Mediterranean Sea Salt & Honey Soap ~ Sisterhood Saturday

I have found a new obsession.  Soap.  Making soap.  And lots of it.  I know I'm always harping on you to steal a few minutes for yourself, to rejuvenate your spirit if you will.  I mean that's what Sisterhood Saturdays are all about.  Well I've stole way more then a few minutes for me lately.  Like we had pizza twice last week because I was too busy making soap.  And I blame it all on Gabby from Essentially Eclectic and this recipe she posted.  Honey and Mediterranean Sea Salt Soap.  
My new obsession. 

Soaps make great gifts for the holidays.  Christmas is coming so quick . . . 

The reason sweet Gabby is to blame is that she was the one who introduced me to Melt & Pour Soap and how easy it is!  The thought of making soap from scratch has always fascinated me and I would still love to try it one day.  I could totally see myself being like the Breaking Bad of homemade soaps coming up with an awesome recipe that would outsell all those hippie boutique soaps. But the seriously toxic fumes the saponifying process puts out, I could never do that in my home around my kiddo's and doggies.  

Melt & Pour soap is just that.  It's already been made into soap so no toxic fumes!  You just need to melt it in the microwave, add any ingredients you wish like colors, scents, oils and butters to moisturize or fun things like oats or lavender buds.  The possibilities are endless.  You can find anything you need at a craft store like Michael's or online at Bramble Berry.  So let's get to it shall we? 

For this recipe I used a clear glycerin soap with honey, Mediterranean Sea Salt, a cosmetic grade coloring made specifically for soap plus a bit of vitamin E that works as a preservative.

 Simply follow the directions to melt the soap.  But cutting it in smaller pieces it helps to melt quicker.  Put one pound of soap in the micro for 30 seconds, stir, 30 seconds, stir, 30 seconds and it's ready.  This simple step is what really sucked me into my obsession.

Because of the added honey the clear glycerin had a slight golden tinge when melted.  More honey can always be added, 1 or 2 Tablespoons per pound, and I think next time I'll try it.  While the soap is nice and hot go ahead and add 1 Tablespoon of your salt.  One.  That's it.  Too much and the soap will not solidify.  Stir gently to mix your salt to not create too many bubbles.  If you do no problem, you can always scoop them off the top when you add the soap to the mold.    

This would be the time to add any extras like essential oils or scents made for soap.  I added about 4 drops of gold coloring and 4 drops of vitamin E.  Gently pour your soap into your mold.  Plastic soap molds in fun shapes can be purchased, silicone molds for cookies can work too, even muffin tins and glass pans.  I simply used a cardboard box that my jarred baby food came in and lined it with wax paper.

See the little cluster of bubbles in the top right corner?  I used a spoon and scooped them away.  I like the look of homemade soap so the little lumps and ripples the wax paper might cause were perfectly fine for me.  Bubbles, not so much.  This is how it looked just 1 hour later when it was all set!

If you've used a plastic or silicone mold and your soap seems to be stuck, pop the mold into the freezer for a few minutes and it should pop right out.  The wax paper easily pulls right off so all I had to do was cut it into squares.  You could use a cookie cutter to cut fun shapes out too.

That's it!  Easy.  Obsessively easy.  Watch out, you might get hooked.

Once cut I decided to melt a little bit of white soap, add a little more of the gold coloring to it and drizzled that on top of my soap.  I quickly sprinkled a bit of the Sea Salt over it so that it would stick as the drizzled soap melted.  It almost looks good enough to eat.  But I'm not that obsessed.

I packaged some of my soaps up to give as gifts like the one at the top of this page.  Christmas is just around the corner and I love to give homemade gifts!  I placed a piece of soap on a piece of wax paper and put it into a cellophane bag.  A quick tie of white yarn and a name tag so no one is tempted to eat it.

For the next few weeks I'll be sharing more easy and skin-loving soaps to make for yourself or to give as gifts.  I'm loving this so much I've even started a bit of a venture, but more on that later.  Next Saturday I'll be sharing a twist on my old favorite and most popular Sisterhood Saturday post: Vanilla & Brown Sugar Scrub.  But this time it's cubed.  That's a hint but all I'm sharing (for now)  =)