Learn how to make soap with just three ingredients! Personalize your homemade soap with the scents and colors of your choice.
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I have been wanting to learn how to make soap for years. By making soap, I mean buying lye and letting it sit and “cure” for days. But lye just scares me so I never attempted making soap from “scratch.” I’m super uber picky about the soap we use and I pay way more than I should for really nice soap. When we ran out of soap a few weeks ago and my normal brand was sold out, I saw an opportunity to figure out how to make soap without making soap.
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Soap Making Supplies:
It turns out that you can buy soap, melt it down and “make” soap. This is not really making soap. It’s more like re-configuring it and it is super fun and easy. This is a fantastic project for kids.
Basically you need white or clear soap to melt down, essential oils for scent and soap colorants to make it pretty. The soap I used was white and would have been fine without color, but I was going for an Easter basket treat. Just don’t use food coloring. You definitely need special soap colorant (but it’s cheap!).
Soap Base:
You need to buy a special soap base to be able to melt the soap down and remold it. This is basically a craft supply.Ā Ā It is a bit sticky for some reason. I opted for the goats’ milk soap. I used about half the chunk to make one tray of bunny soaps.
Fragrance:
For the scents, I used essential oils. I’m having way too much DIYing with my oils. I used:
- Peppermint and Rosemary oils for the green bunnies,
- A citrus blend for the orange bunnies
- Lavender oil for the purple bunnies.
Soap Mold:
The soap needs a mold and there are lots of fun options for making soap. I chose to use my favorite Wilton silicone bunny pan. The same one I use to make homemade gummy candy. Ā It’s so versatile and I love it for Easter.
But I’ve also used Star Wars JELL-O molds to make Star Wars soaps, too. Ā As long as you find a way to get the soap out of the mold, you can pretty much use it.
How to Make Soap
Cut off the desired amount of soap from the big chunk o’ soap. I did three different batches, which required washing everything in between batches to get rid of the fragrance from the previous batch. Melt the soap according to the directions on the package. I melted mine in a small pot on the stove.
The soap cools and sets quickly. Melt the soap on the stove and then turn the burner to very low. Ā Add the color and oils once it’s melted. Pour the melted soap into a liquid measuring cup and then quickly pour it into your molds.
Move fast! If you aren’t fast enough, just put it back in the pan and remelt it. This is a very forgiving DIY project.
For the scents, I used 1 drop of peppermint oil and 4 drops of rosemary in about 1/4 of the soap block. I used a good 6 drops of citrus blend and just 1 drop of lavender because it’s super strong.
Put the soap coloring in until it reaches the hue you like.
The soap takes about 20-40 minutes to set up. It popped right out of the molds, which I apparently used for something chocolate last because my lavender bunnies have a light cocoa dusting.
Aren’t they adorable?! I wish you could smell them. Yum!
I wrapped my bunnies up two at a time into clear cellophane bagsĀ and closed them up with some glitter tape.
And they totally fit in plastic Easter eggs if you want a non-candy idea for an egg hunt.
Loved all your stuff
What a cute idea. I am definitely going to pin it for later use.
hi.
i realy loved your soaps, and i would love to make some for mothers day with my kids.
i’m a pre-school teacher.
i need to make 70 soaps.
so…how many goat milk soap do i need for this amount?
thank you for your answer š
It will depend on how big the soaps are. These are rather small. Like around 2-3 inches. Half of the goat soap block made 20 of them so I’d say a whole black makes 40. So two blocks of the soap? But if your soap molds are larger, you’ll need more of the soap!
Hi,
I’m new to all this and wondered if you are able to use ice cube or cake silicone moulds or does it have to be specifically silicone soap moulds? Also how many did half the bar make and what’s the weight for when I’m buying. They’re super cute and am hoping to make some for Christmas presents for family and friends.
Hi Kate! Yes, you could easily just use any mold or ice cube tray. The soap molds are more like the hard plastic candy molds. The bunny molds I used are silicone and I bought the in the candy making section. The half bar made an entire tray of the bunnies. They are about 2″ long and .5″ wide. In other words, they are pretty small. The soap did not go as far as I had expected it to so it’ll probably take more than you think. The package in the photo is a 2 lb block so it took 1 lb to make about 24 small soaps (good question!). I hope that helps!
you are SO inspiring me to not only use my new molds – I happened to have bought the exact same ones the other day – but also put my oils to good use!… AND BONUS is that this will hopefully prompt my four stinky boys to wash their hands more often!
I LOVE IT!
This will be an awesome Easter project for us! You are a genius!
Why do they stink so much?! I grew up with all sisters and now I have this little boy who attracts dirt like a magnet and smells. Good thing he’s so darn cute! I love that mold. I would make bunny everything all year long! Have fun playing!
These are so cute. I never would have thought to do this. These would be great party favors at any Easter party. Thanks for sharing over at the Snickerdoodle Sunday.
Super cute. Pinned and tweeted. We are so thrilled to have you at our party. Please stop by on Monday at 7, so we can see your amazing projects. Lou Lou Girls
I really love this soap craft. It WOULD be great with kids. I’ve made the soap with lye and agree that it’s not a kid friendly project. But this would be perfect and such a cute outcome! Thanks for linking up HOW TO MAKE SOAP WITH ESSENTIAL OILS at#PureBlogLove link party! The party is live every Thursday night at 8 p.m. and runs through the weekend. Can’t wait to see what you bring next time! Pinned and tweeted !
You are braver than I am, Diane! š Thanks for hosting!
I used to make soap with my daughters in elementary school. We had so much fun crafting together and making them as gifts. Thanks for sharing at the This Is How We Roll Link Party on Organized 31.
What a fun idea to do with a class. I made butter with my daughter’s class. They loved it!
What a fun surprise to put into those little plastic eggs. Easy peasy too!!!
Thanks for visiting to link and share on the Oh My Heartsie Girl ww this week!!!
Hope you will enjoy your week, Karren
Thanks, Karren! You, too.
Those soaps are too cute! Love that they fit inside the plastic eggs.
Thanks, Sarah! That was a complete accident but love how it worked.