Friday, February 5, 2010

Melt-and-Pour Valentine's Soap

Instead of giving chocolates to your love this Valentine's day, give soap! It kinda sounds like handing out toothbrushes on Halloween, but trust me, it's better. This project goes by much quicker than it looks because we are only pouring thin layers, so they harden up fast. You'll end up with a beautiful, complex looking soap that was actually really easy to make. To follow this tutorial, you will need to grab the following items:
Let's get started! First, you have to make some little red hearts to embed into the soap. I used the rubber heart mold and merlot mica for this step. You can scent them or not, since it's not the bulk of the end product, it won't make a difference if you leave them unscented. Let them harden up for about 10 minutes in the freezer.


We are starting with a thin, clear layer on the bottom of your mold which will act as a window to your embed, and it also holds your embed in place. I recommend adding just 1 ml of fragrance per layer. Spray both the layer and the heart generously with rubbing alcohol and place the heart face-down in the clear soap. It is best to do this when clear layer is sticky, but not totally hard.



Let that layer set up (which happens in the amount of time it takes to prepare your next layer), melt more soap and add violaceous violet mica and fuchsia glitter and 1 ml of fragrance. Spray before you pour!



Same idea for the next layer, but use titanium dioxide as the whitening agent to your clear soap. I recommend whitening a clear soap over using an opaque base because sometimes layers don't stick together that well when you use different types of bases. This white layer is going to make everything POP! Don't forget to fragrance and spray.




Finally, use black oxide to color the last layer; it creates a nice contrast and makes your soap look crisp and professional. Notice how thin the layers are.

Take the basic idea of this tutorial and run free with it-- play with different color combinations, fragrances, or even try different embeds. You'll love it!

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for the tutorial! These Valentine's soaps look really nice. :-)

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  2. The soaps do look great - and I love that you've done a step-by-step display of this at the store too. =)

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  3. Thanks!! Wonder Turtle Soaps, I took a look at your website and love the colors and designs of your soaps. Very inspiring!

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  4. Oh, wow! Thanks for the compliments! :-)

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  5. Can't tell how much of the items I need - both to order and to know how many ingredients will make. thanks

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