CraftsHoliday
Written By Kayla Lobermeier
Handmade gifting season is upon us! I love sharing beautiful yet easy holiday gifts to share with loved ones this time of year, especially if you are not always the best at planning far ahead. Handmade gifting can be so special and often save on some costs. It is also a wonderful way to spend your winter evenings, if I do say so myself. I always receiving a handmade gift from someone, and I often treasure it more than anything someone could have purchased for me.
If you are looking for the perfect neutral and easy-to-make gift for someone special, then you will love this super simple soap recipe! This soap uses a melt and pour soap base, which makes soap-making incredibly easy to do. You can customize your soap bar into anything that you like, and if you have certain ingredients that you would like to keep out of your soap, you can generally find a soap base that works for your needs. In this case, we used an organic goat’s milk soap base to create a rich and creamy final soap! Mixed with oatmeal, chamomile, honey, and the scent of sweet almonds this makes a perfect warm and cozy scent combination!
the method:
To use melt and pour soap, the method is rather straightforward. Just melt down the soap base and pour it into your mold! There is no cold processing where you use lye. This makes soap making extremely easy for anyone to do, and it saves quite a bit of time and money, too. Of course, if you are trying to avoid certain ingredients in your soap base, then you may want to give cold process soap making a try to control everything going into your final product! This is an art form that we have yet to try!
There are a lot of great soap bases on the market, and you can even find them at places like Hobby Lobby or Michaels now. We like to use this soap base on Amazon.
When it comes to mix-ins, there is not really a lot that you can do to go wrong! You can add in shea butter, cocoa butter, oils, fragrances, and or any dried ingredients that you prefer. There are a few simple rules to follow when it comes to adding in mix-ins to your soap:
Add in cosmetic butters and carrier oils (olive oil, tallow, jojoba oil, almond oil, etc) when you melt down the soap or immediately after.
Add in dried herbs or flowers and essential oils or fragrance oils when the soap reaches 110° F. This is the best time to add in these ingredients as the soap will hold onto the scent better and more evenly disperse the dried ingredients.
Does making your own soap really save you money? Obviously, it is going to depend on where you live and the quality of the soap that you are making or purchasing. For us, we find that this saves us quite a bit, and we just make all of our own soap at home now! For instance, a high quality bar of soap that weighs 8 oz or 0.5 lb can cost anywhere from $8.00 to $15.00 USD. To create this soap recipe with the base alone, it comes out to cost around $3.15 per 0.5 lb bar, plus the cost of mix-ins. Again, this is going to depend entirely upon a lot of different factors so do your research!
Either way, it makes for a fun little gift to give! You know that your grandma will be impressed with your soap making skills this Christmas! (:
xoxo Kayla
Oatmeal & Honey Goat's Milk Soap
Yield: 6 bars
Author: Kayla Lobermeier
Prep time: 30 MinCook time: 10 MinInactive time: 36 HourTotal time: 36 H & 40 M
Ingredients
Supplies
- Double boiler, for soap making only
- Food processor or blender
- 8x8-inch baking pan
- Sharp knife
- Brown paper packaging/scrapbook pages
- Ribbon
- Rosemary or evergreen sprigs
Ingredients
- 3 lbs goat's milk melt and pour soap base
- 1/4 cup rolled oats, plus more for topping
- 1/4 cup dried chamomile, plus more for topping
- 2 tbsp raw honey
- 1.5 fl oz sweet almond essential oil
Instructions
- In a double boiler used only for soap making, melt the soap base on the stovetop over low heat. You can also microwave it in a microwave safe dish, used only for soap making.
- In a blender or food processor, pulse together the oats and dried chamomile, reserving about 2 tbsp of each for pressing into the top of the soap.
- Remove the soap from heat and let it cool to 110° F. Mix the pulsed oats and chamomile into the melted soap along with the honey and essential oil.
- Slowly pour the soap into the 8x8-inch baking dish. There is no need to grease or line with parchment.
- Once the soap has cooled slightly, press the oatmeal and chamomile into the top layer. They should float on the top of the soap. Be careful to not let it harden too much, or else the topping will not stick.
- Allow the soap to harden and cure for 8-12 hours.
- Remove the soap from the mold by running a sharp knife along the edge of the pan. If you are having trouble releasing the soap from the pan, stick it in the freezer for about 20 minutes and try knocking it against the countertop. Slice the soap into 6 rectangular bars and bevel the edges, if desired.
- Let the soap cure for a full 24 hours before using. You may want to try wrapping it with some brown paper, a ribbon, and topping with a sprig of fresh rosemary or evergreens to gift!
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Kayla Lobermeier
Kayla Lobermeier is an author, blogger, recipe developer, photographer, homesteader, and co-owner of the brandUnder A Tin Roofwith her mother, Jill Haupt. She lives in rural Iowa with her husband, children, and parents on their multi-generational family farm.Under A Tin Roofis a small flower farm and online lifestyle company focused on sharing the joy of seasonal, slow living with others who enjoy gardening, preserving, and cooking with wholesome ingredients. Kayla has been sharing her family’s journey into a simpler and sustainable lifestyle for almost a decade,andshehas been featured in publications such asWillow and Sage Magazine, Where Women Cook, Heirloom Gardener, Folk Magazine, In Her Garden, Beekman 1802 Almanac,andGardenista.She has taught cooking and gardening lessons through Kirkwood Community College andhashosted farm-to-table suppers at her family farm. You can usually find her sipping on a hot cup of coffee, reading up on the domestic lives of the Victorians, and snuggling with barn cats. Visit Kayla atwww.underatinroof.comor on Instagram and YouTube @underatinroof.
