DIY - Make Your Own Soap!

Can you make your own soap? Why not! If anything, it's a creative exercise---and it's actually sort of fun. Not to mention it’s cheap to do, and, if you decide you like doing it, you could have yourself a nice little business. Plus, the commercial products out there are often loaded with extra stuff you don’t want (artificial fragrances, harsh surfactants, parabens, need I go on?).

Anne-Marie Faiola, founder of Bramble Berry, a company that sells soap-making supplies, shows and tells us how easy this is to do, how it's fun to do with kids, and that a good percentage of her customers actually make and sell their own soaps using her supplies.

The soap-making kit from Bramble Berry includes a few blocks of melt-and-pour soap base which contains glycerin (an ingredient you want in your soap, and that's often harvested OUT of commercial soaps and replaced with synthetic and often harsh detergents), a few bottles of essential oil (whatever you like!), a bag of cranberry seeds (or you could use any other herbs or powders), and a jar of spirulina powder (a blue-green algae that rich in nutrients). You can use really whatever you like. One person used cranberry powder b/c she loves the color, but warning: natural ingredients do change color over time. Then again, that's the beauty of natural stuff. You can buy fake red soap anywhere if you want, and what good does that do you?


So here's the quick and dirty on soap making:
As mentioned above, the Bramble Berry kit comes with spirulina powder and two essential oils, Valencia orange and lavender. Even a grapefruit, optional ofcourse, if you've got one lying around can be added in.

SEE MORE PHOTOS below:

Here's the whole shebang: Soap base, essential oils, powder, and cranberry seeds.

I love the look and feel of this stuff. It's an all-natural glycerin melt-and-pour soap base that you can buy and add anything you want to.

The soap base is really easy to cut up into little cubes (this makes it easier and quicker to melt down either in your microwave or a double boiler on the stove.

Here's a mistake one might make the first time around-- not stirring the soap base long enough once adding the cranberry seeds. Stirring and pouring too quickly will cause all the seeds to rise to the top--which is way too abrasive for anyone's skin! Anne-Marie suggests stirring for a little while (my guess is a few minutes) until the soap base goes from thin and liquidy to more viscous, allowing the floating contents to get pulled down into the base, not floating along the top.

One might think that these can make good molds, particularly the dish shaped like a leaf (a Martha Stewart product!)but it's better to go with softer molds that you can pop the soap out of later. Anne-Marie suggested recycling items around the house like yogurt cups, or other disposable containers (drink boxes, soy milk containers, etc). The soap is easy to cut after and if you layer different materials in the soap, you can create a beautiful look.

Here's one of Anne-Marie's recipe for soap.

Eco Chic Soap Ingredients:
Herbs, oatmeal, coffee, spirulina, clay, or charcoal -- for natural exfoliation
16 ounces ‘melt and pour’ organic soap base (available at any craft store) or glycerin soap base (often available at natural food stores)
1 ounce essential oil (omit for unscented soap)
Soap mold --anything you find that’s the shape you desire (empty yogurt container, tofu container)Rubbing alcohol

Directions:
1. Prep your herbs or other exfoliating ingredients. Large or sharp pieces may be too abrasive on the skin, so you want very small pieces of whatever you choose to use.
2. Cut the soap base into 1 x 1" cubes.
3. Using your microwave, heat the soap base in 30-second increments until it is fully melted—or you can also do a double boiler (metal or glass bowl inside a big stockpot with a few inches of water at the bottom).
4. Add drops of essential oil for scent, about a quarter to half an ounce in total. Remember, if you use a colored fragrance, your soap base will look less clear and take on some color. (Omit this step for unscented soap.)
5. Mix in your herbs and stir until the herbs seem mostly suspended. Be sure to stir for a few minutes so that the contents are drawn down into the soap, not just floating at the top.
6. Pour the mixture into the make-shift mold. Tip: Don't fill your make-shift soap mold all the way up. It helps for easy release to fill 85% of the way to the top and not the entire way.
7. Do one finishing touch of rubbing alcohol to finish off your soap to prevent bubbles and give it a nice smooth surface.

Wait for the soap to harden, pop or unwrap the soap out of the mold, wrap soap with saran wrap, label and enjoy the compliments you get.

Courtesy of Terri Trespicio of The Martha Stewart Living Radio Blog.

Have you made soap at home. How did your first time go? Any soap making tips you'd like to share with your fellow Simply Dazzling blog readers? Post a comment, we'd like to know.