My ma and I are all about those homemade Christmas gifts. Not only are they relatively inexpensive, but they tend to be pretty useful and they give us time to be crafty. 🙂 Along with some Homemade Dog Treats, and chocolate covered pretzels, we did homemade soaps!
Left to right- Chocolate Peppermint, Lemon Drop, Coffee, Peppermint, and in the center- oatmeal.
For all soaps we used combinations of Artminds™ soap making, olive oil glycerin soap, Artminds™ soap making, clear glycerin soap, and Artminds™ soap making, goats milk glycerin soap– all purchased at Michaels.
Other potential ingredients:
Lemon
Cocoa Powder
Peppermint Oil
Citrus Soap Fragrance
Vanilla Soap Fragrance
Oat Meal
Coffee/ Coffee Grounds
Soap Coloring
For the oat meal:
50/50 olive oil and goats milk soap- about 8 blocks of each
1/2 cup plain oat meal
1. In a microwave safe dish, melt the soap about 30 seconds at a time.
2. Add the oatmeal to the melt soap, stir MOVE QUICKLY
3. Using a measuring cup or ladle, gently pour the soap into your molds.
4. Let set until solid- about an hour unless you throw it in the fridge….or outside to chill.
Chocolate Peppermint
2:1 ratio clear glycerin to goats milk- total of about 16 squares
1. Gently melt your soap 30 seconds at a time
2. Add about 1/4-1/2 teaspoon peppermint oil, 2 or 3 drops of vanilla fragrance
3. Sift in about 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
4. Whisk the powder into the soap/peppermint oil. It will be kinda whipped/frothy.
5. Using a measuring cup or ladle, gently pour the soap into your molds.
6. Let set until solid- about an hour unless you throw it in the fridge….or outside to chill.
Peppermint
2:1 ratio goats milk to olive oil- total of about 16 squares
1. Gently melt your soap 30 seconds at a time
2. Add about 1/2 teaspoon peppermint oil and 2 drops of vanilla fragrance
3. Add 2-4 drops of red soap coloring directly into the soap molds
4. Using a measuring cup or ladle, gently pour the soap into your molds.
5. Use a tooth pick to drag through the soap to help mix up a bit
6. Let set until solid- about an hour unless you throw it in the fridge….or outside to chill.
Lemon Drop
This smells SOOOOO good and is probably one of my favorites that we did!
Just goats milk soap- I used about 16 squares
1. Gently melt your soap 30 seconds at a time
2. Zest and juice 1 lemon
3. Add half of the zest, all of the lemon juice, and 2 drops of citrus soap fragrance and 3 drops of yellow coloring
4. Sprinkle the rest of the zest in the soap molds, using a measuring cup or ladle, gently pour the soap into your molds
5. Let set until solid- about an hour unless you throw it in the fridge….or outside to chill.
Coffee
Make a small pot of good STRONG coffee, save the grounds
2:1 ratio clear glycerin to goats milk- total of about 16 squares
1. Gently melt your soap 30 seconds at a time
2. Add about 1/4 cup hot coffee and stir
3. Mix in about 2 tablespoons of coffee grounds
4. Using a measuring cup or ladle, gently pour the soap into your molds.
5. Let set until solid- about an hour unless you throw it in the fridge….or outside to chill.
PHEW! That was a relatively long post. We wrapped each bar in suran wrap with a cute little Christmas sticker. These gifts are easy, fun, and smell good enough to EAT! This craft can be relatively time consuming only because we had to wait for bars to cool and set between batches since we were only using a few “normal shaped” molds. With the variation of smells and flavors it’s easy to put together samplers like
chocolate peppermint, peppermint and coffee or lemon drop, oat meal and coffee.
And here is my favorite Elf assembling her goodie bags!
brunette with brains 