The Easy Way To Make Soap:
If you think that making your own cosmetics is fiddly and difficult, this DIY is about to change your life. In a few easy steps, you can create something that looks like it was bought from a cosmetics boutique in Mayfair, for a lot less money, without even having to leave your kitchen.
Soap is one of those things that you probably don’t even think about when you use it. But trust us when we say that incorporating essential oils into these homemade soaps will make you take notice.
Not only does it mean that you can create the perfect scent for yourself, but it also means that you don’t have to worry about the plethora of chemicals that come along with the shop-bought stuff.
Here at Tender Essence we recommend opting for melt and pour soap making, for the sake of ease and safety. That way, you can focus on creating colours, scents and toppings that you enjoy.
Basically, you get to do all of the fun stuff, without the hassle.
Whilst with most DIYs you would get an in-depth step by step guide, this one really is so easy that there’s no need. It’s as simple as chopping off some of your melt and pour soap compound, microwaving it at 30-second intervals until it’s completely liquid and then adding in any colour or essential oils that you want to.
Finally, just pour the liquid into a mould and let it set in the fridge for a couple of hours before popping it out. The power really is in your hands, but we thought we would use our experience to give you some tips on how to colour, top, mould and scent your soaps to perfection.
Colouring
It can be tempting to get online and buy unnatural, chemical-filled colourants in seeking to get vibrant tones in your soaps. But we promise that those are totally not necessary. For the ones pictured in this post, we used all-natural ingredients that we have in our kitchen cupboard.
For the orange colour, we used a small amount of paprika, which has the additional benefit of keeping your skin glowing and reducing sun spots. It also created a beautiful speckled effect!
We got the green colour with wheatgrass, the great thing about this ingredient is that it creates a smooth finish and you can deepen the colour by adding more.
The white soap is the natural colour of the compound, although you can also purchase clear melt and pour.
Toppings
To give your soaps that professional-looking finish and make them perfect for gifts, add different toppings. We used crushed dried mint leaves and oats which worked amazingly. However, the possibilities are endless. Whether it’s dried flowers or fruit, just experiment and have fun with it.
Moulds
You can buy soap moulds relatively cheaply, we sell some here. Some even come with writing in them that imprints on the bar, like with our orange soap pictured here. However, again, these are not necessary at all.
For our layered soaps, we just used a small plastic pot and lined it with Clingfilm so that it was easy to remove once set. If you choose this method, you simply chop it into slices and may have to cut off the edges of the soap with a knife if you want a straighter edge.
To create the layered effect, which we love, simply make up two different coloured batches of the soap and then pour them in one at a time, allowing each layer to set in between.
Scents
Now for what we think is the most important bit: the smell. If you want a soothing, anxiety-busting soap opt for essential oils like Lavender, Ylang Ylang or Chamomile, which is what we used in our orange coloured soap.
For an invigorating bar, we recommend citrus oils or peppermint, which actually creates soap that smells like chocolate chip ice cream! What’s not to love? That’s what we mixed into our green layered bars and we can’t stop using them!
If you make a fantastic soap, when not share a picture with us through Twitter here or through Facebook here.
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