Want to start your soap making journey? You’ve come to the right place!
Melt and pour soap is the best way to start out in the soap making world! Especially, if you’re looking to change your commercial soap for a quick, simple and more natural soap!
Keep reading to learn what it is, our top tips and a beginner friendly recipe…
Contents
- What is Melt and Pour Soap?
- Why Make Melt and Pour Soap?
- What Drawbacks Are There?
- Melt and Pour Soap Making Tips
- Easy Melt and Pour Soap Recipe
- How To Make Your Own Recipe
- Final Thoughts
What is Melt and Pour Soap?
Melt and pour soap is what you make when you combine a premade soap base, essential oils and natural colourants. All you need to do is melt the soap base, add the fragrance and colour and let the soap set!
Melt and pour soap making does not involve handling sodium hydroxide directly, as it is already in the soap base and fully saponified. In short, it’s not hazardous anymore!
Soap Making Safety
Melt and pour soap making may not require handling sodium hydroxide directly, but there are still some things to be aware of from a safety point of view.
When heating the soap, you may be working with boiling water so it is essential to proceed with caution here. When removing the soap base from the heat or microwave the soap will be very hot, so use a tea towel or oven gloves to protect your hands from the heat.
Essential oils can cause sensitivity, inflammation and irritation if applied directly to the skin. They are safe for skin once diluted within the soap, however they must be within the recommended usage rates. When handling essential oils, we recommend wearing gloves. If you get an essential oil on your skin, make sure to wash it off straight away. For more information on essential oils for soap making, click here.
Why Make Melt and Pour Soap?
If you are a complete beginner to soap making, this is the method for you.
Melt and pour soap is the easiest soap to make and is less hazardous than other soap making methods!
It is also great fun to make at home and as homemade gifts for friends and family!
Melt and pour soaps are a great more natural alternative to commercial soaps. Not only do the melt and pour soap bases contain natural oils within their ingredients, they also contain a lot less ingredients than commercial soap bars.
Some of the melt and pour soap bases are also specifically designed to be gentle on the skin and suitable for sensitive skin types!
Melt and pour soaps are a great way to dip your toe into designing colourful soaps, without having to make more complicated cold process soaps.
What Drawbacks Are There?
Melt and pour soap is not as customisable as other forms of soap making. You can choose which fragrance oils or essential oils to add for your preferred scent. You can also adjust the colour of the soap, but that is it.
This soap method cannot be customised with ingredients like carrier oils, solid oils or other ingredients.
Melt and pour soap may be a great natural alternative to commercial soaps, however it is not the most natural way to make soap.
Melt and Pour Soap Making Tips
At The Soapery, we’ve made many melt and pour soaps and there are a few things we think you should know before you start!
Equipment
The key thing to consider when making soap is using equipment that is new and not used for food! Soap making ingredients can leave residue on the equipment even after washing it up. So don’t use your cooking spoons and bowls for soap making and vice versa.
So what equipment will you need?
- Digital scales
- Mixing spoon or spatula
- Soap mould or DIY alternative
- Microwave safe bowl
- Plastic measuring cup
- Disposable gloves
It may also be worth investing in high quality, accurate weighing scales when making soap, as normal scales are usually not as accurate.
Just before you start making your soap, we highly recommend getting all of your ingredients and equipment ready to go. Once you melt the soap base, it can re-solidify fairly quickly so it is best to be ready for the next steps.
Heating The Soap Base
When heating the melt and pour soap base, you need to ensure the soap has been prepared properly. The soap needs to be cut up into small cubes to help the base melt quickly.
However, as you melt the soap, you will notice the cubes stick together. This is going to form one big block which will mean it will take longer to melt and you risk overheating the soap base. To resolve this, carefully break it back up into small pieces with a spoon, knife or spatula.
As you heat the melt and pour soap base, it is important not to boil it. You are simply melting the base, so if it starts boiling or overheats, it will solidify very quickly and be difficult to work with.
However, if the soap does solidify before you can pour it into a mould, just gently reheat it.
Soap Sweating
Once your soap has been made, it may start to feel wet or look like it is ‘sweating’. Soap sweating is when droplets of water appear on the surface of the finished soap bar.
This happens because some of the ingredients attract moisture from the air causing droplets of water to form on the surface of the soap.
You can prevent the soap from sweating by wrapping the soap in clingfilm or storing it in a tub. This helps keep it away from moisture in the air that causes the soap to sweat.
Easy Melt and Pour Soap Recipe
Ingredients:
- White melt and pour soap base 1kg
- Orange essential oil 27g | 30ml
- Orange burst mica powder 10g
Method:
1. Cut the melt and pour soap base
- Take the block of melt and pour soap base out of the tub and cut it up into small 1cm cubes.
- Place your cubes into a heatproof bowl
2. Melt the soap base
- Melt the soap base in a bowl over boiling water, a double boiler or in a microwave in short bursts.
- Gently stir the soap mixture as you heat it.
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When the cubes start to melt together, separate them with a spoon or knife
3. Add the essential oils and colour
- Weigh the essential oils and mica powder in a separate bowl.
- Add them to the melted soap base and mix together until everything has fully combined.
4. Pour the soap into your mould
- Once everything has been mixed together, pour the melted soap mixture into your soap mould.
- If there are air bubbles on the surface, you can spray it with isopropyl alcohol to remove the bubbles.
- Leave the soap to set for about 6 hours, until it is fully set.
- Now your soap bar is ready to use!
How To Make Your Own Recipe
Once you've mastered this simple recipe, you can explore our wide variety of melt and pour soap making recipes!
Want to take it a step further? Why not try to make your own unique recipe?
Let’s start from the beginning…
1. Choose a soap base
First, choose a melt and pour soap base from our wide range. It includes soap bases for sensitive skin like goats milk soap base, traditional style soaps like african black soap base and super nourishing soaps like shea soap base.
2. Choose a mica powder colour
Once you’ve chosen your soap base, pick any colour from our mica powder range. Add the mica powder in small amounts until you create the colour you want.
It is important to note, the colour will dilute if added to a white soap base! If you're looking for a vibrant colour use our clear soap base. The only soap base you won’t be able to change the colour of is the african black mica powder as it is naturally brown!
3. Choose your essential oils
Finally, add your essential oils. The key thing with essential oils is to not add too much!
Every essential oil has maximum safe usage rates that can be found on an IFRA document. When looking at the IFRA for your essential oil, look for category 9 (this is for soap products) and check the usage rate percentage.
We recommend not adding above 3% - 5% of essential oil to your soap base. Even if the IFRA says you can add more than this, you don’t need to as it’s unnecessary.
You must never go over the IFRA amount, as adding too much essential oil can become unsafe!
Here are some examples:
Final Thoughts
It’s time to jump into soap making!
Don’t be afraid to mess up, we’ve all had to start from the beginning so mistakes are bound to happen. But that's how you learn!
Ready to try a cold process soap or hot process soap? Check our our complete beginner guides:
Continue Reading
Now you know how to make melt and pour soap, why not learn how to make other cosmetics?
- Want to try more cold process soap making? Try our honey soap recipe here!
- Want to make soap with shea butter? Try this simple soap recipe using natural shea butter!
- Love melt and pour soap making? Try our argan soap recipe!
How did your handmade melt and pour soap turn out? Comment below and let us know!
