How to Make Melt and Mold Soap

Making your own bars of soap at home is surprisingly easy.  Even more surprising, it is just as easy to mold your soap into just about any form and with any color or fragrance you can think of.  Using a variety of oils and additives, there is really no limit to the number of different varieties of soap available to you.

• The first thing you will need to make your own homemade soaps is...soap.  Melt and mold soap base, to be exact.  You can get a number of different varieties, from glycerine to goat's milk and more.  The exact variety you use does not matter, as the procedure is the same.

• The next thing that you will need is something to pour the soap into, a mold of some type.  There are hundreds of different soap molds on the market, but you shouldn't consider yourself limited to actual soap molds.  You can use just about any container that can withstand the heat of melted soap.

• The last thing you'll need, and this is entirely optional, is a selection of additives for your soap.  This can include colorants, fragrance oils, or other additions such as oatmeal.  This is where you can really let your creativity shine through and have some real fun.

1. Begin by cubing up the soap base.  Make sure you measure out the amount that you will need beforehand so you do not have any left over.  If you do have leftover soap, just mold it in another container and save it for next time.  You can re-melt the soap as many times as you like, but keep in mind that this soap will already be scented.
2. Place your cubed soap base in a heat-resistant glass container and melt in the microwave on intervals of 30 seconds.  You want to keep the intervals small to avoid overheating the soap and causing it to boil over.
3. Once the soap has melted, gently stir in your choice of additives.  Use them sparingly, as it really doesn't take much for its effects to be strongly felt in the finished soap.  Be sure to stir gently to avoid working the soap into a lather.
4. Once your soap is mixed, pour it into the chosen molds and allow it to cool for 3-4 hours before you attempt to remove it from the molds.  You can place the mold on a cooling rack to help it cool more evenly.
5. Remove the finished bars from the molds and your soap is done.  If the soap doesn't want to let go of the mold, simply place the mold in the freezer for 30 minutes and it should release easily.

• Melt and mold soap base is already cured, so it is ready to use as soon as it has fully hardened.
• Wrap any extra bars you make in plastic to keep them from losing their fragrance over time.

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