How to Make Glycerin Soap for Handmade Christmas Gifts

Looking to give handmade Christmas gifts to those on your shopping list? If you have any scented soap lovers to buy for making glycerin soap is easy and as fun to make as they are to give.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Any additives you may want such as glitter, dry oatmeal, cocoa or shea butter etc.
• At least one, maybe two, large glass measuring cups
• Rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle (optional)
• Fragrance – either essential oils or soap and skin friendly fragrance oils (not candle fragrance oils)
• Glycerin soap base
• Soap molds
• Garbage bags to cover your table
• Liquid soap approved coloring (not food coloring)
• Old metal spoons for stirring
• Glass eye droppers if your fragrance oils do not come with dropper tops.

1. Go shopping for your ingredients. You can find most of what you need at local craft stores or some department stores such as Wal-Mart. If you really want to make some special handmade Christmas gifts try buying from one of the many online soap supply stores that will have high quality ingredients and a huge selection.

2. When shopping for soap base you will have a few choices to make. There is clear glycerin soap base, opaque (white) glycerin soap base, goats milk base and Aloe Vera base just to name a few. Clear soap base is perfect for adding sparkles and bright colors to (think red and green Christmas soaps), while the opaque goats milk soap is very moisturizing and soothing to the skin. Read up on the bases and their properties to decide which glycerin soap base will work best for your handmade Christmas gifts.

3. You will need a clean and clutter free area in which to work. A kitchen table works wonderfully for making your glycerin soaps. Prepare the work area by covering the table with a couple of large garbage bags to protect the table from spills and make clean up easier.

4. Have all your ingredients and tools placed out and handy. Be sure your soap molds are clean and set out and ready to receive the melted soap base.

5. Decide how many soaps you want to make of each type. If you are making all the same type of soaps (same base, color and scent) you can cut down on the amount of work by making one big batch. Just be sure you have enough soap molds to hold the amount of bars you are making at one time.

6. Open the glycerin soap base and measure out how much you will need. Some soap bases come pre-scored in one ounce sections to make measurement easier. If yours does not have these scores just cut off a big enough chunk to roughly equal the number of soaps you are making. A kitchen scale that weighs in ounces is a very handy thing for getting close measurements.

7. After you have cut off enough glycerin soap base, divide that soap into very small cubes. This will make the melting process go faster. Place diced soap base into a glass measuring cup and place in the microwave.

8. Proper melting of your soap base is very important. Start by heating in 30 second increments. When the time is up remove the measuring cup and stir with a metal spoon. If many chunks of soap remain return the soap base to the microwave and repeat for another 30 seconds. Often just stirring the soap base for a few seconds will melt any few small remaining chunks of soap but if not place the soap base into the microwave again and melt at short bursts of 10 seconds until the soap is completely melted with no hard chunks remaining.

9. Your soap is now ready to receive its additives. Start making your handmade Christmas gifts by adding the color first. Do not over do it with the color as excess color can bleed out of the soap and stain bath tubs. Add colors one or two drops at a time and stir thoroughly until you get the desired color. Remember- opaque (white) soaps will always have a more pastel coloring to them due to the previously added white coloring. If you want a vibrant colored soap stick to the clear base.

10. Once you have the color added it is now time to add the fragrance. Depending on the strength of the fragrance you are adding, the usual amount of fragrance added to glycerin soap is 3-5 drops per ounce of soap. So if you are making three soaps at 4 ounces each you will need between 36 to 60 drops of fragrance for your glycerin soap batch. It is always best to start out with a smaller amount and stir thoroughly before adding more fragrance. You want your handmade Christmas gifts to smell great but not over power the recipient.

11. Once you have added the fragrance and stirred your soap base you can now add any other additives you want. Dried flowers such as lavender buds for lavender scented soaps makes beautiful glycerin soaps. Adding a teaspoon per soap bar of natural dried oatmeal makes a gentle yet effective exfoliating bar of soap.

12. Give your soap a final stir. Make sure to stir slowly to avoid creating excess bubbles in the soap base as these will show up at the bottom of the bars of soap you pour.

13. You are now ready to pour your soap into the molds. One soap mold at a time, slowly pour the melted soap into the cavity until your soap base reaches just shy of the top of the soap mold. Do not overfill or your soap will overflow, wrecking your handmade Christmas gift’s appearance and making it harder to get out of the mold later.

14. Continue to pour the liquid soap slowly into each mold until they are all filled. If you have extra soap base left over simply pour this into another mold or old plastic container. You can either reheat this soap later to make mini soaps or keep it for yourself to try out your creations.

15. This is when, if you choose, you can spritz the bottoms of your poured soaps with a very small amount of rubbing alcohol to remove any bubbles that formed while pouring. Some soap makers say the rubbing alcohol disturbs the moisturizing properties of the soap, while others say the esthetic benefit of removing the bubbles far outweighs any negatives. If you only use a sparse spray of the alcohol you should be able to obtain a good balance of beautiful soaps that are gentle to the skin.

16. Now you must let the soaps sit and cool. Do not move them while in this liquid state as chances are they will spill. For best results wait a minimum of two hours, at which time you can carefully move the somewhat cooled soaps to a safer location and allow them to set up for another 22 hours.

17. Once your soaps have set for 24 hours they are ready to be removed from the molds. Lay out sheets of wax paper on your kitchen table and carefully set the soap filled molds face up so the opening is facing the wax paper.

18. Gently twist the soap mold in opposite directions (like you are wringing out a towel…but much gentler). This should cause the seal to break around the glycerin soaps and the molds allowing the soaps to break free and fall out. If this does not occur, gently pry the edge of the mold cavity away from the soap until air is able to enter between the two. Gently push on the face of the mold and the soap should pop out.

19. In the event that your soap still does not release place the soap-filled molds into the freezer for 20 minutes to half an hour. This will cause the soaps to shrink slightly and allow them to pop out of the soap molds.

20. You are now ready to wrap your handmade Christmas gifts. Glycerin soaps need to be protected from prolonged exposure to the air in order to keep their scent and to avoid sweating—a process in which moisture in the air draws out the glycerin in the soap causing small sweat-like droplets to form on the surface of your soaps.

21. You can wrap your soaps in small plastic gift bags found at any craft store or do your own version of shrink wrap by wrapping your glycerin soaps in plastic wrap like the kind you use to cover food.

22. To wrap in small gift bags simply place the soaps in the bag and tie the bag shut with a decorative ribbon. You can adorn the bag with a small label that tells your recipient what type of soap it is and that is was handmade by you.

23. To wrap your glycerin soaps in food wrap simply cut a piece of plastic wrap slightly smaller than your bar of soap and place the soap, face down, in the middle of the plastic wrap. Stretch two opposite sides of the plastic wrap around the soap until it is taunt and meets in somewhere in the middle of the back of the soap bar. Secure these ends with a small piece of clear tape. Repeat the process for the two other sides, making sure to stretch the food wrap for a nice tight fit. Finish off by placing a self adhesive label (available at craft and office supply stores) over the pieces of tape. Here you will write what type of soap it is and that this handmade Christmas gift is from you.

Tips & Warnings

• Customize your soaps to the recipients' skin needs. Add lavender essential oil and a few drops of melted honey for those with acne prone skin. For those with dry skin use the goats milk base and add a small amount of melted shea butter or cocoa butter to the soap base during the additives stage.
• Make layered soaps. Once your soap base has been melted in the microwave divide the liquid soap into two glass measuring cups. Color one green and the other red (or your colors of choice). You can scent them the same or make them different yet complimentary scents (apples and cinnamon, chocolate and orange for example). Fill the soap molds half full and allow a thick skin to form at the top of the poured soap. When you can touch the soap without it breaking through to liquid it is ready. Spritz the soap surface with a light misting of rubbing alcohol and pour the other soap base on top. The two will bond and create beautifully layered glycerin soap.
• Do not overheat your soap to the boiling point when melting it. Boiling your soap base will cause it to lose precious glycerin and decrease its moisturizing properties.