Choosing the right soap mold can make all the difference in your finished product. When I first started making soap, I did what most people do. I bought a ten inch wooden box mold with a silicone liner. The kit came with a straight and wavy stainless steel cutter and I was ready to take on the world! From there it was a never-ending decision process of “what cute mold can I buy next?” This was becoming an expensive habit.
One day it occurred to me that I was surrounded by cheap and free soap molds every day. Sometimes it was Dollar Store picks. More often, things I noticed in my recycle bin jumped out at me. I went from having to budget my soap mold purchases to being overwhelmed with options ripe for the picking.
Following are some of my favorite molds and places to find them.
| Mold | Where to Find It | Cost |
| Silicone ice cube trays | Dollar Store | $1 |
| Pringles cans/Oatmeal cans | Pantry/Recycle Bin | $0 |
| Candy molds | Craft Stores | $2 to $4 |
| Any small box | Old Packaging, Dollar Store | $0 to $1 |
| Plastic Pipe | Home Supply Store | $1 to $2 per foot |
| Milk Cartons | Recycle Bin | $0 |
Cheap Soap Mold Liners
As you can imagine, some of these molds will need to be lined. Don’t worry. No expensive silicone linings needed. Here are some items you might already have in the house that are ideal for lining soap molds.
Plastic Trash Bag Liners
If you are using a wooden or cardboard box as a mold, wastebasket and trash barrel liners make excellent mold liners. The trick is to get the thinnest cheapest bags you can. This is not just about saving money. The thinner material tends to crease better on sharp corners and reduces wrinkle marks in the final product.
These typically work best for me in shallow molds that are long and wide. For example, I have a couple wooden memory keeper type boxes that I got from Michael’s Crafts Store years ago. The box itself is about 8” x 13” X 4” high. The wooden cover is also a nice mold at just a touch longer and wider and 2.5” deep.
I bought a box of medium size wastebasket liners at Dollar Tree. I cut these at the sides to make it twice as wide. For these wooden boxes I also cut the liner in half. Then I lay the plastic in the box and use my fingernails or a spatula to crease the corners. Next just pour in the soap!
This does take some practice. I had little wrinkles along the edges of my loaves and slabs before I really got the hang of it.
Insider Tip: I sometimes intentionally include pronounced wrinkles as part of the design in my rustic soap bars. I use a long, narrow mold (one bar wide) to maximize eth effect and make sure the wrinkles and ridges appear on both sides.
Wax Paper/Parchment Paper
Parchment paper and wax paper make great liners for box molds and cylinder molds such as Pringles cans and plastic pipe. It allows for crisp clean corners and can be secured in place with a few strips of cellophane tape (on the outside of the mold).
Insider Tip: Buy the paper in rolls so it is smooth when used as a liner. Parchment paper also comes in folded sheets that are pre-sized for cookie sheets. The creases from folding are very pronounced and will leave lines in your cast soap.
Thin Plastic Sheets
Non-toxic thin plastic sheets work very well in cylinder molds. They can also be cut to size and formed to line the inside of any rectangular or odd shaped container – usually by taping the outside seams.
I have used overhead projector transparency film and even cut out the large sections of the HDPE plastic containers my lettuce comes in for rigid box molds. One of my favorite items however is plastic cutting mats from Dollar Tree. They are thick, flexible, food-safe and come two to a pack.
Insider Tip: Try to use a strong semi-rigid plastic such as cutting mats when lining cylinder molds. By letting the liners stick over the top of the mold a couple inches, it gives you something easy to hold on to and push or pull the soap from the mold.
Free Soap Molds
Pringles Cans (full size) and Oatmeal Containers
Full size pringles cans have a top opening of just over 3” in diameter. Most oatmeal containers have an opening between 3.5” and 4”. Any of these are great for making soap. Large opening oatmeal tubes are a nice size for larger men’s bar soap while the Pringles and smaller oatmeal boxes are ideal bar sizes for hand soap and body bars for the household.
As mentioned in the liners section, if you have a sheet of sturdy plastic that ca be rolled into a tube this makes a wonderful liner for cylinders.
Small Boxes
Anything from a shoebox for making triple-wide soap slabs to tall octagon shaped gift boxes can make fun soap molds. Just be sure to line them with wax paper of plastic wastepaper basket liners.
By the way, you are not limited to cardboard here. There are a lot of fun shaped tins that make fantastic soap molds. I have found everything from racecars to star shaped tins. An absolute favorite of mine is the tall tins that contain cookies or candy. I will buy tins of “Pirouline” cookies from Dollar Tree just for the tins. Of course, I eat the cookies since they taste amazing!
Insider Tip: When working with thinner cardboard, consider using tape to reinforce the sidewalls of boxes so they don’t bow out.
Milk Cartons
Regular cardboard milk or juice cartons can help you create perfect soap “logs.”
If you are not yet familiar with them, a log is a long thick block of soap that can be “split” into different thicknesses. These long slabs are then cut into bars.
Using a milk carton is a cheap and fast way to get a symmetrical cube of soap in a single pour of a full batch. Just be sure to use plenty of tape to reinforce the sides.
Cheap Soap Molds
Silicone Ice Cube Trays
You can find these in Dollar Stores and craft stores any time of year, but if you want real deals visit the store after a holiday and scoop up the unsold stock at bargain prices.
The bars are typically small and the ideal size for guest soaps and kid’s bars. My business partner throws a huge Halloween party every year and we make dozens of vampire, mummy, skeleton, and zombie soaps for guests to take home (as well as having them in the bathrooms of course)!
Candy Molds
This is not just a copy of the ice cube tray idea.
Go to the homemade candy section of your favorite craft store and look for plastic tray candy molds. They will usually be near the melting chocolate pellets.
While the silicone molds tend to run $4 to $8, these plastic trays typically cost about $2 each. They will not last as long and may get brittle over time – however they make wonderful bars of soap. These are an ideal solution for doing short runs of a specific bar style.
Insider Tip: Candy molds that accept lollipop sticks are very popular. You can swap stick idea for a soft cotton string and make “soap on a rope” bars as cute little novelties. What kid does not want a dinosaur soap on hanging from the spigot?
Plastic Pipe
Plastic pipe makes wonderful cylinder molds, however it’s important to know there are lots of different types of plastic pipes and “conduits” available. And the prices vary widely depending on its purpose. Pipe made for non-pressurized use like above-ground drainage is generally the cheapest.
Look for pipe marked HDPE, DWV, or Foamcore to find low-cost solutions in the $1 to $2 per foot range. For example, “JM eagle3 in. x 10 ft. PVC Schedule 40 DWV Foamcore Pipe”,” from Home Depot, is $1.14 per foot at my local store. It comes in ten-foot lengths. Home Depot and Lowes both have cutting stations you can use to cut the pipe into two or more pieces to fit in your car. Here is the model number for 3” diameter pipe; Model# 53723.
Insider Tip: I generally cut pipe sections between ten and twelve inches and leave at least an inch open above my soap pour. Do not use a PVC end cap. If you can tape on a flat piece of stiff plastic to the bottom, you can just peel it off once the soap has hardened. From there you can either push or pull on the liner as describes with the Pringles can – or use a smaller diameter pipe to push it through like a ”push pop” candy or ice cream treat.
In Closing:
I hope these cheap and free soap mold solutions work well for your needs. Keep in mind another good place to look is online at soap supply shops and Amazon.com for any gig specials on discontinued items. You can get some excellent deals!