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| All the supplies to make your body smell great |
We are both home at the same time for spring break, so we decided to do a collaborative project. To complement the soap dishes that will be made with the
soap dish mold, we are making scented soaps. Thanks to a
Martha Stewart video, learning the process behind making flavorfully scented soaps with natural ingredients was easy. If our attempt to naturally flavor the soap today is successful, I may start using some of my
plants and herbs for future batches.
What we used:
- Glycerin Soap block (5 pounds) -- I would recommend buying this product from a craft store. Because of its weight, the shipping costs are usually not worth it, especially if stores receive bulk orders of it. Costs around $20.
- Isopropyl Alcohol
- Scenting supplies -- You can use nearly any fruit or herb to naturally scent the soap. In this guide, we used garlic and lemon for natural scenting. Otherwise, you can buy essential or fragrance oils from craft stores.
- Microwave or double boiler
- Food Processor or Mortar and Pestle
- Soap mold (ex: plastic containers or milk cartons)
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| You'll want to find something that looks like this |
To make the soap, you'll start by cutting about 0.75 to 1 lb of soap off the block. Take the cut piece and chop it into smaller pieces.
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| Use a cutting board when doing this |
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| There's the cutting board |
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| More surface area = the soap melts faster |
From there, you'll need to melt the soap down so it can be cast and scented. You can use a microwave oven to do this (as the package recommends doing) or you can melt the glycerin base using a double boiler. I rigged up a double boiler using two pots and some water. Heat up some water in the large pot and add the glycerin soap to the smaller pot.
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| Double boiler setup |
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| Toss the soap into the smaller pot |
Melting takes around 10 minutes. Occasionally stir the soap with a spoon to help it melt.
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| Stir the soap while it melts |
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| All melted down and ready for fragrance! |
While the soap is melting, it's a good time to prepare the scenting ingredients. For our first batches, we made two different scents, garlic and lemon. The process is pretty much the same for both. Let's look at the garlic soap first. For this batch, we used a whole bulb of garlic.
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| One clove of garlic |
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| Many cloves of garlic |
Prepare the garlic by peeling and removing all the skin. Grind up the cloves using either a food processor or a mortar and pestle.
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| Grind it nicely |
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| As fine as possible |
Once the garlic is crushed and the glycerin is melted, add the garlic to the glycerin. Stir well to incorporate it.
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| Add in the garlic to the melted glycerin |
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| Stir it up! |
Once fully stirred, it is time to pour the soap into a mold. For these batches, we used empty juice/milk cartons as the paper can be torn away easily once the soap has hardened for easy removal. We'll be working on a mold to have more consistent bars of soap in the future, but for now, this is an effective method.
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| Pouring the garlic soap into the mold |
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| Soap in the mold |
Set the mold aside and allow the soap to cool. This will take a few hours so be patient. While waiting for the garlic soap to harden, we made the lemon soap. For the scent, we used the peel from one lemon. Since I got the food processor working, we used that to grind it up.
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| This is much quicker than using the mortar and pestle |
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| Grind it nice and fine |
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| Add the lemon to the glycerin |
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| Stir it up |
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| Add it to the mold |
Once you pour the soap into the mold, spray in or add in a few drops of isopropyl alcohol. This causes any and all bubbles forming at the surface to disappear. In a few hours, the soap will be hardened and ready to be cut. Remove the mold by peeling away the container. You'll notice how the bits of fruit/herb may have settled as it cooled. Use a knife to slice the soap into desired shape and wrap the pieces with plastic wrap to prevent the glycerin from drawing in water. Here are the results of our soap.
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| Block of Garlic Soap |
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| 4 triangles |
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| On a soap dish (this stuff is really strong) |
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| 5 little squares |
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| Held up to the light |
A quick note on using natural ingredients: since glycerin is a preservative, this soap can last for a few months before going bad.
Martha's assistant made some soap using strawberries, and it lasted for over 2 months.
This concludes the tutorial. If you have any questions or suggestions of scents we should try to make, leave us a comment below. For the mean time, my bathroom now smells fresh of lemon and garlic (no vampires are going to stop by tonight!).
For More photos of the soap featured in this article:
Hi Guys--Just in time for April Fools day-Garlic soap-sneak it into your girl friends bathroom and wait!!!
ReplyDeleteBobjak
It'll be a hit in Gilroy
DeleteYou will have many old memories and will make new ones! Enjoy!
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