Did you come up with anything interesting to mix into your soaps?

Our city offers Adult Education courses, and they are offering a class on how to make bath fizzies and melts---I'm going to take it. I've also ordered a book called Melt and Pour Soapmaking and another called Soapmaking for Fun and Profit.

I made a few for my friend's daughter that were "plain". I made a blue bar, cut it up into little cubes and then dumped the cubes in a yellow bar that was just starting to set. Then I did the same thing with pink and orange. She's 4 and she loved them.

I think I'm going to make some of my own molds from sculpey clay and see if I can't sell the soaps.

I'm interested in hearing what other ingredient combinations you guys came up with... spill the beans ladies.

My favorite ingredients include:
Oatmeal (Aveeno or regular oatmeal thru blender)
Tea Tree Oil
Rosepetals (Fresh)
Mint (Fresh)
Clove
Jasmine (Fresh)
Honeysuckle (Fresh)

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Originally posted by pollyhyper:
My favorite ingredients include:
Jasmine (Fresh)

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yikes...image of self, drowning in glycerin...

i did it the super-cheap, super-cheater way:
small disposable aluminum bread loaf tins for molds (makes a funny wavy edge), and soaps from a "natural" crap store - shredded ma d melted down to reshape. i used glycerine (which melted kinda funny) and castile (worked way better than glycerine).

i used lavendar and bergamot oils (a few drops added to the shredded soap as its melting) and then sprinkled white and green tea leaves on the top of the mold as it was setting. the tea leaves make for a bit of a mess in the shower, but people loved it!

i wrapped them in wax paper, and sealed them with labels i made with a simple rubber stamp on sticker paper.

Also, is it safe to melt soap in the micro?

Thanks!

the varieties that people loved the most:

pink grapefruit (grapefruit essential oil and pink food coloring in clear soap)
peppermint poppyseed (peppermint essential oil and poppyseeds suspended in clear soap)
cornmeal and chamomile cornmeal and dried camomile flowers in white soap)

we got the glycerine stuff at the craft store - but get the suspension soap if you want to have stuff floating in your soap. without it, the cornmeal, chamomile, and poppyseeds just sink to the bottom. but with it, they stay suspended throughout and give a nice little scrubby feeling.

we used tarangos and pringles holders for molds and they worked really well. just secure the bottom with plastic wrap and you get cute triangles and rounds of soap. then we wrapped the soaps in plastic wrap and made labels out of sticker paper.

editted to add: my niece LOVED the clear soap i made for her that had bath toys in it - rubber ducks and frogs were a big hit.

The best combinations were bergamot oil and tangerine zest, eucalyptus and rosemary, and a brown rice (ground up) and green tea (smashed up the tea leaves) one that we wrapped in nori and called Sushi Soap, very exfoliating.

I also made a green tea soap that I poured onto a shallow baking pan. Once it had set I used a cookie cutter to cut out shapes. I had enough bits left over to melt them down again and make a small bar of the soap for myself.

I never had a problem with the glycerin melting. If you do it in the microwave the consistency should be fine, if you're getting lumps then you just nuke it a little longer.

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Originally posted by chebbah:
What kind of molds did you use? [...]Did you come up with anything interesting to mix into your soaps? Sarah

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My mom and I make soap from scratch including rendering fat into tallow. We use (this is kind of funny) these plastic circular trays meant to be used to cook eggs in the microwave that we find at thrift stores. They are about a foot accross and have lots of little muffin tin like depressions in them. We've also used cheap rectagular tupperware. The ridge on the bottom of the tupperware gives the soap a nice detail.
My favorite mix-in is calendula petals. They turn the soap a pretty buttery yellow and are good for your skin.

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Originally posted by keldrewie:
Okay, this is slightly off topic, but I was wondering...I'm new at making soap, lotions, etc. And I really want to try gift baskets this Christmas. Where is the best place to find bottles and containers for lip balms, and lotions? Any good suggestions?

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