Homemade Gift Ideas – DIY Easy Soap Making

Homemade Gift Ideas

Homemade Gift Ideas  – Soap

I thought I would have a crack at soap making. I’ve wanted to make soap for ages but it seemed like a really complicated task, and a worrying amount of chemicals that needed to be carefully and precisely used. I looked into it a lot and found Melt and Pour Soap Base on Amazon. I was on a trial of Amazon Prime for free for one month so postage was covered!

soap making ingredients

I received 2 big 1Kg blocks of the  Melt and Pour Soap Base  in white. It provides a vegetable oil soap base for you to fragrance, colour and mould yourself. It is odour free and can be bought in either white or clear, I chose white as I love the look of petals in white soap.  The soap has a very creamy, moisturising texture, has a neutral pH and has not been tested on animals. The soap bases creates a luxurious lather as it is produced from high quality double distilled and deodorised clear coconut oil that can easily work with wide range of fragrances.

I made 2 different soaps, rose soap with rose petals and butterfly shaped honey, vanilla and oat exfoliating soap, perfect for Mothering Sunday gifts! I will be making many more for presents for friends.

Rose SoapButterfly Soap

To make the soap cut the Melt and Pour Soap Base into blocks, put in a Pyrex jug and melt in the microwave. Check on it every 20 seconds or so, the time needed to melt the soap will vary on the size of the cut blocks. Mine took about 2 minutes in total using a 700 watt microwave. Add the fragrance oil of choice, I used a Rose Geranium oil and Honey Vanilla oil. I wanted more texture and interest to my soap so also added rose petals to my rose soap. I added 2 spoonfuls of honey and some oats to my butterfly soap as honey has such a range of fantastic effects on the skin and the oats will act as a natural exfoliant.  Pour into ramicins, I used Sainsburys silicon moulds, a Rose Silicon Mould and Butterfly Silicon Mould (they are on offer at the moment) as they are easy to pop the soap from.  Leave in the fridge until set, again my soaps were large so I left them for an hour, smaller soaps won’t need that time.

Homemade Gift Ideas Soap

The Melt and Pour Soap Base contain water as part of the formula so if left exposed to the atmosphere, the water will evaporate and the bar of soap will shrink so it will need to be fully wrapped as soon as cooled. I will be wrapping mine in printed fabric and ribbon as it is a gift. I’m so excited to try new fragrances and creations of soap! Any suggestions?

soap wrapped

Have you ever handmade soap before? What scents did you try?

 Melt and Pour Soap Base

Rose Geranium oil

Honey Vanilla oil

Rose Petals

 Rose Silicon Mould

Butterfly Silicon Mould

Gift Tags

21 Comments

  1. Caitlin Ramsay
    2014/03/30 / 21:37

    They look great! I’d love to try making my own soap :)

    Caitlin | Thistle & Tea

  2. Mars
    2014/03/30 / 21:20

    I love this, what a great idea for homemade soap and you’ve made it look so easy!

    I’m going to bookmark this and come back to it when I have a week off next week.

    Great tutorial!

    Mars
    Curling Stones for Lego People

  3. Emma W
    2014/03/30 / 22:05

    These are so beautiful! Great job it looks like you are a natural at soap making :)
    emmasbeginning.blogspot.com

  4. Emilie
    2014/03/30 / 22:12

    Aw! These are gorgeous ideas! Definitely using these for easter presents. Thank you xx

  5. gab xo
    2014/03/30 / 23:44

    Such a cute idea!!

    Gab xo | gabbbxo.blogspot.co.uk

  6. 2014/03/31 / 06:23

    You are braze to tackle such a job, I don’t think I’d be able to pull it off! They look very PRO!

  7. 2014/03/31 / 19:49

    These look amazing! I’ve only tried it once and mine didnt look so professional! :)

  8. Ambellia Louise
    2014/03/31 / 22:09

    Will be giving this ago! Cute idea for gifts. x

  9. 2014/04/01 / 00:17

    These look fantastic! And would make great gifts!

    Keisha xo

  10. Sarah
    2014/04/01 / 05:23

    Loved the video and going to have to try to make soap now. It looks easy enough and so fun. Thanks for sharing the recipes.

    xx Sarah
    Losergirlwins.com

  11. 2014/04/01 / 06:57

    Omg they look sooo good! I HAVE to try this out! :)

    ♥♥

  12. char
    2014/04/01 / 11:05

    I made soap last week with my guide unit so that they could use them for Mother’s Day presents. It was the first time I’d ever made soap and I have to admit I had no idea what I was doing. I’d bought some aloe vera soap blocks on ebay, and various rose petals, scents and oils. We melted it in the microwave as well, added what they liked to their mix and moulded them in silicone moulds, beforee wrapping up in cellophane. They looked pretty good by the end of ti and a couple of the mums even mentioned them last night saying how good they were!

  13. Stevie Blackburn
    2014/04/01 / 19:47

    How much was the soap ingredient set?? I really wanna make some!

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