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source: Mandi Ehman

101 Days of Christmas: Homemade Soap

Homemade Soap

I’ve always wanted to make homemade soap, but I’m intimidated by the directions for making soap from scratch because it involves lye and comes with all kinds of safety warnings. I’m a little too scattered in the kitchen — with kids running in and out and multiple projects going at once — to trust myself to do that safely!

Instead, I decided to get started with a store-bought soap base, and this process is really easy.

Supplies:

  • soap base or white Ivory soap
  • soap fragrance or essential oils
  • colloidal oatmeal (optional)
  • soap dye (optional)
  • soap molds

**use one part of oatmeal for every two parts of soap

Directions:

If using a prepackaged soap base, start by weighing or guestimating the amount of soap you’ll need. (I don’t have a kitchen scale, so I just eyeballed it, using approximately 1 cup of soap and 1/2 cup of colloidal oatmeal to make three regular-size bars.) Cut the soap into chunks and add to a double boiler or microwaveable dish.

If using Ivory soap, grate the soap into a double boiler or microwaveable dish.

Melt slowly, stirring regularly, until the soap is completely melted.

Once the soap is melted, add fragrance or essential oils, a few drops at a time until your desired scent is reached. Add soap dye a few drops at a time for colored soap.

For oatmeal soap, you can purchase colloidal oatmeal at a pharmacy, but it’s easy enough to make on your own, especially if you already have oatmeal on hand. Simply add regular oatmeal to a blender or food processor and process until it is a fine powder.

Gently add the oatmeal to the melted soap, stirring smoothly to avoid bubbles.

Once all of your ingredients have been combined, gently pour the soap mixture into soap molds. Let harden for at least an hour before removing from molds.

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