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Handcrafted Goat's Milk Soap

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Making Soaps is an Enjoyable Hobby

Being a crafty type that's not crazy about cleaning, I've found soap to be one of the best things to craft as it cleans up after itself! Plus it's something everyone uses, and my friends and family are always asking me for more.

You'll find here a collection of the resources I have found beneficial in working with melt and pour soap. Additives, colors, layering and lots of good clean crafty fun.

I have not yet tried (but want to someday) making my own soap base, I have only purchased melt and pour bases, thus this information applies to melt and pour soap craft.

Soap Works of Art

You are only limited by your own creativity

Combine molds, embed toys, find new ways to color and scent soap. The possibilities are endless. It can be a real art form.

Photo used under Creative Commons from soapylovedeb.

What you need to get started

supplies and gear

  • Melt and Pour soap base. This comes in lots of formulas, I prefer goat's milk for it's moisturizing qualities. You can buy soap base at craft stores, but it's typically cheaper when bought in bulk online or from a local supplier.
  • A large glass measuring cup, the kind with a spout. The spout makes it much easier to pour into the molds and glass is easy to clean and safe to microwave.
  • A microwave. Pop your soap into the microwave for 10-30 second intervals depending on the quantity you are melting. I tend to break my soap up into chunks for faster melting and stir slowly with a wooden spoon.
  • Additives. Soap dyes, essential oils or fragrance oils, natural additives can all be used to create your own unique soap.
  • Molds. Once your soap has melted it's ready to pour into the shapes of your choice. Create unique soap shapes by saving plastic packaging from toys. For example a game controller soap can be made by saving the plastic liner that held the controller in the packaging.
  • Spray bottle filled with rubbing alcohol.Soap often forms foamy bubbles when pouring into a mold, misting it with a little rubbing alcohol will eliminate the bubbles. If you want to layer different colors/scents of soaps wait until the first layer is solid or semi-solid and spray it really well with rubbing alcohol to help the second layer stick.

The Soap Queen: Melt & Pour Soap Basics

an informative video series on melt and pour soaps

This is a wonderful series that goes over all the essentials on working with melt and pour soaps. I highly recommend watching them all!
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Natural Additives

Probably stuff you already have in your kitchen

Mix these ingredients in a little add a time to add color, fragrance and give your soap special properties.
  • Oatmeal. Grind it up into a fine powder, leave it whole, or chop it. Oatmeal is great for the skin. As a powder it will help moisturize and soothe the skin. Chopped or whole it will act as an exfoliate. I like to make small chunks of oatmeal soap to add to other bars so you can have little scrubby bits. The oatmeal is heavy so it will fall to the top of your soap when in a mold, so you may want to layer or use thinner molds if you're trying to make a full oatmeal filled bar. Experiment with the amount of oatmeal, too much can make the soap really abrasive.
  • Cinnamon. This smells amazing in soap and I combine it with oatmeal and call them my breakfast soap bars. It adds a warm hue to your soap and a smell that is both a stimulant and stress reliever. Don't use in too large of quantities as it can irritate sensitive skin. It is also very hard to blend into the soap so expect to see a speckled look.
  • Coco PowderUse this for a lovely brown shade. I like to combine this with coffee grounds for a mocha scented soap. The color will darken with time.
  • Almond meal Absorbs excess oil and can clear pores. I've never used it personally, but I love adding almond oil.
  • Ground CoffeeA natural deodorizer, will color your soap and smells amazing.

The Soap Queen: Colorants & Herbs

second in her series on melt & pour soap

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Soap Resources

Sites I've found useful for supplies, tips and ideas.

Wholesale Supplies Plus
Great packaging.

Craft Lobby
Good fragrances and lots of colors.

Go Planet Earth
Lots of cute molds.

Chemistry Store
They have very nice goats milk soap base and a wide variety of scents.

Teach Soap
Lots of great information on soap making, including an active forum!

Flexus Molds
Flexible molds are very easy to work with.

GloryBee Foods
A wide variety of additives.

Papermart
Source for tissues paper and other packaging supplies.

Cranberry Lane
Tutorial for working with embeds in loaf soap.

Bramble Berry
Where the Soap Queen gets her supplies!

Soap Books from Amazon

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Soap that Looks Good Enough to Eat

really that's soap not little bites of delicious cupcakes

Photo used under Creative Commons from HeyRocker.

Soap Molds on eBay

eBay is a great source for unique molds

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Soap Survey

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Photo used under Creative Commons from burgundavia.

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