Soap making is a lot of fun. It’s also a great way to create the perfect bar of soap that is exactly what you want. In this post we will cover how to make homemade soap bars for beginners.
There are different ways to make soap, from super simple to extremely complex. We will focus on the best method for beginners to create custom bars of deep cleaning luxury. I’m talking about highly customized melt and pour soap.
There are even got how-to videos and links to great recipes to start you off!
Ideal Beginner’s Soap
Melt and pour is the perfect place to start learning about soap making. You can make complex bars of soap with whatever scents, colors and exfoliants that you want. All without investing in expensive equipment or working with dangerous substances such as lye.
By the way, melt and pour, or MP for short, is also known as “glycerin soap”. This is because it has extra glycerin added to it when it is made. Glycerin is natural and gets you clean. The extra glycerin is added, along with some alcohols, to make the soap easier to re-melt and work with.
Step 1: Decide if Melt and Pour Soap Making is for You
Before you spend any valuable time reading through this post, consider watching this quick video. It is a quick overview of MP basics and a few nice extras.
Beginner’s Soap; Instant Gratification!
When staring any new venture, getting tangible results is important. With more traditional soap making methods, like cold process, you wait 4 to 6 weeks before you can use your creation.
Melt and pour soap gives you instant results. The moment it has cooled and hardened you can use it.
Bar Soap Bragging Rights
Even some of the most hard-core traditional cold process soap makers have been saved by the instant usability of melt and pour soap. I know many soapers who have made over 200 custom soap bars in just a few hours to fill a last-minute custom order.
You would be amazed at how many events use small decorative soaps as commemorative gifts.
Perfect Custom-Made Soap Bars
Imagine making a bar of soap that has the exact…
- Moisturizing properties
- What’s your skin type? Customize your soap accordingly!
- Lather
- Do you like rich creamy lather or big bubbles? You can either or both.
- Colorful design
- Mica powders shimmer in clear glycerin soap while liquid colors tend to make opaque bases pop!
- Wonderful aroma
- Add fragrances or all-natural essential oils. Start your day with peppermint pep or relax in the bath with tea tree and lavender.
- Bar size, shape and weight
- In 2019 Soap Startup conducted a study of preferred soap bar sizes. Although we got consensus on a few in particular, the greatest lesson learned was that everybody has a different idea of “ideal”. Embrace it! Use a soap bar mold that you LOVE. It doesn’t have to be a plain old rectangle. Make 3D fine-detailed mermaid soap. Enjoy the process AND the product.
- Exfoliants
- Not to get too crazy, but have you ever scrubbed with coffee grounds? It feels amazing! Live near a beach (or a craft store)? Try some sand. How about ground pumice? Make your own deep-cleaning pumice stone soap. Have fun and be original.
Get everything that you crave most in bar soap. This is soap that feels so amazing you never want to get out of the shower.
Now imagine that you made it yourself and that your next bar will be even better!
This is the magic of making soap using melt and pour base (a.k.a. MP).
So Many Soap “Flavor” Choices
If you want to get really creative, try a specialty type of melt and pour. Here are just a few:
- Goat Milk
- Shae Butter
- Aloe Vera
- Oatmeal
- Coconut Oil
- Castile (olive oil)
- Coffee
Melt and Pour Soap Tools
I love this part! If you have a microwave safe bowl, a knife, and a microwave – you have all you need as far as tools go. You can even use a double boiler instead of a microwave if you are so inclined. If you have a spray bottle of rubbing alcohol that’s also a plus. You can use it to remove surface bubbles and help separate layers weld together on multi-part layered designs.
If you want to go all out, here is a complete list of tools to choose from:
Microwave safe measuring cup or bowl
I like using a 4-cup microwave safe measuring cup. Filling it halfway gets me a pound of soap base to work with and the lip or spout makes it easy to control when poured.
Microwave or double boiler
For small batches I use a microwave oven. For large batches I use an electric soup warmer or double boiler. When using a microwave oven, be sure to melt the soap in small bursts so you don’t burn it. More on that in the instructions portion.
Insider Tip:
If you do not use a microwave be sure to use a “water jacketed” heating vessel. This just means the soap is in a pot resting within a pot of water that takes direct heat.
You do not want the pot containing soap to get excessive heat on any one point, such as the bottom. A double boiler works well because the water surrounding the top pot is what heats the pot – not direct contact with the stovetop burner.
Kitchen knife and cutting board or mat
A standard kitchen knife will work fine. I avoid serrated edges because smooth blades tend to cut easier for me.
Stirring utensil such as a spoon
Nothing too special is needed here. Just keep in mind the melt and pour soap base melts at about 140 F degrees. This means metal spoons left in for long enough will get hot and any plastic stirrers will need to be heat resistant to at least 180 F degrees, which is about how hot the soap will get if you melt it in short bursts.
Whisk
A stainless steel or heat resistant wire whisk comes in handy for blending in exfoliants and frothing the MP base on decorative specialty soaps. If you plan to add clay to your soap, a whisk is good to have because it disperses the particles well.
Digital kitchen scale
An absolute must for hot or cold process soap making but just a ‘nice to have’ for melt and pour. If you don’t have one, don’t sweat it.
Candy or laser-type thermometer
This is another nice to have for glycerin soap making. If you don’t have one, no worries. Based on personal experience, it’s worth it to spend $15 on a decent no-touch laser thermometer if you start doing cold or hot process soap at some point.
A mold
Silicone soap molds are easy to work with but plastic works too. The mold just needs to be somewhat flexible to allow the cooled hardened soap to pop out. It also needs to be able to hold its shape depending on the heat of the melted soap and weight if pouring a large piece.
10 Steps to the Perfect Melt and Pour Soap Bar
- Choose a recipe
- Select a mold
- Gather all tools and ingredients
- Determine the amount of soap you need
- Cut the MP base into small pieces
- Place in the microwave safe container and microwave based on recipe instructions
- Allow soap to cool but remain liquid – if needed – based on recipe
- Add colors, essential oils, fragrances, and exfoliants, etc. – based on recipe
- Pour into the mold
- Let cool, harden and then unmold!
Melt and Pour Soap Recipes & How To Videos
The following recipes are all made using readily available melt and pour soap basses that can be purchased through most craft and hobby stores or Amazon.
The two most popular brands of MP soap base are Stephenson and Crafter’s Choice. Both companies make excellent products. Your choice will probably come down to where you can get the quickest, most affordable MP base that you want to use for your recipe.
Vanilla Coffee Soap Instructional Video
Our first instructional video is extra special because it comes from a person who is making melt and pour soap for the very first time. Kudos to Olivia!
Although you don’t need a recipe link, as she spells it all out in the video, you can visit the original post by clicking this link. Now here’s that video…
Quick Call-Outs
Olivia did an amazing job! The only three things I want to call out, because they are common oversights, are:
- You can use any “flavor” of melt and pour soap base that you like. Just be certain is it the “suspension” type. This means it suspends particles rather than having them all sink to the bottom of the mold.
- If you are not able to get suspension type soap, let it cool so it becomes a thick liquid. A skin will probably form on top and on the sides. Just stir it back into the hotter liquid center. When the soap is a thick liquid, with a consistency closer to honey than milk, add your coffee grounds and stir them in.
- Now pour the soap into the molds.
- It might not suspend the particles perfectly, but it will do a decent job without having to delay until you can find suspending type melt and pour base.
- Make sure your fragrance is rated for use on skin. The link that she has is for a skin contact rated product, which is what you want.
- Don’t guess when it comes to adding fragrances or essential oils. Too much can be a bad thing – causing skin irritation among other things.
- Use a free fragrance calculator like the ones available from these soap scent suppliers. You just choose the fragrance you want and the type and quantity of soap. It really is as easy as 1, 2, 3.
Insider Advantage
- Feel free to work with used coffee grounds (dried and re-ground or de-clumped). You can usually even get bags of used coffee grounds for free at most Starbucks coffee shops (people use them for plants and to keep ants away from the house).
- You don’t need a fragrance. The coffee smell will come through the soap to some degree. Using a coffee type with a strong scent will do the trick.
Goats Milk and Honey Recipe and How to Video
Our next recipe and set of instructions come from the experts at Pro Candle Supply.
They even offer kits for some projects so you can buy exactly what you need without any guesswork. Here is a link to the detailed recipe and step by step instructions.
Congratulations Soap Maker!
You can now make homemade bars of soap that look, smell, and feel great! Give yourself a pat on the back. You deserve it!
>>> Get the Inside Edge
Once you have made some melt and pour soap bars that you love, you might just get the bug. If that happens, and you want to make more, you can save a small fortune by purchasing your MP soap in bulk straight from the manufacturers.
There is an article on this site that will show you how – Find the Best Melt and Pour Soap Suppliers