Tuesday 18 January 2011

Making Soap


Hi everyone, hope you are all having a fantastic week.  Just wanted to give a virtual wave to all my new followers, hello and welcome :-)  Also a virtual hug to all my loyal followers :-)

Annie over at The Felt Fairy is having a Monthly Make challenge, here is my January make :-)

This weekend I had a very rare 2 hours to myself and I just knew I really wanted to try out this soap making kit that I bought in the middle of last year.  I have been wanting to try it out for ages but it has just been moved around the house as I never seemed to find the time to try it out.


This kit had everything I needed to try out soap making.  It had two moulds, lavender scent, colouring and some M&P (melt and pour) base (the big clear block you can see in the photo).


To start you have to take your M&P soap base ....

 

and grate it up or cut it into small chunks.  I quite enjoyed grating it so went with that method, just look at those cute curls :-)


I then popped this into a bowl that was sitting in a big pan of hot water to melt it down.  This didn't work too well for me as as soon as some melted it seemed to reset again when I stirred it.  I decided to change tactic and pop it in the microwave for 10 seconds and then a further 10 seconds until it melted.  That seemed to do the trick so I then mixed in the colour and scent, it sets really quickly so I had to re-melt it slightly before pouring it into the mould.

Thinking about it I think a little water got into the mixture on my first attempts to melt the M&P so I am not sure if that is what was making it set quickly - can any soap experts out there shed any light on that for me?

So here are the finished soaps, they smell lovely and I am pretty happy with the results :-)



the only shame is that I had all this left over M&P as my moulds were full but it made a lovely snowball looking soap lol :-)  I may be able to melt it down again and use my moulds for that.


I really enjoyed trying out soap making and am now going to buy some more M&P and experiment a bit :-)  I do love kits like this that ease you into a new craft which can seem quite scary to start with.

If you want to try this yourself you can buy M&P off e-bay at a good price, then you need to add a scent (the M&P has a slight scent of ammonia so you really do need a scent) and a colouring.  Give it a go, it is great fun and very satisfying :-)

27 comments:

  1. Fabulous soaps! I may get one to do, bet they smell lovely as well

    xx

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  2. melt and pour soap is really good fun. We sell the base in opaque and clear, regular and sls free (on ebay and on our website - it's cheaper on our website though).

    I melt mine in the microwave and normally enough to do several large soaps at a time.

    It does start to set quickly and forms a skin inside seconds really. You can generally remove from the moulds after about 30 mins - though I leave longer when I have time

    You will be able to melt and re-pour your ball, but you may require a few drops of water as reheating seems to make it more rubbery. You'll know what I mean after you try....

    HTH

    Wrap in clingfilm

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  3. They are gorgeous, I would really love to try to make soap and looking at your post you may have just given me the oomph to have a go!!! Thanks xx PS I also nominated you for stylish blogger award as I love your blog!!! xx

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  4. I've been wondering about trying soap. But looking at this couldn't you just cut the block into smaller ones and use that, no need for all the melting fandango? Ha ha!!

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  5. What fun to make your own soaps; they turned out very pretty.

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  6. wow, something I have never attemped...results look great.

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  7. I would love to make soap, but some of the ingredients sound a bit scarey - there used to be good instructions on Moneysavingexpert website. xxx

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  8. Those look really good ~ well done :0)

    I would like to have a go at soap making, I wanted to try it after watching Kirstie's homemade christmas ~ but I ran out of time!
    Maybe one of these M&P sets would be the way to go. x

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  9. I would love to try soap making (and candle making for that matter!) - yours turned out really well, I especially like the 'handmade' one! xx

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  10. I am reminded of how we used to save all the scraps from pieces of soap in a jar and add some water and get a sort of softish playdough type mixture which could be formed into new soaps and dried out before use - trouble is it takes ages to save enough soap slivers and yours looks so nice too!

    Jane

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  11. I meant to have a go at this with the kids over Christmas but the best laid plans and all that.

    It does look like fun!

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  12. I really want to make some soap now! And I especially love the one with the words 'hand made' on, just gorgeous! Thanks for an inspiring post. Helen x

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  13. Lovely soaps, especially like the handmade mold.

    x

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  14. Wow! What a great make! I love how you took us through the stages as I know nothing about soap making! How fab is the square 'handmade' mould!

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  15. I have quite fancied giving this a go ever since I saw Kirsty make her own soap on her Homemade Christmas show. I think these kits will be added to my Christmas list for this year!

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  16. Your soaps look lovely. I think kits are great for starting you off on a new hobby.

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  17. That does look nice. Is this going to be a new direction or a one off?

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  18. you are so right they do look fab, prehaps i shall go and see what i can find on ebay x x well done you xx

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  19. Did you ever see the episode with kirstie Allsopp making Homemade Soap? She made it look so easy, and it is something I had thought of. I think I may have to invest in one of these kits though, your finished creations look great. I look forward to seeing some more of these from you soon :) xxx

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  20. I would love to come and touch and smell your soaps, lol. I love the hand made one!

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  21. hi sweetie ! its been so long since my last visit, so sorry. thanks for dropping by, it is always so nice to hear from you. hope all your sweetpeas are doing well. making sopa must be such great fun, and having a few hours to yourself, what a bliss !

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  22. the Kirstie Allsop one is making cold process soap - where you mix the oils and lye to trace. Needs caustic soda and stuff. Try Youtube - loads of interesting videos on there to get started if you want to try makin from scratch.

    Since you like roses - you might also like the soap bouquet project I blogged about last Spring : http://siliconemoulds.blogspot.com/2010/03/soap-bouquets.html

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  23. looks fab! well done. I love the handmade mould. Or is that mold. you could do face butters in that too. i have just been using bun tins. is this the begining of a new craft obsession?! And btw, your header looks fab. How did you do it? Have allotment tunnel envy! x Jacs x

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  24. Your soaps look lovely - it does look fun!

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  25. Looks fun!!! They look great! You could use silicone baking cases to make smaller, soap tarts!

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  26. I came over from the Felt fairy to check out your make - and it made me smile! My daughter was given this kit for Christmas and she brought it out this afternoon so that we could make a start! Lovely - I can smell it from here. Literally.

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Thank you for spending the time leaving a comment, it really does make me smile :-)