Many years ago I started getting the urge to make soap, of course back in the 1970's the only process available involved Lye and fumes and burning of hands if not careful so I put that thought in the back of my mind as one of those not doable projects. But a few years ago I found Melt and Pour Goats Milk soap base and I have gone through probably 100 pounds of it and many bottles of fragrances. I don't add colors, sometimes the fragrance will change the color so that works for me. If you let stems of fresh Rosemary steep in the melted base, reheating a couple of times, you get a light green and wonderful fragrance. Mint turns it green also. I have one Black Amber and Lavender that turns it a delicious milk chocolate color. I don't buy molds, I save interesting and reusable plastic containers.....i.e. at Kroger you can sometimes buy Bacon wrapped Filets in single plastic containers, Dole fruit cups make a really neat dome shaped 'bar', sometimes I pour it into small loaf pans and slice it like you would bread when it's set. This is what I made yesterday, I made 6 different fragrances yesterday and have enough soap base left to make one more batch today. Cinnamon (you have to use candy flavoring for this, it won't scald you skin), Frankincense and Myrrh, Black Amber and Lavender, Chardonnay, Freesia and Chocolate. The batch I make today will be more of the Cinnamon (Randy's favorite). That will use up the last of the base and after the first of the year I will order another 25 pound block.
What a wonderful idea!! I love the shapes and really wish I could have a sniff of them all. Will you be giving any away as Christmas gifts? I think people would love to get your handmade, scented soaps.
The Cinnamon is all Randy's, next year I will also load him up on Peppermint soap too, those are his favorites. My oldest daughter will be getting the Chardonnay (surprisingly it does smell like the wine) and Freesia for Christmas (her favorite wine and flower), one of each will go to our grandson's new love Amy and some of the dome shaped ones will be part of the gift for Vicki whose name I drew in the gift swap the Wednesday dinner group had last week, I think she will like those and some candles. The rest will be either for my use or gifts as needed through the year.
We have a shop here that makes different types of soap from natural ingredients. Last year my daughter got me a blackcurrant one that I badly wanted to lick as it smelled so good!! My favourites, at the moment, are coconut, lemon, orange and rose. Every one smells just wonderful and they last much longer than 'normal' soaps do. I always look forward to getting some on my birthday or at Christmas.
What a wonderful idea Toni...you get to have the enjoyment of making it and you can give away what you make for gifts....I would love the smell of raspberries if they make it and it would be my first choice to make... I might have a problem if I smelled like one in the summer months when I am outdoors with all of the bees and wasp, etc.
Wow...that's way cool! I have a couple of local flea marts here that I go to when they're open. A couple of vendors make their own soaps, and I go just so I can buy from them! I can almost smell your soaps toni, right through the computer screen!!
You ought to smell the house this morning. The soaps have been sitting out curing so the scents have mingled and spread for a couple of days. The cinnamon is most predominate but the rest are putting out their best too. It's really an easy craft, chop up the soap base, melt it in the microwave, add fragrance (and color if wanted), pour into molds and let set. I sometimes get carried away with how much I make since I have quite a few bottles of fragrance and want some of each.
Brambleberry.com they have several kinds of soap bases and oodles of fragrances. They also have online tutorials on making the soap and someone online to answer questions.
I think your soaps are pretty and an excellent, and useful, gift also. I may have to check into making some myself.
Your soaps look good enough to eat, and the way you describe it they probably smell good enough to eat too. Since my husband is allergic to a lot of the stuff used in ordinary soap we should probably start making our own. Maybe one day in the not very foreseeable future. Do you make coffee soap as well? I've heard it's very good for removing strong smells from your hands.
This is interesting, I was just wandering if the basic soap base is effective for using as a pesticide spray for plants. I had tried several kind of soap like hand soap, bath soap, dish detergent and I think they don't really work. Your post got me interested and I found out that home made soap basic ingredient is lye and oil. Mixing these two component together causes saponification and you get soap. This soap contain glycerine and commercial soap do not have it... I maybe wrong . So does insecticidal contain something else or is it just basic soap?
The soap I make is made with Goats milk and has no lye in it. The instructions I found for making your own insecticidal soap says to use Castile soap such as https://www.drbronner.com/DBMS/category/LIQUIDSOAP.html
Thanks Toni, their nearest store for me is in Singapore and their pricing is not within my budget. I think I'll give natural DIY soap a try.
