diy | handmade soap gifts

I adore giving handmade presents at christmas. one project I always return to is soap making because a. it's easy and b. it's FUN!

soaps are a great gift project and not too expensive, 1kg of soap base makes 10-15 small soaps. I've used a clear base but there are lots of colours and sizes available online if you want to experiment!

I started out with every intention of making 'grown up' soaps, I had dried fruit and flowers at the ready and yet somehow I found myself adding in googly eyes and pom pom's! I don't know why this keep happening.. I'm a 10yr old masquerading as an adult.

the problem is soap making is so fun I get a little carried away with adding weird and wonderful items! one of my favourite things to do is chop up coloured tissue paper which I add into the liquid soap so that it bleeds slightly. I'm also a little hooked on the little pom pom and toy animals soaps!

to make your soap simply carve off small pieces from your block of soap base to melt down. I use an old plastic chinese takeaway container to melt my soap base in the microwave! (if you use this method make sure you only heat the base for 30secs each time and keep an eye on the melting soap- you don't want to overheat it.

when the soap base is liquid I add in a few drops of soap perfume to scent my soap (again easy to buy online) before pouring the liquid soap into a silicone soap/cake mould. you can also add colours into the soap while it's liquid.

only fill your mould up halfway- when it begins to set on top add your fruit/flowers/pom pom's etc this will ensure they lay in the middle of the soap rather than dropping to the bottom of the mould. top up with the remaining liquid soap to fill the moulds and seal in your goodies.

leave to set and pop them out of the moulds.. pop into gift bags and they're ready to gift!

easy peasy and SO MUCH FUN!

would you be tempted to make some this christmas?

caroline x