Soap Making Sunday

Years ago, when I was in graduate school and didn't have money for expensive gifts, I took up soap making. I bought molds, scents, etc, and had fun with it. I hadn't made soap for years, however. I decided to take up making soap again because I have been trying to find a nice exfoliating bar with a loofah like I picked up during a recent trip to Barbados, but I haven't been able to find what I want. I get ingrown hairs on my legs quite a bit and I also have a bit of keratosis pilaris on my upper arms. That's fancy for the bumpy things that look like acne but are not. I use a lotion with an alpha hydroxy product in it, Eucerin +, and it helps, too.

I decided to buy a Goat's milk soap this time to try out. During my previous efforts, I used only glycerin from craft stores like Michael's or Joann's. I bought this soap on Amazon because, after all, I am a prime member, and it requires very little effort on my part. In case you haven't figured it out yet, I love Amazon prime! Here are some pictures from my efforts today. Soap making is actually pretty darn simple if you buy it in bars ready to melt. I've never done it the hard core way using lye.

Here's the type of soap I bought. It's supposed to suspend items in the soap evenly. It did a pretty good job of that, as you will see later on in the pictures. It does not have much of a scent, either.

These are some basic molds that I picked up from Michael's several years back. I sprayed them with cooking spray before putting the soap into the molds to make them easier to get out. You could also use melted coconut oil or some other oil, if you prefer.

I used almost the whole container today. The directions on the soap tell you how long to melt it. I melted enough for 6 bars, so I had to use one of my other molds, too. I melted the soap in my microwave.

I added this Sweet Orange essential oil to the mixture once it melted to give it a nice, clean scent. You can use any essential oil you want. Or, you can use vanilla extract for vanilla, cinnamon for cinnamon. Lemon zest is also nice and looks pretty, especially in clear glycerin. You can also add food coloring if you want to dye the soap. 

I ordered some loofah on Amazon, but, uhm, it wasn't prime, and is apparently being shipped from China. So, I decided to just use oatmeal. I ground it up a bit in the blender before mixing it in with the melted soap.

I also decided to use a funnel to help pour the soap into the molds. I sprayed the inside of the funnel with cooking spray, too, so the soap would not stick too much going down into the molds. I'm not sure if the funnel helped or not, to be honest. I had a harder time judging how much soap to put in the molds.

Here's the finished product. If you chill in the refrigerator, it slows down your waiting time for the soap to harden in the molds. It doesn't take very long for it too harden-maybe 15-30 minutes in the refrigerator? I left mine out for about 15 minutes, then put it in the refrigerator for a little bit. Also, when you put the soap in molds, you can get air bubbles out by tapping the molds gently-similar to how you get air bubbles out of candy molds, if you have ever made chocolate lollipops or something like that.

After it hardened, I just wrapped each piece in some tissue paper. Also, there will be soap left in the bowl you use. I shaved it off and put it in another soap dish we have in our bathroom. You could also package it into small shavings and keep in your purse in a small metal container. I know I bought soap shavings once and kept them in my purse...for situations where there might not be any!

Let me know if you have any questions!