The homemade lye soap is too harsh on my skin-always has been sigh-so when I had been trying to get an Etsy soap business going I invested in lots of molds and all natural glycerin soap bases. The soap bases are much improved and are now harder and do not sweat as much as they used to.
I love these bases which are also called melt and pour and they are soooo creamy and gentle enough even for my face. For myself and my friend that I share with I use essential oils instead of fragrance oils and sometimes I add in calendula petals or pink salt.
This weekend I found a recipe for adding oatmeal to the soap so I made that today along with the calendula petals and lavender essential oil-they came out so lovely can't wait to try a bar.
For Christmas I make a few bars to give away too. My friend that I share with-her husband only likes glycerin soaps too so since I have fishing motif molds I made him two batches with two different fragances.
I am also going to make for the first time a bath soak named Mountain Man Bath Soak. It sounds really good so I am going to gift that as well. I asked my friend if she thought her husband would like this and she said yes definately. The base salts are epsom salts.
I also decided instead of baked goods to make soap for our postal lady at our country post office. I made her calendula soaps with lavender oils no oatmeal.
To make sure the molds are really full with the soap I always melt down a few more ounces. The left over soap I put into little guest molds-which I didn't get a photo of-and these cute little Christmas mice.
This is really a fun project!!
Only problem since I have made many different soaps for two days the fragrances in the air has become overwhelming lol so windows are open-hopefully the cold air will get rid of it.
These bars are sitting on wax paper til tomorrow when I will wrap them up in saran wrap
photos will enlarge to full size just click on them
Such fun soap molds. I make a melt and pour using a shea butter and by Art Minds that I buy at Michael's. I've found the soap to be mild, not drying, and doesn't leave a sticky residue. I've only made the soap for myself and I use essential oils also that promote healthy skin: Frankincense, Lavender, Lemon, Tea Tree,and Helichrysum. Since the soaps are for me, I just have a multi-well silicon, rectangle mold.
ReplyDeleteBrrr.... cold here tonight Kathy! I just adore your little mouse mold soap .. that is just soo cute! i would love to try to make soap one day... ahhhhh the crafts that are still waiting for me...lol Hugs! deb
ReplyDeleteThose are beautiful soaps. I've never tried making soap before, but seeing these makes me think I should try. I hope your friends cookies arrive while they are still fresh. I think people are doing so much on-line shopping the shippers of all kinds are having a hard time keeping up. Happy weekend. Hugs-Erika
ReplyDeleteI admit these are far more beautiful than the soaps my friend and I made. They turned out great. I wonder if I can use molds in lye based soaps, too.
ReplyDeleteLike you and CJ, I also only use essential oils. You need a lot when you make large batches like we made. The estimate is 2 fl oz for every 8 ozs (or 1/2 lb) of oil or shortening. I really think yours are very pretty and I suspect they smell wonderful, too. Great looking bars.
Oh my, those soaps look fantastic, I LOVE the molds you have used, so pretty. These will make fantastic gifts. Have a great weekend, hugs, Valerie
ReplyDeleteThose soaps are so utterly beautiful! WOW!!!!! Have a great weekend Kathy!
ReplyDeleteI love seeing the soaps you make! These all look wonderful and it's obvious you are having fun!
ReplyDeleteYour soaps are always so pretty!!! We have full internet again :) But I did kind of like the extra time I had for fiber crafts while it was out LOL!
ReplyDeleteI still need to make soap.. can you believe I had to buy bath soap :-/ I just have not had the energy this fall to do much of anything but set on the couch and knit & crochet. Now my hands are screaming I've done too much of that. This old age crap is annoying!!!!!
The soaps all look so pretty, you have some beautiful soap molds. The aroma in your home must have been wonderful.
ReplyDeleteHave a good weekend.
Yvonne xx
Hi Kathy. Always busy doing wonderful things I see. The mouse soaps are cute and the fish too. I wonder can you do a two colors soap like the fish yellow and the other part of the soap blue? Aggie
ReplyDeletegood morning Aggie, so wonderful to see you. I am here posting rather than on google+ so I do miss you.
DeleteYes that is the fun part of the glycerin melt and pour soaps you can layer with colors-I did the fish with those two different colors and then poured white soap for the bottom so yes you can choose the colors we wish Merry Christmas
This looks like a lot of fun creating the soaps Kathy! I can imagine the heady perfumes when you have more than one scent on the go. I'm sure your friends will love them all. I once bought some oatmeal soap, and it was wonderful. Oatmeal is a great skin softener :)
ReplyDeleteWendy