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Friday, February 5, 2021

Making Heart-Shaped Soaps


Hi, friends! More Valentine's stuff today.

So, you saw I was cleaning up my heart-shaped cookie cutter. You rightly guessed that I'd be using that cutter this next week.

Well, these are what I made with the cutter -- heart-shaped soaps to give as a gift to my son and daughter-in-law for a small Valentine's gift (they don't read my blog, so I think it's safe to reveal this here). 

Earlier this week, I mentioned that I need to work with what I have on hand. I can't run out to the mall to pick up a small gift or even go browse Michael's or other stores for supplies to make something.


In "shopping" my craft cupboard, this is what I came up with. I have a small amount of melt and pour soap base, soap coloring, peach soap scent, and this heart-shaped cookie cutter. I found a sturdy lid to a small box to use as a form in which to pour the melted, dyed, and fragranced soap.


I lined the box with plastic wrap and got to mixing and melting my ingredients. 


Once the soap had hardened for a couple of hours, I popped it out of the lined box onto a sheet of waxed paper. I used the cookie cutter to cut heart-shaped soaps out of the rectangle, pressing firmly, straight down in order to get as good of a heart as possible.


After the soaps sat for a day, I smoothed the corners with a rag to finish them.


I wrapped the soaps in a plastic treat bag then boxed them up.


With cut-out soaps, there are leftover scraps. I remelted those scraps and poured it all into a small, round plastic container (saved from an individual serving cup of applesauce). 


This circular soap is now our kitchen hand soap. Good timing, too, as we were just about to finish the last bar of hand soap. (We keep both liquid soap and bar soap at the sink, as some of us prefer one over another.)

Before I tried this technique, I wasn't sure how it would all turn out. A couple of tips:

  • I think you could make other shapes of soaps using this technique. The caution would be to use simple shapes (as opposed to very intricate ones). 
  • use a cutter that is still in very good condition with tightly welded seams 
  • don't use a vintage cutter or one that has a lot of sentimental value, as cutting through soap could cause a split in the seam on an older and very well-used cutter. (In contrast cutting dough is a much gentler operation.) My cookie cutter, as old and well-used as it is, survived the soap-cutting. But I could see how the welded seam was a tiny bit stressed. (Some soap was pressed under a corner of the welding.)  
  • limit the depth of the soap block to 3/4-inch for easier cutting of the soap


I like how these soaps turned out, and I think my son and daughter-in-law will be pleased with this gift. 



8 comments:

  1. That will be a fun surprise for your son and daughter-in-law. With your sensitive skin, how do the melt and pour soaps work for you? There are a lot of soaps that are too harsh for me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Live and Learn,
      That's a good question. The melt and pour soap base that I used is a goats milk and glycerin base, making it gentle on skin. I've only use this soap on my hands, and it is about as gentle as commercial gentle bar soaps. I can't use commercial liquid soaps because they're too drying. But bar soap that is gentle is okay for me. Still, I have to use cream or oil (crisco) on my hands after washing every time. But no rashes from this goats milk melt and pour soap. I would suggest, though, if you know what irritants are most bothersome for your skin (like sodium laurel sulfate or parabens), then check the ingredients on different brands. These melt and pour soap bases list their ingredients just like commercial bar soap.

      Delete
  2. The mystery is revealed! You are the queen of creating and packaging beautiful gifts. Even the applesauce-container-soap is pretty.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Kris. I like how they turned out. And i do like how the applesauce container soap looks. I'm going to remember to save applesauce containers in the future to use as soap molds. They're just the right size for hand soap.

      Delete
  3. What a cute idea! Thanks for posting this. Very pretty and a perfect gift.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Nancy. I'm glad you like these!

      Delete
  4. Such pretty soaps and an attractive presentation! You are the best at not only making gifts but in styling them as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Lynn! I enjoyed making these soaps and was thrilled that they turned out nicely.

      Delete

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