Scented Soaps
Wouldn’t it be lovely to hand out scented soaps as giveaways? How about making your own scented soaps for the holidays? It’s always fulfilling to give something that you’ve put effort in. You can do that with all the soap kits and supplies available in the market today. You can find cubes of glycerin soaps from crafts shops or companies selling soap supplies. What’s great about this is you avoid inhaling lye by skipping the process of making scented soaps from scratch. Now it’s time to start making your scented soaps.
Prepare a cutting board and a sharp knife. Cut the glycerin into small cubes to make the melting process faster. Now, prepare a double boiler over simmering water. Place the soap cubes on the top and cover until it melts into liquid. You may also use microwave to melt the cubes. Just put the cubes in a glass bowl covered with a paper towel heating every 15 seconds and then stirring after every interval.
Once melted, let it cool a bit while stirring until it reads 120 F on a candy thermometer. Now, it’s time to add colors and essential oils. You can use various types of essential oils to add fragrance or properties like rosewood to uplift or tangerine to invigorate. To make the scented soaps you like, just choose the scent from a number of essential oils and add a few drops until you’re desired scent and color comes out of the soap. If you want a tinted soap, cinnamon, cocoa, or curry can be used. In fact, you can also add dried herbs or rolled oats and even ground almonds to add texture. How about adding fruit slices or flowers into the mold before pouring the soap?
Use a flexible plastic mold for the scented soaps and let stand for around 40 minutes. Remove it from the mold and wrap in plastic. You can also wrap them in fancy ribbons or raffia to make a great gift.