaborate on this basic procedure.

The knowledge of melt and pour soapmaking and related crafts that I do have comes from the
instructions that came with the various products I've used, a couple of books, (scroll to the
bottom of this page to see a link to one of them), and various web sites and e-groups. Personal
experimentation and trial and error has taught me a few things as well.

If you have never crafted with melt and pour soap before, please read the following information
provided by soap suppliers that I've used. They are much more qualified to give you a good
overview of the process than I am:

Soap Making 101 - Life of the Party brand's instructions - very easy and simple.
Life of the Party Ask JoAnn - Addresses issues you are almost certain to encounter.
Soap Wizards Soap Guide - Along with the instructions that came with the first kit I
bought, this guide is what got me started.
Soap Crafters Forum - Recipes and How to Make Stuff
Sweetcakes E-Group - I can't find any melt and pour tutorials on the Sweetcakes web
site, but the e-group they sponsor has good information in the archives, plus you can
ask questions if you're a member.
Camden-Grey's Handmade Toiletries Group - Another supplier does something similar
with their e-group.
Wholesale Supplies Plus Blog - Includes recipes for soap and related bath items.

The suppliers mentioned on this web site all have acceptable quality products and service as far
as I'm concerned, though obviously I've only tried a few products from each. Life of the Party
Brand is sold at the Michael's stores in our area, so due to the easy availability I've used their
products a lot. The other suppliers I have ordered from online.

You will see in the recipes, for most of the ingredients I not only name the supplier but link to the
product on their web site if possible. My goal in doing this is to make it easier for interested
persons who want to make things to find the supplies, and also to share a record of exactly what
I used in each batch. I don't mean to imply that these are the only good suppliers for the item,
it's just the one that I happened to use for that batch. I don't sell my handmade soaps and
toiletries at this time, I only give them as gifts or use them myself for right now, and on each item
I put a label directing the recipient to this web site in case they want to know what is in the
product. That way they can check to see if there is anything in it they might be allergic to, or see
what's in it if they want to try making their own. (I don't deliberately use anything I know a lot of
people are allergic to, but having no allergies that I know of myself, and thick un-sensitive skin,
I'm not a good test case for that!) I also have the information in my own records, but for labels, it
saves a lot of time to maintain one web page and direct everyone to it.

Of course unless you use the exact same supplies, your results will vary somewhat, like any
craft. You'll develop your own preferences for materials and suppliers based on what factors are
most important to you. I'm only a hobbyist in this area, not a scientist or a chemist, so I don't
presume to know the best or only way to make the items.

Helpful Hint #1 - I print out any good instructions or recipes that I find online and keep them in a
binder. I print on one side so I can take notes as I work on the blank side. I would never
remember what I did with each batch otherwise, especially because I almost never leave a
recipe alone or make the exact same thing twice, I love to modify the recipes and experiment.
Any booklets or product packaging that contains good how-to information I add to the binder as
well.

2. Supplies

Like most hobbies, you can go out of control with buying supplies if you're not careful. For
beginners, I recommend getting a kit. It will most likely contain at least one mold, soap base,
fragrance, and colorant. By using the kit, you can learn the process by following the instructions
that come with the kit and familiarize yourself with what the ingredients look like and what they
do. Also you can see if you enjoy it or not. Then if this is something you want to do more of, you
can add on to the original kit based on what you're interested in making.
Besides the basic kit, it is helpful to have:

Glass measuring cups, including at least one 2-cup size

Large thin knife with non-serrated blade
Eyedroppers
Cutting board
Spoons
Plastic shoebox sized storage boxes
Plastic wrap
Spray Bottles
Paper Towels
Cleaned plastic food containers of assorted shapes and sizes

When you get a little more advanced, you might want to add these items to your kit:
Strainer
Melon baller or curl-cutting tool of choice
Serrated cutter - mine came from Soap Wizards. They don't seem to have it any more
on their web site. A friend of mine told me when she saw it that you can get similar ones
from culinary tool suppliers.
Soap cutting mitre box - mine came from Soap Wizards.
Metal cookie cutters, canape or pastry cutters
Additional soap molds

NEW! To make the task of packaging homemade products a little easier, I have made a set of
rubber word stamps for my rubber stamp line that I sell at Carolyn's Stamp Store: the set is
called Products of the Kitchen and Garden Unmounted. I also have added Drawstring Muslin
Bags to my catalog.

3. The Recipes and Ingredient Lists

Antibacterial Soap Bar

I have a lot of hobbies that require
washing my hands frequently - for
example aquarium keeping, gardening,
and taking care of my pet bird Atilla. I
wanted some soap that is antibacterial,
slightly abrasive for deep cleaning, and
also kind to my skin. This batch of soap
succeeded admirably for it's intended
purpose, except for the swirl effect I was
trying to add. I'm not even going to
describe how I tried to do the swirl
because it obviously didn't work, but the results have a rugged look that I find pleasing.

Ingredients: Clear melt and pour soap base, opaque melt and pour soap base, green
coloring, dried eucalyptus leaves, Polysorbate 20, Goat Milk Powder, Stearic Acid,
Eucalyptus essential oil, Tea Tree essential oil.

Instructions:

1. To make the green batch, put a small handful of eucalyptus leaves into a spice
grinder and grind into a powder.
 2. Melt some clear melt and pour soap base, and add green coloring and the
eucalyptus powder. Set aside.
3. To make the white batch melt some opaque melt and pour soap base, and add,
in amounts recommended by the manufacturer, Polysorbate 20, Goat Milk
Powder, Stearic Acid, Eucalyptus essential oil, and tea tree essential oil.
4. Remelt the green batch and try to get the green and white batches ready to
pour and roughly the same temperature. They don't have to be exactly the
same temperature, just liquid and pourable.
5. Pour both colors simultaneously into a rectangular loaf mold.
6. Let the mold sit undisturbed until the soap is hard. To be safe wait until the soap
has cooled off completely and then wait some more. It will be worth the wait!
7. Pop the bars out of the loaf mold and slice with a serrated cutter. Enjoy!

Embedded Confetti Flowers Soap Bar

Here is a slightly different take on making
inserts for clear melt and pour soap. If
you've been making soap for awhile,
particularly if you mix up batches of colors
for loaf soap inserts, you probably have
odds and ends of colors left over. I'll
explain how to use them to make
interesting inserts for clear soap bars.

Ingredients: Clear melt and pour soap

base, opaque melt and pour soap base,
leftover chunks of colored soap from
previous projects, Lavender Fragrance Oil,
Vanilla Lavender Fragrance Oil, cooking
spray for mold release, 70% isopropyl
alcohol in a spray bottle or Bubble Buster.

Instructions:

1. Line a glass baking dish with aluminum foil. Fill to a depth of about 1" with
pieces of colored soap, both clear and opaque, left over from previous soap
projects. If you don't have leftover pieces available, you can mix up three or
more batches of color, let harden, then cut them up and put them in the baking
dish.

2. Turn your oven on it's lowest setting. Put the baking dish full of soap pieces in,
and check it about every five minutes until the soap melts enough to slump into
a flat multicolored mass, melted just enough to be mostly flat, but not melted so
much that the interesting multicolored confetti effect disappears. In my oven this
took about 10 minutes.
3. Carefully remove the baking dish and allow to cool until the soap has cooled
and hardened.
4. Turn the baking dish over onto a clean cutting board to let the contents fall out,
and peel the foil away. Now you have a flat slab of soap that is ready to be cut
into inserts. Decide whether the top or bottom is the most interesting (I find it's
usually the top) and lay the slab on the cutting board with the interesting side
up.
5. With the metal pastry, canape, or cookie cutters of your choice, cut shapes out
of the slab and set aside. Plastic cookie cutters are not sturdy enough to cut the
soap without breaking.
 6. Select a soap mold that you like to use for clear bars with inserts - usually one
with individual bar cavities and a plain smooth surface. Here are links to some
examples of suitable molds for this project:
Rounded Oval
Basic Rectangle Soap Mold
Circle Disc Soap Mold

7. Lightly spray the insides of the cavities of your mold with cooking spray. Wipe
out the excess cooking spray with a paper towel. If your mold does not sit flat
and level on the work surface, balance the mold on the bottoms of four identical
upturned shot glasses (or any four small objects with flat bottoms of identical
height) to keep the mold as stable and level as possible. It will make the
pouring a lot easier.

8. Melt some clear soap base and add fragrances in amounts recommended by
the manufacturer. I used one part Lavender and one part Vanilla Lavender.
9. When the soap starts to form a skin on top, remove the skin then fill one of the
bar cavities 1/3 full of the clear mixture. Spray with alcohol or Bubble Buster to
break any bubbles that might be on the surface. Add some of the cut out insert
pieces. Repeat for each cavity. Let bars sit until the first pour layer is solid.
10. To add another layer and finish up the bars, spritz with the alcohol or Bubble
Buster, and add a layer of a contrasting color or more clear. I used a pearly
white in my sample.
11. Let the mold sit undisturbed until the soap is hard. To be safe wait until the soap
has cooled off completely and then wait some more. It will be worth the wait!
12. Pop the bars out of the mold and enjoy!

Wood and Spice Fragrance Pastilles

and Car Air Freshener Trees
I was first introduced to salt dough in
preschool, where we made ornaments for
Christmas. It became a favorite craft
material of mine throughout childhood. In
recent years, I've experimented with using
salt dough for making fragrant ornaments
and pastilles to add to potpourri mixes. In
my opinion this is my most successful
batch so far.

Ingredients:
o 1 cup flour
o 1/2 cup salt
o 1/2 tsp alum
o 1/4 cup wallpaper paste
o 1/4 cup Sage leaves
o 1 TBSP ground Nutmeg
o 1 TBSP ground Sage
o 1 TBSP Orris Root Powder
o 1 TBSP ground Cinnamon
o 1 TBSP Cedarwood essential oil
o 1 TBSP Northwoods fragrance oil
o 1/4 tsp brown oxide powdered soap colorant
 o Sandalwood Powder

Instructions:

1. Crumble the dried Sage leaves into a glass microwave-safe measuring cup.
Add 1 cup of water, and heat in the microwave for approximately three minutes.

2. Add all the other dry ingredients except for the Sandalwood powder to a large
bowl that can withstand having near-boiling water poured into it. Mix well.
3. Remove the measuring cup from the microwave, and strain out the sage pieces
while pouring 2/3 of the water in the cup into the bowl of dry ingredients. Mix
dough together, adding more of the sage-infused water if it is needed to make
the dough workable.
4. Sprinkle some Sandalwood powder on a flat work surface, as you would lay
down flour when making cookies or pie crust. Sprinkle more Sandalwood
powder on top, and roll dough out with a rolling pin, to somewhere in the vicinity
of 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick.
5. Apply more Sandalwood powder to the top of the dough, then stamp randomly
with decorative rubber stamps. For my samples, I used these stamps from
Carolyn's Stamp Store: Line Drawing with Double Spiral, Line Drawing with
Squigglies and Shape Stripes.
6. If you want to make tree-shaped car air fresheners, cut out tree shapes with a
cookie cutter. If you want to make fragrance pastilles or fragrant ornaments, cut
out shapes of your choice with cookie cutters or canape cutters. Poke a hole
toward the top of any shapes that you want to attach a hanging loop too. Place
finished cutout shapes on a cookie sheet to dry.
7. When the dough shapes are completely dry, which will probably take several
days, brush any excess Sandalwood powder off with a clean paintbrush and
store shapes in a plastic zip-lock bag until you're ready to use them.
8. For ornaments or air fresheners, attach a hanging loop with cord. You can
embellish the cord with beads if you want to.
9. The fragrance pastilles can be used alone or added to a potpourri mix such as
the one below. Make sure they are safely away from anyone who might mistake
them for edible cookies!

Basil and Citrus Potpourri

Ingredients: Dried leaves of Rosemary,

Lemon Balm, Lime Balm, Korean Hyssop,
Red Rubin Basil and Sweet Basil,
Rosemary Essential Oil, Lemon Essential
Oil, Sweet Basil Essential Oil, Lemongrass
Essential Oil, Juicy Lime Fragrance Oil,
Orange Essential Oil (Citrus aurantium),
lemon peel, lime peel, orange peel and
Wood and Spice Fragrance Pastilles.

Instructions:

1. Grow or otherwise obtain two

handfuls of each of the following
dried leaves: Rosemary, Lemon
 Balm, Lime Balm, Korean Hyssop, Red Rubin Basil
and Sweet Basil. The herbs I used for this particular
batch were home-grown. Put the leaves into a large
container that has a tight-fitting lid.

2. Add several drops of each essential and fragrance oil

and shake or stir the contents. Smell the mixture and
see if it is strong enough. If it's not, repeat until you are
satisfied with the fragrance.
3. Peel several limes, lemons, and oranges. Cut the
peels into thin strips and set out on a cookie sheet for
several days to dry. When the peels are throughly dry,
add them to your mix. If you need a use for the juice of
the lemons and limes, here is a tasty cookie recipe.
4. Optional: Display potpourri in an open decorative
container and place a few fragrance pastilles on top.

On The Santa Fe Trail Soap Bar

An exfoliating bar with a fragrance that will take your imagination on a trail ride on the
High Plains!

Ingredients: Natural White MP Soap Base, cooking spray for mold release (soybean oil,
soy lecithin, water, propellant), Polysorbate 20, Leather fragrance oil, cosmetic grade
colorants, home grown yucca root, home grown sage (salvia officinalis), Fruit Fresh
(Dextrose, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Citric Acid, Silicon Dioxide), 70% isopropyl alcohol
and Bubble Buster.

Instructions:

1. Spray the insides of the cavities of a Horse soap mold with cooking spray. Wipe
out the excess cooking spray with a paper towel. Balance the horse mold on
the bottoms of four identical upturned shot glasses (or any four small objects
with flat bottoms of identical height) to keep the mold as stable and level as
possible. It will make the pouring a lot easier.

2. On the first pour we'll fill in only the details of the horse portrait and rope border.
Melt some opaque white soap base, and color with brown soap coloring to
make light brown. Add leather fragrance and Polysorbate 20 in amounts
recommended by the manufacturer. Pour into the horse soap mold filling only
the horse and rope portions of the design. Let this layer harden.
3. While the light brown pour is hardening, grind some dried yucca root pieces and
dried sage pieces in spice grinder as finely as you can get them. Sift the ground
pieces through a fine meshed strainer to remove any large pieces that might
remain to get a fine powder to add to your soap. Discard the sifted out large
pieces or save them to use for something else.
4. When the light brown layer is hard enough to handle without damage, inspect
your pour for any light brown drips or spills that are outside the rope and horse
portions of the mold. You might be skilled enough not to have any drips where
you don't want them, but I'm not! If there are any, you can remove them by
cutting around them with the tip of a knife that is not sharp enough to damage
the mold, and gently pulling the unwanted pieces up. They should come up
easily due to the earlier application of the cooking spray. Some unwanted bits
might come up more easily by scraping them with a piece of cut-up credit card.
5. Melt some more opaque white soap base, and color it a light tan-yellow color.
Make sure it's lighter enough in color than the brown layer to create enough
 contrast to show the design. Add Polysorbate 20 and
Leather fragrance in amounts recommended by the
manufacturer. Add approx 1/4 tsp Fruit Fresh and 1
TBSP combined yucca root and sage powder to about 1
1/2 cups of melted soap.
6. Spray the brown pour layer with alcohol or Bubble Buster, and fill the remaining
space in the mold cavities with the light yellow mixture.
7. Let the bars cool, then unmold and enjoy.

Hyacinth Garden Soap Bar

Ingredients: Commercial melt and pour soap bases (Crafters

Choice Natural Clear and Ultra White, and Life of the Party Cool
Soap Flourescent Green), Sweet Cakes Hyacinth Fragrance,
cosmetic grade colorants, Bubble Buster, 70% isopropyl alcohol, canola
cooking spray for mold release.

Chunky Lavender Soap Bar

Ingredients: Commercial melt and pour soap bases (Crafters Choice Natural Clear,
Ultra White, and Natural White), Soap Wizards Lavender Fragrance, Life of the Party
Vanilla Lavender Fragrance, and cosmetic grade colorants.

Cream of Celery Soap Bar

A fresh green color and fragrance will cheer you as you wash if you can't wait for spring
to get here!

Ingredients: Commercial crafting soap base (Life of the Party Cool Soap Base, Life of
the Party Avocado Cucumber Soap Base, Soapcrafters Glycerin Melt & Pour Clear),
celery, contents of vitamin E capsule, Polysorbate 20, Rosemary Oleoresin Extract
(ROE), Sweetcakes Fresh Grass Fragrance, Germaben II (Propylene Glycol (and)
Diazolidinyl Urea (and) Methylparaben (and) Propylparaben ), Fuller's Earth, cosmetic
grade colorants. Canola Harvest cooking spray used for mold release.

Tools and supplies:

Glass measuring cups
Plastic food storage containers, including one wide flat one
Strainer
Clean empty plastic tubes from powdered drink mix packaging
Scissors that can cut plastic
Rubber bands
Plastic wrap
Aluminum foil
Cutting board
Knife
Paper Towels
Tray with raised edge
Melon baller or curl-cutting tool of choice
Serrated soap cutter
Soap cutting mitre box

Instructions:

1. Wash and chop up a handful of fresh celery parts. Melt 1/4 package of opaque
melt and pour soap base with the celery parts in a glass measuring cup. I used
Life of the Party Avocado Cucumber Soap Base. Cover the measuring cup with
foil or plastic wrap, and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight.

2. Next make a batch of clear green soap for cutting curls. I used Soapcrafters
clear melt and pour glycerin base mixed with Life of the Party Cool Soaps green
for color, and poured it into a 6-cup flat rectangular plastic food storage
container. The wide flat shape makes it easy to cut curls from the hardened
soap. If you don't have green soap base to mix with the clear like I did, use
soap colorants to make the clear soap base green.
3. The next day, remove the cup with the celery-infused soap from the refrigerator,
and remelt it. Pour the mixture through a strainer into another container for
temporary storage, and discard the celery bits. Melt more opaque soap base
and add the following: contents of one vitamin E capsule, ROE, Germaben II,
Fuller's Earth and Polysorbate 20. Refer to manufacturers' recommendations
for amounts of the additives. Leave out the Fuller's Earth if you have dry skin.
Pour the mixture into a container for temporary storage. You will eventually be
mixing this with the celery/soap mixture, so it can go into the same container.
4. Cut the ends off of some powdered drink mix tubes. Spray the insides of the
tubes with Canola non-stick cooking spray and wipe off the excess with a paper
towel. Cover one end of each tube with a square of plastic wrap followed by a
square of foil, then secure with a rubber band. When you pour the soap into
these tube molds, there will probably not be any leaks, but just in case there are
stand the tubes covered end down into some kind of receptacle or tray with a lip
or raised edge to prevent spills.
5. Using a melon baller or other tool you like for cutting soap curls, cut curls from
the large block of clear green and drop them into the tubes. If you use a melon
baller, you don't have to remove the soap block from the food container while
you cut.
6. Remelt the opaque soap base infused with celery and with the additives, and
add Fresh Grass fragrance in amounts recommended by the manufacturer. Stir
gently to minimize air bubbles. When the soap begins to form a skin on top,
remove the skin and pour slowly and steadily into the tubes. As each tube is
full, tap the sides to encourage any air bubbles to float to the surface.
7. Let cool, push out of the molds, then slice with the serrated cutter for extra
visual interest.

Possible Improvements for Next Time:

Over time, the green from the celery turned a light brown. I might try adding Fruit Fresh
if I make this again to see if it helps it to stay green. Perhaps a hint of artificial green
color in the lighter green part will help disguise that also. I added the celery because I
liked the color and fragrance, perhaps some cucumber could be added as well because
it has benefits for the skin. And next time I would put two different colors of green curls
instead of just one to add more visual interest - such as a medium celery green like you
see in the sample plus a darker cucumber-ish green.
 Oceanic Soap Bar

Ingredients: Commercial crafting soap base (Life of the Party Cool Soap
Base, Soapcrafters Glycerin Melt & Pour Clear, and Crafters Choice
Natural White Melt and Pour Soap Base), Polysorbate 20, contents of
vitamin E capsules, kelp, Sweetcakes Juicy Lime Fragrance, Soap Wizards Ocean
Fragrance, Soapcrafters Ocean Fragrance, Rosemary Oleoresin Extract (ROE), food
grade vanilla extract (vanilla bean extractives in water, alcohol, corn syrup), cosmetic
grade colorants. Canola Harvest cooking spray used for mold release.

Sea Shell Guest Soaps

Ingredients: Commercial crafting soap base (Life of the Party Cool Soap Base,
Soapcrafters Glycerin Melt & Pour Clear, and Crafters Choice Natural White Melt and
Pour Soap Base), Polysorbate 20, contents of vitamin E capsules, kelp, Sweetcakes
Juicy Lime Fragrance, Soap Wizards Ocean Fragrance, Soapcrafters Ocean
Fragrance, Rosemary Oleoresin Extract (ROE), food grade vanilla extract (vanilla bean
extractives in water, alcohol, corn syrup), cosmetic grade colorants. Canola Harvest
cooking spray used for mold release.

Foot Scrub Bar

Ingredients: Commercial crafting soap base (Life of the Party Cool Soap Base,
Soapcrafters Glycerin Melt & Pour Clear, and Crafters Choice Natural White Melt and
Pour Soap Base), Polysorbate 20, contents of vitamin E capsules, kelp, Sweetcakes
Juicy Lime Fragrance, Soap Wizards Ocean Fragrance, Soapcrafters Ocean
Fragrance, Rosemary Oleoresin Extract (ROE), food grade vanilla extract (vanilla bean
extractives in water, alcohol, corn syrup), Tea Tree essential oil, cosmetic grade
colorants. Canola Harvest cooking spray used for mold release.

Foot Soak Bath Salts

Ingredients: Epsom salt, sea salt, baking soda, seafoam green liquid soap colorant,
Soapcrafters Pine Forest Fragrance, Eucalyptus fragrance oil.

Foot Soak Bath Salts II

Ingredients:
o 2/3 cup epsom salt
o 2/3 cup sea salt
o 1/3 cup baking soda
o 20 drops Eucalyptus essential oil
o 20 drops Tea Tree essential oil
o 10 drops seafoam green liquid soap colorant

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a small glass mixing bowl. Use a fork to break up any lumps.
Stir and break up lumps periodically for a day or two until mixture is dry. Store in a
 closed glass container. Dissolve about a 1/4 cup in a basin of hot
water and soak your feet whenever they feel like they need a
bath, after a hike for example. I don't know how it makes your
whole body feel good, not just your feet, but it does.

Mega Flora Bath Salts

Ingredients: Epsom salt, sea salt, baking soda, lilac liquid soap colorant,
yellow liquid soap colorant, Soapcrafters Gardenia Fragrance, vanilla
lavender fragrance.

Peppermint Lemongrass Lip Balm

Ingredients: All-Natural Lip Balm Base, beeswax, sweetener and Peppermint

Lemongrass flavor oil.

Salt Dough Leaf Ornament

I like to make these to tie onto my gift packages. It makes the gift look more festive plus
the recipient can later hang it in a closet or some other place where they would want a
nice scent.

Ingredients: Chopped dried herbs (sage, rosemary, and spearmint), flour, salt, wallpaper
paste, food coloring, Northwoods fragrance oil, Cedarwood essential oil, watercolor
paints and crayons, dye-based rubber stamp ink. The double spiral rubber stamp is
from my own collection.

Berry Good Soap Bar

Ingredients: Commercial crafting soap base (Life of the Party Moisturizing Clear
Glycerin Soap, Soapcrafters Opaque Glycerin, and Crafters Choice Natural White Melt
and Pour Soap Base), Polysorbate 20 (Sweetcakes brand - I'm not sure if it really did
anything in this recipe or not, so you can leave it out), bayberry, vanilla, strawberry, and
pearberry fragances, cosmetic grade colorants.

Canola Harvest cooking spray used for mold release. 70% rubbing alchohol used for
soap layer adhesion and bubble reduction.

Instructions:

1. Mix three color batches of approx. 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup each. Start with white
opaque melt and pour soap base and add colorants of your choice. For this
project I used yellow-green (which looks all yellow in the finished bar), peach,
and magenta. Pour each color into a separate container and let harden. You
can use soap molds for this, or in order to save wear and tear on your soap
molds, use clean plasic food containers.
2. Get your loaf soap mold and spray the inside lightly with cooking spray. Wipe off
the excess with a clean paper towel. For this project I used the loaf mold made
by Life of the Party.
3. Place the mold on some kind of support that will keep it from rolling or moving
while the soap is hardening. Sets of cups of matching height work well, an old
ice tray is also handy for this.
 4. When your colors are hardened through, cut them into chunks.
Try to vary the size and shape as you cut.
5. Fill the loaf mold with chunks, distributing the colors as much as
you can. Fill the mold all the way to the top. It's okay if pieces
project higher than the top of the mold - you can trim those pieces
off later if you want. At about 1/3 full, spritz the chunks with
alchohol or Bubble Buster. Repeat at 2/3, and again when full.
6. Melt enough clear melt and pour base to fill a 2-cup measuring cup. Add some
opalescent soap glitter, and one drop of red or magenta liquid soap color. I used
about 1/4 tsp to 1/2 tsp Polysorbate 20 to theoretically help keep the soap glitter
suspended. It's usually used for helping things like fragrance and water mix
together, but on a whim I added some to see if it would help suspend the glitter
since I read that it helps to disperse things. I'm no chemist as you can tell! I'd
have to do another similar batch without it to see if it actually did anything. Stir
slowly to avoid adding excess air bubbles.

Add the fragrance:

Refer to the manufacturers instructions for guidance on amounts.

2 Parts bayberry FO (I used Camden Gray brand)
1 Part pearberry FO (I used Life of the Party brand)
1 Part strawberry FO (I used Soapcrafters brand)
1 Part vanilla FO (I used Soapcrafters brand)

7. When the mixture is mixed fully, and starts to cool enough to form a skin on top,
remove the skin with a spoon, set it aside, and pour the rest of the mixture into
the mold. Pour slowly and steadily until the mold is full. Gently tap the sides to
dislodge any bubbles and allow them to float to the top. Use the alchohol or
Bubble Buster to break bubbles on the surface.
8. Let the mold sit undisturbed until the soap is hard. Such a large chunk of soap
might take several hours to harden completely. To be safe wait until it has
cooled off completely and then wait some more. It will be worth the wait!
9. Pop the loaf out of the mold, slice, and enjoy!

Icy Clean Soap Bar

Ingredients: Commercial crafting soap base (Life of the Party Moisturizing Clear
Glycerin Soap and Avocado Cucumber opaque soap base, Soapcrafters Opaque
Glycerin, and Crafters Choice Natural White Melt and Pour Soap Base), Life of the
Party "Spa" fragrance (I don't know what they really call it but it came with the Spa
Indulgence embossed soap bar kit), Life of the Party Spruce fragrance, cosmetic grade
colorants.

Canola Harvest cooking spray used for mold release. 70% rubbing alchohol sprayed on
for soap layer adhesion and bubble reduction.

Instructions:

1. Mix up and harden up two or three batches of colors to use for inserts. For the
soap pictured I made a batch of opaque pale blue, a batch of clear darker blue
with dark blue coloring and blue irridescent powdered color, and a third batch
made of leftovers from the first two mixed together and fortified with more blue
coloring.
 2. Choose a large container to use as a mold. A plastic storage box
or a loaf mold would be a good choice. Spray the inside of the
container lightly with cooking spray, and wipe off the excess with a
paper towel.
3. After the color chunks are hard, cut curls from them. The size and
shape of the curls will depend on the size of the soap chunks and
tool you use for the cutting. For the soap you see in the picture, I
used the large end of a melon baller to cut out the curls.
4. Place the curls in the mold, mixing up the colors as well as you
can. Spray from time to time with a rubbing alcohol spritz or
Bubble Buster.
5. Fill a 2-Cup glass measuring cup with melted white opaque melt
and pour soap base. Add a bit of white pearlized powder colorant.
Add the fragrance:

Refer to the manufacturers instructions for guidance on amounts.

1 part Spruce fragrance
1 part "Spa" fragrance

6. When the mixture is mixed fully, and starts to cool enough to form a skin on top,
remove the skin with a spoon, set it aside, and pour the rest of the mixture into
the mold. Pour slowly and steadily until the mold is full. Gently tap the sides to
dislodge any bubbles and allow them to float to the top. Use the alcohol or
bubble buster to break bubbles on the surface.
7. Let the mold sit undisturbed until the soap is hard. Such a large chunk of soap
might take several hours to harden completely. To be safe wait until it has
cooled off completely and then wait some more. It will be worth the wait!
8. Pop the loaf out of the mold, slice, and enjoy!

Santa Fe Ranch Soap Bar

Ingredients: Commercial crafting melt and pour soap base, food grade vanilla extract,
soap fragrance (My notes on this one are more vague than I'd like but it's probably
Woodsmoke, Sweetgrass, and Desert Sage), cosmetic grade colorants.

Helpful Hint #2 - Why did I use food grade vanilla extract in this soap bar? In this case
it's because I wanted the white soap that forms the background for the Kokopelli figure
to be more creamy white and not stark bright white. Vanilla extract will give a nice hint
of color, and a very small hint of fragrance that is not likely to clash with anything. The
food grade vanilla extract is not strong enough to make much of a vanilla fragrance on
it's own, if I was aiming for a strong vanilla fragrance I would use a vanilla soap
fragrance with it. Many vanilla fragrances reportedly also discolor soap,
so if you're not sure if yours does, do a small test first.

Southern Breeze Bath Fizzy

These are the instructions I used for my bath fizzies:

www.soapcrafters.com/recipes_fizzies.htm.

As for fragrance, my notes aren't as clear as I'd like, but I'm sure I used
Magnolia and Woodsmoke, and possibly some Frankincense and
Mandarin Dreams also.
 Honey and Oatmeal Soap Bar

Ingredients: Commercial crafting melt and pour soap base,

honey, food grade vanilla extract, contents of Vitamin E
capsules, Beeswax and Honey fragrance, powdered oatmeal.

Coffee Soap Bar

Ingredients: Commercial crafting melt and pour soap base, some leftovers from Honey
and Oatmeal soap above, food grade vanilla extract, vanilla fragrance, hazelnut
fragrance, coffee bean fragrance (Soap Crafters), dark portion infused with flavored
hazelnut cream coffee (arabica coffee beans, malt extract, nut extract, vanillin, artificial
hazelnut flavor).

And by mixing leftovers from Honey and Oatmeal and Coffee together, I ended up with
Coffee Dessert!

Lime Delight Soap Bar

Ingredients: Commercial crafting soap base (the clear portion is Crafter's Choice Extra
Clear), fragrance (Masculine Musk, Green Tea (Soap Crafters), Leather, Juicy Lime,
Coconut, and Amber), cosmetic grade colorants.

Canola Harvest cooking spray used for mold release. 70% rubbing alchohol sprayed on
for soap layer adhesion and bubble reduction.

1. Mix up a small batch of opaque lime green soap and add some complementary
pearlized powders. Pour the mixture into the cavities of a citrus slices mold. The
flexible mold I used was sold as an ice cube tray, and although I'm not sure if
they are exactly the same, I've seen similar molds on a soap supply web site.
2. Get a multi cavity bar soap mold and spray it lightly with cooking spray. Wipe off
the excess with a clean paper towel. I used a mold of two circles and two ovals
made by Life of the Party.
3. Place the mold on some kind of support that will keep it from rolling or moving
while the soap is hardening. Sets of cups of matching height work well.
4. Pop the lime slices out of the flexible mold and place the pieces near the soap
bar mold. Timing is important in the next step, and having your materials near
will help. Get your bottle of rubbing alcohol or Bubble Buster ready as well.
5. Melt some clear soap base and add fragrance: I used 1 part Amber, 1 part Juicy
Lime, and one part Coconut. (I used some leftovers from another batch in this
project, and the colored portions already contain some Juicy Lime, Leather,
Green Tea, and Masculine Musk fragrance.)
6. When the soap starts to form a skin on top, remove the skin then fill one of the
bar cavities 1/3 full of the clear mixture. Spray with alcohol or Bubble Buster to
break any bubbles that might be on the surface. Add some lime pieces - two of
mine fit in the round cavity, three fit in the oval cavity. Repeat for each cavity.
7. Let the soap sit until the clear is just barley hard. Then spritz with the alchohol
or Bubble Buster, then add another layer of clear to just cover the lime slices. In
my mold, this filled the round cavities completely, but there was still some room
for another layer in the oval cavities.
 8. To add another layer and finish up the bars, let
the soap sit again until the second clear layer is
barely hard. Spritz with the alcohol or Bubble
Buster, and add a layer of a contrasting color or
clear. I used a pearly white.
9. Let the mold sit undisturbed until the soap is
hard. To be safe wait until the soap has cooled
off completely and then wait some more. It will
be worth the wait!
10. Pop the bars out of the mold and enjoy!

El Don Soap Bar

Ingredients: Commercial crafting melt and pour soap base, cosmetic grade colorants,
soap fragrance (Leather, Masculine Musk, Juicy Lime, Green Tea (Soap Crafters),
Sandalwood, Frankincense, Myrhh).

Canola Harvest cooking spray used for mold release. 70% rubbing alchohol sprayed on
for soap layer adhesion and bubble reduction.

This batch was made mostly from leftovers that already had some fragrance in it. I
added some extra Frankincense and Sandalwood during Step 3. All of the color mixes I
used in this soap were opaque.

1. Mix up a batch of light brown soap, about the color of hot chocolate. Pour into a
container and let it harden.
2. Cut curls from the light brown with a melon baller or your curl-cutting tool of
choice. Fill a suitable container or loaf mold with the curls, spraying periodically
with rubbing alcohol or Bubble Buster. I used a large yogurt container for this
project.
3. Mix one batch of pearly white soap and one batch of pearly green soap in
separate glass measuring cups. You'll be pouring these two colors
simultaneously, so try to melt them at the same time and get them to the same
state of liquidity at the same time. It doesn't have to be exact, just close. Add
fragrance now.
4. Let the two melted batches start to form a skin on top.
5. Remove the skin, then pour both batches at the same time, one on each side of
the mold. Don't move the cups much while you pour if you want a two-tone
effect like my sample.
6. Gently tap the sides to dislodge any bubbles and allow them to float to the top.
Use the alcohol or Bubble Buster to break bubbles on the surface.
7. Let the mold sit undisturbed until the soap is hard. Such a large chunk of soap
might take several hours to harden completely. To be safe wait until it has
cooled off completely and then wait some more. It will be worth the wait!
8. Pop the loaf out of the mold, slice, and enjoy!

Citrus Mint Potpourri

Ingredients: mandarin orange peel, home grown peppermint leaves, home grown lemon
basil leaves, Orange Spice Fragrance Oil, scented salt dough strips (flour, salt,
cornmeal, cosmetic grade powdered coloring, Lemongrass essential oil, Peppermint
essential oil).

Here are the steps to make it:

 1. Wash and peel a bunch of mandarin oranges. Cut the peels into strips, and let
them dry on a cookie sheet until they are crisp. Eat the oranges (yum!).
2. Put the peels into a large container such as a cooking pot or big salad bowl.
Add a few drops of Orange Spice fragrance oil. Stir it up and let it sit for a few
days with a cover on it. Stir it every once in a while.
3. Add a handful or two of dried whole Peppermint leaves and dried whole Lemon
Basil leaves. I grew these, but you can probably buy them from an herb
supplier. These are really easy to grow yourself if you want to. I can say from
experience that in the St. Louis area climate you will soon have mass quantities
of them with no effort at all!
4. Mix up a batch of salt dough, and if you care about making it look pretty add
some yellow coloring. Add a few drops of Peppermint and Lemongrass
essential oils.
5. Roll out the dough into a sheet, cut it into strips, and let the strips dry. Add them
to your mix when done.
6. Put the Potpourri into the bags or containers of your choice. For this batch I
used drawstring muslin bags which I first dyed with tea, then rubber stamped
with fabric ink.

Sunny Apple Potpourri

Ingredients: Home-grown Korean Hyssop (Agastache rugosa), Chamomile flowers*,

home-grown Pennyroyal**, Orris Root Powder, Life of the Party Apple Fragrance, and
Star Anise essential oil.

*NOTE: The supplier from where I ordered the flowers says on their web site that it can
be used for herbal tea, but after I ordered it I found out that was not the case, it's of a
grade for external use only. So I will be using it in bath teas, potpourri, and things like
that.

**NOTE: Before using Pennyroyal for anything (especially do not use internally), please
read up on cautions associated with it's use. Here is an example: Pennyroyal.

Bath Tea

*Ingredients: Calendula flowers, Chamomile flowers, Rose Hips, Red Clover,

Eucalyptus leaves.

*NOTE: The supplier from where I ordered the flowers and herbs says on their web site
that it can be used for herbal tea, but after I ordered it I found out that was not the case,
it's of a grade for external use only. So I will be using it in bath teas, potpourri, and
things like that. All of the ingredients I used are from Wholesale Supplies Plus.

Instructions: A few minutes before you draw your bath, put a handful of bath tea into a
pot, cover with two or three cups of water, and bring the mixture to a boil. Turn off heat.
Strain out the herbs and add the liquid to your bath right before you get in.

Favorite Fragrance Blends

Blends such as these can be used to scent personal fragrance products, bath salts,
pastilles or sachets, candles, room spray, linen spray, carpet freshener, bath fizzes,
soap, shampoo, lotion, and more. Try some of these or make up your own blends.

1 part Clary Sage EO* 4 parts Green Tea FO 2 parts Cedarwood EO

1 part Ylang Ylang EO 3 parts Masculine Musk FO 2 parts Sandalwood FO
 1 part Bergamot EO 3 parts Leather FO 1 part Palmarosa EO
1 part Sandalwood FO* 1 part Lime FO
4 parts Cedarwood EO
2 parts Patchouli EO 5 parts Woodsmoke FO 2 parts Rosemary EO
1 part Vanilla Lavender FO 3 parts Hazelnut FO 1 part Vetivert EO
1 part Sandalwood FO 2 parts Fresh Grass FO
1 part Oakmoss FO 8 parts Cedarwood EO
2 parts Spiced Bay FO 1 part Mandarin Dreams 4 parts Sandalwood FO
2 parts Patchouli EO FO 2 parts Vanilla FO
1 part Sandalwood FO 1 part Masculine Musk
7 parts Coconut FO FO
1 part Baby Powder FO 4 parts Lime FO 1 part Patchouli FO
1 part Fresh Linen FO 1 part Cucumber Melon FO
1 part Pine Forest FO 1 part Sandalwood FO 1 part Cedarwood EO
1 part Lemongrass EO 1 part Northwoods FO

*EO - essential oil

*FO - fragrance oil

4. Packaging Ideas

You will notice in the picture of the Hyacinth Garden bar above on this page that it is wrapped in
clear cellophane gift wrap with a gold dot design on it. If I was making a large number of bars as
a commerical product, I would do it a different way, but for my small numbers of bars this
method works. I fold the gift wrap over the soap bar the way you'd wrap a package, seal the
back with tape, then cover the tape with a printed label on the back with the name of the bar and
the address of this web page so that people can see what's in it if they want to. In time, it's
possible for the gold ink on the wrap to stick to the bar if it's in the
wrapper for a long time, so to avoid this I wrap with the printed side out.
Sometimes it's hard to tell which is the printed side, as far as I can tell
it's the side that's a little less shiny on the
gold parts.

I like the wrap with gold dots because the

gold gives a little extra touch of elegance
that really makes the bar look nice. You
could use plain wrap or clear wrap that's
printed with a different color if you want.
One way I like to present the bars is to wrap
them in gold ribbon together with a
washcloth in a coordinating color and a
wooden soap saver. Tie a little gift tag to the top, curl the ribbon, and
it's a package that always draws oohs and ahhs when people see it.

Over the years, just about everybody I know has seen these packages,
so I need to think of some more presentation ideas. Last year, I made
some small shell guest soaps in swirly greenish brown colors. I bought
some ceramic dishes at a housewares store that were in a coordinating
color, and put the shell soaps in them on top of some excelsior wood
fiber. I put some real seashells in the dish too, and wrapped all in clear
cellophane for presentation. This seemed to go over well.

Recently I packaged some lavender scented soap bars in some homemade pillow boxes that I
decorated with rubber stamps of my own design. To read my tutorial on how I made the boxes
like the one you see on the right, and download free templates, click here - Rubber Stamped
Pillow Box.
Drawstring Muslin Bags

These can be used to contain soap bars, potpourri, bath salts, or a

variety of other handmade gifts.

You can decorate them with rubber stamps and Crafter's Rubber
Stamp Ink, or other stamping inks that are suitable for fabric.

A couple of examples of decorated muslin bags are pictured at

the right.

Project Idea: Rubber Stamped Muslin Bag

Here is a quick easy project with bold colorful graphics that would make a good bag for a small gift. It's
stamped with ColorBox Crafter's ink, which is waterproof after heat setting.

Click here for Rubber Stamped Muslin Bag.

5. Resources
Recipes and Information

Recipe Database - natural skin care recipe collection provided by From Nature With
Love.

Soapnuts Library

Make Melt & Pour Soap

Alternative Household Product Recipes

Suppliers

From Nature With Love - Natural and complementary ingredients used in skin care,
hair care, aromatherapy, massage, spa products, herbal preparations, soap making,
potpourri and candle making. If you use this link and make an online purchase, you will
receive a 5% discount on qualifying items. Items that do not qualify are indicated on the
web site. Use the discount code "CHMP7374" at checkout to receive the 5% discount.

Packaging Suppliers

Carolyn's Stamp Store - Embellish your packaging with rubber stamps and drawstring
muslin bags.

Earth Love'n Paper Products 100% Recycled Gift Wrap and Cards - Earth Love'n
Paper Products is committed to creating a more sustainable world though the increased
use of recycled paper! Our gift wrap and cards are printed on 100% post-consumer
waste, processed chlorine-free premium quality paper.
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