Contents: Introduction Supplies 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 Packaging Ideas Resources - Recipes, information, and suppliers. Recommended Reading

• 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.

• 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

• 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

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:
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1/2 tsp alum
• 1/4 cup wallpaper paste
• 1/4 cup Sage leaves
• 1 TBSP ground Nutmeg
• 1 TBSP ground Sage
• 1 TBSP Orris Root Powder
• 1 TBSP ground Cinnamon
• 1 TBSP Cedarwood essential oil
• 1 TBSP Northwoods fragrance oil
• 1/4 tsp brown oxide powdered soap colorant
• 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:
• 2/3 cup epsom salt
• 2/3 cup sea salt
• 1/3 cup baking soda
• 20 drops Eucalyptus essential oil
• 20 drops Tea Tree essential oil
• 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* 1 part Ylang Ylang EO 1 part Bergamot EO 1 part Sandalwood FO* 2 parts Patchouli EO 1 part Vanilla Lavender FO 1 part Sandalwood FO 2 parts Spiced Bay FO 2 parts Patchouli EO 1 part Sandalwood FO 1 part Baby Powder FO 1 part Fresh Linen FO 1 part Pine Forest FO		4 parts Green Tea FO 3 parts Masculine Musk FO 3 parts Leather FO 1 part Lime FO 5 parts Woodsmoke FO 3 parts Hazelnut FO 2 parts Fresh Grass FO 1 part Oakmoss FO 1 part Mandarin Dreams FO 7 parts Coconut FO 4 parts Lime FO 1 part Cucumber Melon FO 1 part Sandalwood FO 1 part Lemongrass EO		2 parts Cedarwood EO 2 parts Sandalwood FO 1 part Palmarosa EO 4 parts Cedarwood EO 2 parts Rosemary EO 1 part Vetivert EO 8 parts Cedarwood EO 4 parts Sandalwood FO 2 parts Vanilla FO 1 part Masculine Musk FO 1 part Patchouli FO 1 part Cedarwood EO 1 part Northwoods FO
*EO - essential oil *FO - fragrance oil

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.

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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