For all things candle and home fragrance making!
Beginners Guide To Melt And Pour Soap Making
Spruce up your bath time with a homemade bar of soap in a scent of your choice!
Before beginning your soap making, please familiarise yourself with the fragrance oil chemicals & hazards, & wear the appropriate PPE (ie apron, goggles, gas mask, gloves) as stated on the Safety Data Sheet.
What you will need:
Clear Soap Base/Opaque Soap Base
Fragrance Oils
Water-based colors (Clear)/ Pigment colours (Opaque)
Soap mould
Butters (optional)
Head over to our sister company The Soap Kitchen for an extensive range of soap making ingredients!
- Melting your soap base
Melt your soap base using either a microwave for small quantities, or a slow cooker/hob for larger amounts. We would recommend cutting the base into small chunks and heat until melting point, do not overheat your soap base, keep below 70° C. If you are adding butters to your soap base, be sure to also melt them. We would recommend using a microwave and keep below 60° C. - Prepare your additives
We recommend for every 1KG of soap base, use up to 15ml of fragrance, up to 15ml of oil or molten butter. Too much of these ingredients can adversely affect the transparency of the soap bar. - Colour your soap.
Remember to use water-based colours for clear soap bases, and pigments for opaque soap bases. Uses up to 10ml of the appropriate colourant per 1KG of soap base, don’t be tempted to add too much colourant because it can cause the lather to be over coloured and can look unappealing. If using mica colour powder – we normally recommend up to 5% when in ratio with your soap. More mica will give a deeper colour to your soap but could discolour your bath/shower/body if you use too much.Once you have added all the ingredients stir thoroughly, make sure it is mixed evenly. At any point throughout the process a skin begins to form on top of the soap, this is the soap setting; you can reheat & continue the process at any time.
- Pouring
Once you are happy with your soap mix, pour carefully into your mould and wait for your soaps to set. If you are using different colours in one bar, you will need to wait for the first layer to fully set before pouring your second.To speed up the process, place the moulds in the fridge, this should take around 30 minutes. Once set properly, the soaps should pop out of the moulds with ease, if you cannot pop the soaps out, they may need more setting time.
- Re-pouring
If you are using 2 different colours, now is the time to melt & pour your second colour (when the first layer is completely set). Wait until your second layer is completely set before attempting to remove your soaps from the mould. - Removing from the moulds
If you find your soaps are difficult to remove from the moulds, you might want to pop them in the fridge to ease the removal.You should now have 6 soaps to enjoy!
We’d love to see your work!
Once you’ve made your soap, take a picture and share your work on Instagram or Facebook and tag us!
Leave a comment