How to Make Handmade Gingerbread Man Soaps

Do you have some soap lovers on your holiday list? Why not try these super easy to make gingerbread men glycerin soaps. They look every bit as cute as their edible counterparts, smell just like the real thing but are completely calorie free. How’s that for a holiday wish come true?

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Gingerbread scented fragrance oil
• One large glass measuring cup
• Clear glycerin soap base
• Two small glass bowls
• Gingerbread soap molds
• Christmas ribbon or clear tape
• Plastic garbage bags
• Two eye droppers
• Red and green soap coloring to make brown
• One sharp knife
• Kitchen scale
• Food wrap or plastic craft bags
• Opaque (white) glycerin soap base
• Metal spoons

1. Go shopping for your ingredients. You may be able to find most of what you need at local craft stores or some department stores such as Wal-Mart. For a much easier shopping experience simply pick up a soap making kit from a soap supplier, which will include everything you need to make your handmade gingerbread men soaps. See below for a link.

2. You will need a clean and clutter-free area in which to work. A kitchen table works wonderfully for making your handmade Christmas 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.

3. 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.

4. Decide how many soaps you want to make in your glycerin soap batch. This will determine how much soap base you need. As an example, if you are making three 4 oz. soaps you will need 3x4=12 oz. of soap base. If you are making a big batch you may have to do it in two rounds depending on how many gingerbread man soap molds you have. Be sure to tightly seal up any unused soap base for later use.

5. 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 chunk and use a kitchen scale that weighs in ounces to measure out the soap.

6. After you have cut off enough glycerin soap base, divide that soap into very small cubes. This will speed up the melting process.

7. Take two or three cubes of your white glycerin soap base and put it in a glass bowl. Place this bowl in the microwave and melt on high for 10 to 15 seconds, or until the soap has just reached the melted point.

8. Remove the glass bowl from the microwave. This small amount of soap will be used to create the “icing” on your gingerbread men. This soap does not need to be colored or scented. Use an eye dropper to carefully pour the melted white soap base into the grooves of the soap mold designed for the icing effect.

9. Now you are ready to create the red buttons and bow tie of your gingerbread men. Take a clean glass bowl and melt one or two cubes of your clear glycerin soap base in the same manner as you melted the white base.

10. Once the soap is melted, color the clear soap base with a red soap dye or the Merlot Sparkle mica included in the recommended kit. Again, this small amount of soap does not need to be scented. Use a clean eye dropper to create the bow and buttons.

11. You are now ready to create the bodies of your handmade Christmas soaps. While the icing, bow ties and buttons are cooling in the molds, melt your clear soap base in the microwave. 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 melt at short 10 second bursts. Often just stirring the soap base for a few seconds will melt any few small remaining chunks of soap.

12. Now color your clear soap base with the Cappuccino soap color and scent it with the gingersnap fragrance oil. Use clean eye droppers for both of these steps. If you're not using the kit, you can mix a small amount of green into red soap dye to create the warm brown color. Go slowly, only adding a drop of green at a time and stirring thoroughly to get a true sense of the color.

13. Before pouring this colored and scented soap base into the molds, be sure that it is not steaming hot or it will melt your icing, bow tie and buttons. When the glycerin soap base is still warm but no steam is rising from it, carefully pour it into the molds.

14. Once your soaps are poured allow them to cool and set for 4 to 8 hours before removing them from their molds.

15. You will need to wrap your handmade gingerbread men soaps to protect them. You can either use food wrap that is tightly wrapped around the soaps and secured with clear tape at the back or place your glycerin soaps in small plastic craft bags and tie with a decorative bow.

16. If you plan on making more than one batch of these gingerbread men soaps be sure to thoroughly clean all molds, bowls and utensils before beginning again.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep a cup of warm soapy water at your work station and use it to clean out your eye droppers between uses. Simply suck up some of the soapy water into the eye dropper and squirt it out. Repeat this several times to flush out any remaining color or scent before you use the dropper again.
• Never heat your soap base to the boiling point. It will make cool down time much longer. Pouring the soap for the base over the icing and buttons if it's too hot will cause the details to melt into the hot soap base.
• Don't over do it on color and fragrance. Add just enough color to achive a ginger color and just enough fragrance oil so that you can smell the scent, but so it's not over powering. Try 5 to 6 drops of fragrance oil per bar of soap.