How I create my Melt & Pour soaps

As I mentioned before, I have been spending time learning and playing with making melt & pour soaps at home. I decided to try melt & pour soaps because they sounded easy to do while still allowing me to experiment with using different scented oils and exfoliates.

I hadn't really had a lot of experience with glycerine based soaps until some of our hotel trips where we got some very nice ones. They changed my mind about them. Then, once, I learned that different butters could be added to them giving them much more the appearance and properties of what I thought of "soap", I was hooked on trying it out. 

The more traditional way of making soap involves using lye which is a corrosive alkaline substance making it much more dangerous to work with. I was not feeling brave enough to do that with the cats in the house.

In addition, it would mean making larger batches of all the same type and waiting weeks before I could try them out. Whereas, with melt & pour soaps, you can make as large or small of a batch as you desire from 1 bar to many, many bars at once. This gives me the flexibility to try out different things without worrying about being stuck with a bunch of "uggg help me" soaps. Also, with melt & pour soaps, the wait time between making them and being able to try them out is at most a couple of hours.

A number of people have either been surprised that you can make your own soaps at home or wondered how difficult it is to do... so... here is how I create my melt & pour soaps...

Step 1: buy your melt & pour soap base
- easily available at craft stores like Michael's or from many online retailers like New Directions Aromatics
(you can also make this from scratch but i've never tried and the bases are a good price & easy to come by)

Step 2: cut off and measure how much soap you want to work with for a batch
- I typically work with around 8-10 ounces at a time to create 4-5 bars

Step 3: cut up the soap into smaller pieces to make for easier - quicker melting

Step 4: place the soap in a microwave safe container & melt the soap in the microwave
- start by putting it in for 20-25 seconds on high and then continue in increments of 15-20 seconds until it is all melted; you want it to melt but not boil

Step 5: select your scented oils (fragrance or essential oils work), exfoliants (if desired) and colorants (can use liquid colorants, small parts of wax crayons or powdered colorants all available at various craft and online stores)
- I tend to use 3-4 drops of liquid colorants or 1/4" of wax crayon to color my soaps & about 1 tsp of scented oil and 1/2 - 1 tsp exfoliate per pound of soap base (can add more or less to preference & depending on how strong your scented oil is) 
- exfoliates work best in soap bases made for suspension, if not a suspension soap, add when soap is cooled off some but not hard yet which can be a tough combo to find - exfoliates will tend to either sink to the bottom or rise to the top of your soaps in non-suspension bases

note: wax crayon can make translucent soaps a little murky in appearance, especially if too much is used. as well, if too much is used, it can make the soap leave color behind when wet on tub surrounds, etc. you can test whether the soap will leave color behind by wetting it & placing it on a small white bathroom tile available at hardware stores.

Step 6: add your scented oils, exfoliates and colorant to melted soap & stir
- stir gently to not incorporate too much air into the soap as bubbles will make the soap appear murky

Step 7: pour soap into molds
- I am using mini loaf silicone bakeware pans for my bars as the silicone is easy to remove the soap from and they make a nice 2-3 oz bar size which fits nicely in your hand.

Step 8: lightly spray your soaps with rubbing alcohol to remove air bubbles
- using a light spray mist bottle with rubbing alcohol in it works well
- removing the air bubbles will give you a smoother, nicer appearance soap
- if making layered soaps, the light spray of rubbing alcohol also helps with the 2 layers adhering to one another

Step 9: allow soaps to cool
- usually need at least 40-50 mins but I find it better to wait a couple of hours otherwise you risk warping your soaps or leaving indents on your soap when removing them from the molds
- I have heard of people placing their soaps into the fridge or freezer after pouring for quicker cooling but I haven't tried this yet

Step 10: remove soaps from molds and allow to air dry awhile
- I usually allow them to air dry for a couple of hours or overnight if I make them late at night
- I find this helps to harden them a bit more making them last longer in the shower/bath
- since glycerin is water based, you don't want to leave them out too long as the water in them will evaporate causing your soaps to shrink

Step 11: wrap - seal your soaps to avoid soap shrinkage
- you can wrap them in plastic wrap, shrink wrap them... any number of things to keep them air tight
- I use 4X6 pof (polyolefin film) bags to shrink wrap my soaps in as they are food safe whereas pvc shrink wrap isn't and they are... well, fun to shrink wrap!
- if shrink wrapping, be sure to do on a surface that can handle the heat from the heat gun - I shrink wrap mine on a cookie sheet lined with tin foil and then a silicone baking sheet on top as I want to be safer than sorry and it makes for a nice, portable surface to work on.
- purchasable at many online retailers and in some stores
- I purchased mine from Shrinkwrap Store where I got 500 bags for $13

Step 12: label and add any additional packaging you wish
- i've chosen to wrap mine with a 1" strip of kraft wrapping paper with a strip of raffia ribbon and all held together with a 1 1/2" X 1 1/2" avery label in front detailing my logo and soap base and a 1/2" X 1 3/4" avery label in back detailing the scent of the soap

Step 13: enjoy!

I hope this has shown you how easy it can be to make your own soaps. It is economically good and if you use essential oils, also has great aromatherapy benefits. Fragrance oils (as I used for these bars) are also good and have a lot more variety of neat scents but don't hold the same aromatherapy benefits that can be gotten by using essential oils in your soaps and other products. You can even use spices and other cooking items in your soaps for some interesting combos! like cinnamon... coffee!... oats... the possibilities are endless and up to your personal taste.

If you have any questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them for you.


In addition to making soaps, I am about to embark on playing with making clay based facial masks. My order of clays, essential oils, botanical extracts, aloe vera gel, avocado oil and packaging should be here in just over a week... wheeee... a fun hobby to play around with which also serves a functional purpose!

Plain soap is just so plain now ;) and in my late 30s, any help I can give my skin, the better!

I am not selling my products at this time, however, any family or friends who are interested in receiving any for gifts, please let me know your preferences in scents... even if you don't express interest, don't be surprised if your next gift from us might include soap. ;)

Kittehpile lunching...

Mike has been on the road a lot lately, between work and our trip from Vegas to Georgia. That has led the kitties to learn that if they want to spend some time with him, they had better jump at the chance whenever he is home... enter today's lunchtime...

Mike came home for a quick 10-15 min shut eye at lunch and was quickly joined by a bunch of the kitties... a photo speaks better than words so here is evidence of this lunchtime shut eye adventure...

 

left to right: Cosmo, Pickles, Mike & Ash

Suds and such

Once again, I've been neglectful of posting updates on what we have been up to... so here's the scoop.

Myself, I've been delving into the fun and useful hobby of soap making. Both Mike and I enjoy our scented and luxurious soaps. We have ever since we started experiencing them on our monthly weekend hotel getaways a couple of years ago. Since then, we have been ordering some of our favorites from Gilchrist & Soames.

This spring, I decided to try making some of our favorite scents using melt & pour glycerin soap base from Michaels. We started with their avocado and cucumber base, then some Shea butter base and have gone on to try the mango & Shea butter base and olive oil base. All seem really nice and we don't have a favorite yet. However, the mango & Shea butter one is riding high on the list. I've made the olive oil one but haven't tried the soaps yet and just bought some honey base but haven't made it yet.

Using their usual 40-50% off one item coupons, I was able to buy 2 lbs of soap base for about $5-6. With the soap mild I'm using (a mini loaf silicone bakeware), I can make about 12, ~3oz, bars out of that. A few drops of our favorite essential oils, a few drops of color, and a few sprinklings of raspberry seeds and we had great smelling, exfoliating soaps that we had been paying $3-4 each at the specialty shops.

I've most recently been playing with different techniques for more interesting looking bars like layering or swirling colors. I read about using small amounts of crayon shavings to color the soaps so have been trying that. Since crayons are non toxic and wax, they make for great safe color in small quantities. I wasn't sure at first but when I realized that lip balms we use are a lot of wax, I figured okay... it's soap after all and not something we'll be eating. As it turns out, they do make fabulous colorants for soaps! increasing my color range of options drastically.

I have a fairly large order of soap bases, fragrant oils, and exfoliant materials expected to arrive this week from a Canadian supplier for more variety in play... including goat's milk & organic soap bases.

I bought myself a heat gun & a bunch of shrink wrap baggies with money my parents gave me for my birthday. So my soaps are nicely wrapped after cooling & won't shrink due to water loss from being exposed to air for a long period of time.

So family & friends, don't be surprised if you start seeing soap gifts arrive in the future... Mike has cleared me out one cupboard for storing my creations but that will only hold so many...

Medically, things have mainly been going well. I have been having a difficult time for the last couple of months controlling my sugar levels due to my last back injection. Due to the Dr's change in how she did the injection (directly into back instead of through caudal space), the injection was a larger dose of steroids.

Apparently, steroid injections can cause havoc with blood sugar levels. With the larger dose, this became apparent in me. I was extremely high right after the injection and it took a few days before I felt more normal again. I thought that was the end of it but nope, it is continuing to cause swings in my levels so I am having to monitor it very carefully.

At my last Dr appointment with my PCOS/metabolic endocrinologist, he told me to be sure to keep monitoring it as it can unmask diabetes which isn't apparent yet. Being as I am already insulin resistant with the PCOS, developing diabetes has always been a real possibility. Unfortunately, it appears my back treatment could be pushing me there more quickly if not watched closely & added medication may be needed to counteract the injections effect on blood sugar.

However, an added benefit of my having to watch my levels very carefully has been that Mike has been watching his more too and we're both working harder to keep them good. Together, we do better than alone. :)

On the Mike and I side of news... we've mainly been playing Diablo 3. We've waited a lot of years for its release and are having fun with a bunch of friends from various other online games chatting while we all play. We still are playing WoW but the last couple of weeks have kind of taken a break from it while we play Diablo. We were still raiding weekly but our team has now decided to take a hiatus while we all play Diablo & wait for the Mists of Pandaria WoW expansion to come out.

As for what Mike has been up to lately... traveling a bunch for work & busy, BUSY at work when he's still home. Last he was in Texas, next to California tomorrow, Texas again soon & Florida next week... Who knows after that but he's busy for sure! It's good for work sake but it also means we've been needing to concentrate more on relaxing when at home to make sure he keeps his blood pressure in check. He still enjoys his work so that is a large plus, just a lot of stress at the moment with multiple large projects going and him wanting to make sure he does them all well and within time constraints.

An added pressure weighing on his mind was knowing that one of his brothers wasn't having an easy time with his parents' pending divorce and his dad talking to him about it.

Coming from a very close family, I didn't truly understand Mike's estrangement from his dad until I met him... I've never pushed him to have a relationship with him since, as we were as good as married then & his father treated me as if I wasn't good enough & was invisible.

Mike reached out to his brothers' mother and had a good conversation with her which helped take the strain off his mind of worrying. He now has heard a bit more of the story and it appears he now has an opening to try to reconnect with his brothers which I think he would really like.

As it appears, history continues to repeat itself with how his dad treats his kids which is sad for those concerned but not the end of the world. Mike learned to cope & is a good man and I'm sure his brothers will too in time. So sad to hear they are going through a rough divorce of their patents but hopeful that Mike can establish a closer relationship now with his brothers again. Hopefully they can understand why things were the way they were & that he wasn't avoiding them but the situation with his dad.

On the kitty front, same ole same ole with the exception that Tasha is learning to be a cuddle kitty. It has taken a few years to get her feral tendencies to relax but she has been making huge strides lately. Still watchful of Smirk & his urinary troubles. Also having to watch the lil tussels at dinner time with the occasional swattyfest as the occasional claw nicks another and needs cleaning & watching to make sure no infections happen. The life of 5 kitties with distinct personalities... who all love feeding time but not always sharing kitchen space with one another. ;)

I guess that should cover most of the latest going ons with us & hopefully keep my readers - the in-laws mainly ;) happy to hear from us.

Next post likely will be soap related with pictures of my creations... too bad you won't be able to scratch & sniff the screen. They smell good!

Heather
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