How to make your own soap decorated with pressed flowers

You have probably noticed many different kinds of hand crafted soap products.  One of my favourite styles is when various small objects are embedded into the clear soap.  It really gives the soap bar and your bathroom that special something.  Soaps also making wonderful gifts.  The next time you send flowers to a friend, for example, think about perhaps including some hand made soap.  Making your own soap is really not as complicated as it may sound.  All you have to do is make sure that you have all the ingredients ready when you start.  Below you will find simple instructions on how to make your own soap.

You will need:

– Clear melt and pour base (can be purchased from various places including online)

– Fragrance oil or essential oil at a ratio of 0.25 ounces per pound of melt and pour base.

– Rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle

– Glass bowl to melt the base

– Soap mold(s)

– Dried, pressed flowers for decoration

Directions:

– Place melt and pour base into a glass bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Melt for 1 minute in the microwave, remove and mix the unmelted bits in.

– Add your choice of fragrance or essential oil at a ratio of 0.25 ounces of oil per pound of melt and pour base.  Slowly add extra if you feel it is neccessary.  Mix properly!  The mixture should NOT seem “foggy” or unclear.

– Pour a thin layer into your soap mold and set it aside for 10 – 15 minutes to harden.

– Press the dried flower(s) into the mold.

– Lightly spray with rubbing alcohol.

– Fill the rest of the mould with the clear soap.

– Gently spray again with rubbing alcohol to get rid of any bubbles.

– Allow to harden completely before removing from the mold.

Remember to use a clear melt and pour base if you intend on placing items like flowers inside the soap as a decoration.  Other types of bases will be too milky and you would only be wasting your time by adding anything to the middle of the soap.  As for colourants, there are two popular ways of adding colour to soaps.  You can either use mica or food colouring.  Either way, colourants should be added just after you have added your fragrance.  When using mica, some bubbles may form on the top so just spray these with a tiny amount of rubbing alcohol.  It is also important to note that by adding too much colour, your soap may stain hands and towels so be careful!.  If you plan on using something like dried, pressed flowers to decorated your soap, the soap should be used as soon as possible before the petals start turning brown.  If you like to make things like soaps in larger quantities in order to have them handy as last minute gifts, then you may want to consider using artificial flowers or petals.

Check in with your florist or local crafts store for some great ideas.  You can even make bath time fun for kids by adding some cartoon figures to the soap!  Just make sure that they are not allergic to any of the properties in the soap first.