soap!

I was inspired by this post to make or rather embellish a soap base. I put this in the back of my head, thinking that these will make great little gifts, especially a nice addition at Christmas. But when I was at JoAnns the other weekend and found myself with all sell items in my cart and a 50% off one non-sale item in my hand. I went ahead and got myself the soap base. I knew I wasn't going to be able to wait until Christmas time to make the soaps let alone wait for my daughter's nap time that afternoon!



Here is what I did:

Supplies:

• shea butter soap base (5 lb block)
  
• green tea
• oatmeal
• molds: pyrex pans (8x8 and 9x13), plastic or paper drinking cups, and small tupperware containers
• pam non-stick spray (used in pyrex pans before adding soap)
  

::Seep packets of green tea in 1 cup of hot water. Set aside.

::Melt cubes of soap base according to package directions.

::Once soap base is completely melted, add fixings. I tried two different methods of adding the green tea: 1) added dry green tea opened from non-seeped packages and 2) adding seeped green tea opened from the seeped packages. I liked the seeped method better. This soap had more color from the bleeding of the tea leaves. I also dumped a few teaspoons of the tea water for color and smell too.

::Pour the soaps into molds. The amount will depend on how high or thick you want your soaps. Shake the mold slightly to get ride of any air bubbles (I thought of this after I was done and had small bubbles stuck in the soap).

::After pouring some of the soap into molds I made a few soaps with green tea and dry oatmeal.

::I made 3 batches of the soap which used all 5 lbs of my soap base (I was having so much fun I just couldn't stop myself!).

::I let the soaps dry overnight. Pop the soaps out by maneuvering plastic molds or using butter knife to unstick the sides. The knife didn't hurt the molds.

::The small soaps created in the plastic cups and tuperware, I packaged up size as is. But the large blocks of soap in the pyrex pans, I cup up in to small squares (like brownies).

::I used wax paper to wrap them up and cut scrapbook paper to wrap around.

Using the 5 lb block of soap base and 8 tea bags I made at least 40 little soaps! The green tea was in my cupboard and the 5 lb block of soap was $12.50 with the coupon, not bad at all!



Verdict? These soaps make my hands feel clean! So they are purposeful! They don't however have a lot of smell to them. Next time I might add some essential oils. I like the green tea leaves though, they have a very slight scrubbingness to them. Plus, without artificial smells they do have a nice naturalness to them. And they are pretty!

Go to my inspiration post to see their soap combinations!

I am going to add these to our mom's mothers day presents (more to share on those later). I hope they like them because more are coming at Christmas!