How to make handmade soap and other handcrafted bath products

Welcome To Our Blog

How Do I Make Soap is a blog dedicated to the art and craft of making soap. We explore all different types of soap making including melt and pour soap, cold process and hot process soap making. We occasionally feature other bath and body goodies like bath bombs and bath salts.

The How Do I Make Soap blog is written by Rachel Foster and Christine Rodriguez, the owners of Lather & Lotions, a soap making supply company. We love to make all types of soaps and sharing in the form of tutorials with our readers. We also give you tips on packaging,marketing and selling your bath goods.

We would love to hear from you so please feel free to comment or 99,111,110,116,97,99,116,32,117,115su tcatnoc. We wish you all Happy Soaping!
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02.07.12

Two Hearts Bath Melts Recipe

Two Hearts Valentine's Day Bath Melts

This week it’s all about love! How about making some super moisturizing bath melts shaped like hearts, for two of course. Slip one of these into your bath and it slowly melts and fizzes into a super rich moisturizing bath. These bath melts are very easy to make even for beginners. Made with the ingredients of both a bath bomb and bath melt it’s an extra dose of bath heaven. The dry ingredients really absorb the fragrance oil making your bath melts extra fragrant. When you are finished making these you can wrap them in a candy foil. If you are going to keep your heart bath melts longer than a few days I recommend putting them in the refrigerator to keep them nice and fresh. This recipe should make between 8-10 heart bath melts.

Two Hearts Bath Melt

YOU NEED:

DRY INGREDIENTS

2 cups of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda)

1 cup of citric acid

BUTTERS

1/4 cup of shea butter

1/4 cup of cocoa butter

RED COLORANT

1/4 OZ OF GINGER FRAGRANCE OIL

HEART SHAPED SILICONE GUEST MOLD

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Mix together the dry ingredients. Be sure to remove any lumps.

2. Using a double broiler or microwave,slowly melt together the two butters. DO NOT OVERHEAT. You can remove the butters from the heat with a few unmelted pieces in it and stir until fully melted, then add 6-7 drops of your red colorant and stir in.

3. Quickly add your fragrance oil to the dry ingredients and then mix in your melted butters.

4. After thoroughly mixing all your ingredients put them into the heart shaped mold.

5. Put into refrigerator and let cool for 4-5 hours.

6. Wrap in candy red foil

7. To use place into bath and slowly melt. Please be careful when getting out of tub, it will be slippery.

Wrap Your Melts in Red Foil

Happy Valentines Day!

Christine

heart soap

Tags: bath melts, tutorials, Valentines Day

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02.06.12

List of Free Valentine’s Day Printables

Here’s a list of FREE VALENTINE’S DAY PRINTABLE’S . Use them to tag your gifts, top your pink cupcakes, make some banners and of course tag your soaps and bath bombs with them! Please make sure you add a comment to their blog and website telling them you love their printable’s! Just click on the image and it will take directly to the free printable’s. Here we go!

1. Paola Photography A photographer designed a whole set of tags including cupcake toppers, a banner and gift tags.

From Paola Photography

2. From The Party Planning Center This set includes a template to make this really cute teacup and candy baskets. Very good instructions with lots of clear photos showing how to make the baskets. Lots of free printables on this site!

The Party Planning Center

3. From Party Box Design From a very talented graphic designer named Jess who states she could not resist her desire to conquer the event design world any longer, one little cupcake at a time! This is a whole set that includes a party favor box, tags and cupcake toppers!

4. From Love VS Design Wow! I love this website and the terrific blog. Love vs. Design offers modern vintage wedding stationery and cards. Their products are available in two different printing options to fit everyone’s budget: Digital Printing or DIY printing. You can change the color, font and size of your stationery order. They’re happy to help you every step of the way to make sure you get the exact look you are looking for. The designs are incredible. They are offering this cute Valentine’s Day coupon book.

From Love VS Design

5. From Dimple Prints Some really cute includes the Chevron LOVE sign in pink, red, and teal, as well as matching cupcake toppers and “I Love You” Chevron signs in red, pink, and teal also. All downloads are FREE and are a fun and easy way to do something special for your family on Valentine’s Day. You can download the printables below.

From Dimple Prints

6. From LOVE FROM THE OVEN A very impressive blog about baking. There is a whole section of free printables on this site. Most printables are related to food but she has a fun section of KITCHEN RULES.

Love From The Oven

7. How about a little gift giving? This is an adorable coupon book gift from MOMMY BY DAY CRAFTER BY NIGHT. She has Valentine’s Day Coupon’s for 14 days (or nights!) Lot’s of fun.

Book of Love Coupon Book

Have Fun Printing!
christine heart soap

Tags: download, free, gift tags, holiday, printables, valentine's day

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01.24.12

Lots of Love for Valentine Soap

What a collection of beautiful handmade soaps and bath bombs! I love, love,love them all! Each one is so unique and lovely just to look at. Thank you to each one of these talented artisans for letting me feature their wonderful bath products. Please visit their fabulous Etsy shops and see ALL the handmade goodies they carry!

1.SV SOAPS

Valentines Day Artisan Soap Gift Set

This is the perfect Valentines Day gift. All ready to give as a gift to that special someone. This set is wrapped in festive Valentine’s Day colored tulle and ribbon with a felt heart applique.This fantastic set includes 2 large 4.75-5 oz soaps…Each soap is individually labeled.

2. Sunday Morning Soaps

Valentine’s Day Soap Cupcake Vegan

For the love of your life, a calorie free way to say I love you, but you smell! Buyer will receive one VEGAN 5oz Valentine’s Day themed Cupcake in their choice of Color and Fragrance. (The Wrap, arrow picks and one felt doily are included)

3. Mile High Soap Works

Scalloped Heart Glycerin Soap

Scalloped heart shaped Valentine’s Day soap scented in Vanilla Frosting is rich and sweet smelling. Each soap weighs 3 oz and is layered with red, pink and white coloring. This soap is perfect for gift giving, or to keep all to yourself. Each soap will come in a zip-lock type re-sealable plastic bag.

4. Zen Zame

Valentine’s Day Gift Box – Handmade Soap / Lip Butter

This listing include Your choice of handmade soap and lip butter. This set comes in
a 3.5 x 3.5 inch box and is tied with a red ribbon. A beautiful Valentine gift for anyone.

5. Bondurant Mountain Art

Felted Soap Fine Merino Wool Sweethearts Valentine Gift Vanilla Bar

A sweet smelling bar of creamy vanilla soap hand felted with tiny pink and red hearts for your valentine. If you have not experienced felted soap then you are probably wondering why felt soap!
Felted soap is just wonderful! The wool is like a wonderful cocoon hand formed around the soap and after rubbing it under warm water it will produce a thick creamy lather. Use it like a built in wash cloth that gently exfoliates the skin. Perfect for just hand washing or in the bath!

6. Elegant Rose Boutique

Rose Heart Bath Bombs – Set of 3

hese beautiful heart shaped bath bombs are perfect for that special someone for Valentines Day and come scented in a wonderful rose scent. Each of my bath bombs contains moisturizing almond oil to keep skin silky smooth. This listing is for a package of 3 bath bombs, weighing at least 3.5 ounces each. If you would like more, let me know and I will set up a special listing for you. Each of my bath bombs comes wrapped in plastic or foil and packaged in a cello bag tied with ribbon. Ready to give as a gift to yourself or someone else!

7. Squeaky Clean Soap co

Tunnel of Love Ducky Soaps

These adorable tiny duckies are perched on top of a 3oz heart shaped cupcake soap. The perfect gift for adult or kiddo, make someone’s valentine special and squeaky clean wihtout the calories.
This listing is for one (1) Ducky Soap contain 3 oz of natural glycerin soap and measuring 2.75″x2.75″x1.25″ (soap only) scented with out new Cherry Blossom fragrance and lightly dusted with body glitter. Please specify red or pink soap or customize your own. Choose a fragrance from the list below and specify a color of soap and ducky in your order notes. We are happy to provide a custom tag as well for free. If ordering more than one, contact us for a custom listing.

8. Berwyn Bettys Bath Shop

BIG Valentines Day Bath Bomb with Necklace Inside

This listing is for 1 Big Vanilla Cake scented bath bomb.This bath bomb contains a little girl’s heart necklace inside! So…your princess throws one of these into the tub. It fizzes and foams for a few minutes releasing Vitamin E oil, grape seed oil, fragrance and color into the water. After all of the “fireworks” are over and the bomb has dissolved, there is a little necklace floating in the tub for her to discover! The bomb looks like a cupcake! I have drizzled glycerin soap “icing” and heart sprinkles on top. Looks good enough and smells yummy enough to eat!

Tags: Etsy, handcrafted soap, Valentines Day

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LisaJanuary 24, 2012 - 3:43 pm

How lovely! What a wonderful combinations of soaps!
Thanks for including my Felted soap in your blog!

01.16.12

Soap Making Book Review Make Your Own Soap

Soap Making Book Review. Are you interested in Making Cold Process Soap? Does it seem a bit intimidating you? Have you been making melt and pour soap for a while and are ready for something new? Then the book Make Your Own Soap Book is a great place to begin. Some books on soap making can be overwhelming. There is lots of information with many technical explanations(there is some chemistry involved when making soap which after a time is good to understand, it’s basic though). This is a smaller book at just 44pages but it is concise. The first fifteen pages reviews what equipment you’ll need, oils,additives (herbs and dried flowers),fragrances and colorants. The rest of the book is devoted to three soap recipes and the techniques needed to make the soaps. What’s nice about this book is that you don’t feel overwhelmed by too much information, there are lots of great photographs to help understand the process. Like I said before it is a perfect first book for beginners. There is also a quick troubleshooting guide at the end if you encounter any problems. Reading the troubleshooting guide before you begin to make your soap is a good idea. You know what you can expect before you start and perhaps avoid a problem.

I like the soap recipes in here too, they are natural and light without too much fuss. They make beautiful soaps that can be embellished like you see on the cover of the book. You can take any of the soap recipes in this book and add some pretty dried flowers on top to make a really pretty soap.

Tags: book review

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12.22.11

Some Christmas Soap

This Christmas has arrived so quickly! I, like most of you, have been very busy getting all of my cookies made,my gifts wrapped and of course getting our orders out the door! I’ve had lots of changes this year and the best one is that my daughter and I have become business partners. She is a joy to work with and is a super organizer so we work together very well. She moved here from Austin Texas with her significant other Skyler. Skyler is a talented music composer for film music and commercial music. He is the owner of Laguna Studios. You’ve probably heard his music somewhere! One thing Sklyer, Rachel and I enjoy doing together is MAKING SOAP and we made lots of soap gifts this past week Most of the handmade soaps we made were for my husbands staff. My husband is a physician and every year we make the nurses he works with lots of handmade soaps and serve them on trays like cookies (we bake them cookies too!)

I hope you too are getting all that you want done these last few days before Christmas. Remember, don’t stress out, have fun and remember the reason for the season!