DIY Soap Making & Recipes – From Beginner To Advanced

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These make lovely gifts and the great thing about them is that you can mix and match various fragrances and ingredients to get exactly what you want. This big list of tutorials and recipes that I’ve handpicked from around the ‘net has everything from using grated bars of ready-made soap to making them from scratch using lye and other ingredients. Lots here for everyone!

thesoapbar.blogspot.com

Salt Bars: Made with sea salt, coconut oil, avocado oil, castor oil and Sodium Hydroxide, for more advanced soapmakers.

Almond Rose: Here’s a simple method using just a few basic tools, ingredients include dried rose petals, pure soap flakes, rose water and more.

readersdigest.ca

down---to---earth.blogspot.com

How To Make Cold Processed Soap: Made with vegetable oils and when it is made and cured, it contains no harsh chemicals or dyes.

Make Cold-Processed Castile: Made with olive oil, sodium hydroxide and water.

frugalkiwi.co.nz

cucumbersome.com

Time For Tea: Make easy homemade tea soaps and package like tea bags (great gift idea for tea lovers).

Delectable Pantry Bars: Make assorted soaps with glycerin, honey, ginger, cinnamon, ground cloves, oatmeal and chamomile tea.

marthastewart.com

suchtreasures.com

Crockpot Castile: This can be in the molds in about an hour and half, with only 15 minutes of hands-on time.

Easy Colorful Glycerin Bars: To get started, you’ll need clear glycerin soap, food coloring, coffee stirrers, a clean milk or juice carton (to use as a mold), and petroleum jelly.

marthastewart.com

mnn.com

Hand Milled: This allows you to experiment while bypassing many of the more complex steps in making handmade soap.

Make It: Gardener Lotion Bar: The luxurious, soothing ingredients used in these homemade bars are a great way to pamper yourself (and soothe that rough skin!).

cathiefilian.blogspot.com

athomewiththefarmerswife.blogspot.com

Lazy Day Soapmaking: Here’s a tip that involves grating several bars of hotel soap, adding a handful of instant oatmeal, moisten with a bit of water, then heating up the batch and molding the mixture into bars using muffin tins.

Crock Pot Hot Process Tutorial: No recipe since this is intended for those already familiar with the cold process.

gracefruit.blogspot.com

happyheartsathome.blogspot.com

Chocolate Cupcakes: Fun for gift giving, made by grating bars of Ivory and adding other ingredients like olive oil, glycerin, cocoa powder, honey, powdered milk and cinnamon.

Grass Soap: Made with melt-and-pour glycerin soap and wheatgrass.

marthastewart.com

abeautifulmess.typepad.com

Graphic Embeds: Make bars of clear glycerin with pictures embedded inside, uses milk cartons as molds.

Citrus Coffee: This recipe doesn’t include step-by-step directions but it does include links to resources that can help you out.

bloombakecreate.com

marthastewart.com

Goats’ Milk: Made with goats’ milk, olive oil, lye, coconut oil and other ingredients.

Milled: Made by grating two bars of pure castille soap and adding powdered milk, water, green tea and honey.

craftzine.com

alphamom.com

Snow-Globe: Cute novelty made with a brick of clear glycerin, blue soap dye, soap scent (something festive like peppermint), soap glitter and tiny plastic toys.

Fish-In-A-Bag: These adorable novelty soaps will get the kids to actually want to take a bath!

candletech.com

allthingsholdtogether.com

Snowflake Rounds: These are easier to make than one might think with no special molds required (just a silicone muffin pan).

Bathtub Crayons: Cute project made by grinding bars of Ivory and adding food coloring.

crazydomestic.com

brandyscrafts.blogspot.com

Candy Cane Bars: Layers of melted glycerin chunks are tinted, scented and poured into molds then topped off with sprinkling of crushed candy canes.

Helpful Resources:

• millersoap.com: You’ll find an astonishing amount of information including: Frequently Asked Questions; Troubleshooting section if your batch doesn’t turn out; Several PDF downloads available (basic procedures, all vegetable soaps, where to find ingredients, etc.); Both traditional methods and modern techniques provided; How to design and create your own recipes; Recipes using animal fats and much more! Also see teachsoap.com which is another goody for tutorials, recipes and more.
• Two Easy DIY Molds: The round mold is made with PVC pipe and the rectangular is made with pieces of poplar board.
• Also see this recipe for making liquid hand soap and this big list of diy laundry detergents.

How To Felt Bars

*First published August 25, 2008 and moved to this page for better organization

Here’s a mixed bag of tutorials showing you how to felt a bar of soap, this is new to me and I think these would make great gifts!

SuZanna Anna On HGTV

Video Summary:

• Pull off some wool fiber and wrap it nice and tight around the bar (one way).
• Next wrap some wool tightly the other way (perpendicular). This helps the fibers felt together.
• Next pull off little strands of wool fiber in contrasting colors and lay them gently on top of the bar to give a tie-dye effect. Do this on one side.
• Put the wool wrapped bar in a clean nylon stocking. This will help the fibers stay together while you felt.
• Tools Needed: Washboard, hot water, dish detergent, towel
• Drip a little bit of dish detergent on top of the bar (now in the nylon stocking) to get the soap started, you just need a bit since it will start working from the inside bar.
• Scrub the bar on the washboard (quickly, back and forth, all sides) for about 10 minutes until the wool is felted enough so you can take the soap out of the stocking. Notice that there doesn’t seem to be any water involved at this point?
• Keep rubbing until you can’t pinch any wool away from the bar.
• Rinse off extra soap in the bowl of hot water.
• Blot it in the towel to remove excess water.
• Set the bar on a drying rack to dry.

You can see another video here with a different method–Wet Felting Wool Over Bars:

Instead of using a washboard, just rub the bar with your fingers, working for several minutes to felt the wool. Toward the end of the video you’ll see a suggestion to first cover the bar with a plastic bag and then work on it (contains the mess). In the comments area you’ll see this tip:

The wool will continue to felt more firmly with use and the soap will dwindle and disappear leaving you with a little felted wool bundle that has a hallow core. You can carefully slice it open to make a coin purse, or cut off the top and add a strap to make a necklace pouch or holder of some kind.

Here’s a website that details the process from Mielke’s Fiber Arts. The pictures are really clear so you’ll get a good idea of how things look throughout the process. This site advises that wet felting only works with wool or other protein fibers (such as llama or angora) and that some wools felt better than others.