Making My Own Soap- It's Easier Than You Think

I have made a few batches of soap.  It's so easy, that my first batch turned out great.  The batch pictured here is a lemongrass soap with lemon peel exfoliate.  If you don't have lemongrass essential oil that's ok.  You could use any essential oil or if you don't have essential oils you could use honey, although I have used honey before (with an oatmeal exfoliate) and the smell was not that strong.  I love the smell of essential oils and if you like the smell strong you can add more drops or less if you want a subtle smell.

Here are the things you will need:

1.  A soap mold.  I used one large one so I could cut the soaps myself.  You could buy molds that doesn't require you to cut them yourself.

2.  If you are using a soap mold like mine, you will need something to cut the soap into individual soaps.

3.  A soap base.  I used a goats milk soap base.  What's nice about this soap base is it's easy to use and doesn't require any lye.

4.  A scent for your soap.  I used 20 drops of lemongrass essential oil (it's my favorite scent right now) and some lemon peel.

 First Step- Melt your base.  Cut the base into cubes and put them into a glass bowl.  Microwave the cubes in about 15 second increments until the base is completely melted and looks like the picture below.  For me, as soon as I noticed that there was some melted base at the bottom of the bowl I would stir continuously to get the rest of the cubes melted.  I would continue to microwave and stir until everything was melted.  Be careful not to burn the base.

2.  Because I used lemon peel, I sprinkled some at the bottom of my mold.  If you don't have lemon peel that's ok.  Some other ideas to use are oatmeal (pulse it in a blender), coffee, or dried herbs).  Of course you can choose to not use anything too.

3.  Pour the soap base into the mold.  I decided to pour a some more lemon peel on top. :)

4.  Let it rest for 24 hours.  After 24 hours you can peel the mold away from the soap and cut the soap into individual soaps.  You should let the soap continue to rest so it has a chance to cure.  This could take up to two weeks and will result in a longer lasting soap.