Instead of driving to the store for a six pack; (of soap silly, not amber beverages), why not try whipping up some homemade skin cleaning products right at home. First, check out this article for the 411 on homemade beauty products. Then you’re ready to go.

Easy, Cheating – Style Soap:

Now, real soap making can be a production. It’s a longer process and there’s numerous safety precautions you need to take. If you’re interested, I’ll eventually be adding an article about true blue real soap making, but for now let’s start out slow. Here’s an easy (cheat-style) way to create personal bars of soaps.

Grab a few bars of plain unscented glycerin soap. Glycerin blocks come in small bars up to huge chunks. Glycerin is naturally moisturizing and is safe for most skin types. You can also buy glycerin soap base from soap wholesalers. Melt carefully and slowly on your stovetop in a double boiler. No double boiler? No problem, (I haven’t had one for years) just fill a large pan with water and place a smaller pan, or even heavy duty bowl over the larger pan. Note that double boilers have one thing going for them – safety. Double boilers are made for this kind of thing if you don’t use one, be very careful when picking up the top bowl.

Wait until your glycerin starts to get nice and melted and then let the fun of adding your own personal touches start. Really you can add just about anything to soap. It’s going to depend on your personal needs. Mess around and figure out what works for you; what scents turn out nice, and which don’t. You need to keep your glycerin melty but slightly cooled while you add extra ingredient and stir often.

Take it from me think carefully before adding ingredients. You know how chocolate and orange smell so good together? Well, they do… but some ideas were never meant to be soap. Unfortunately, I learned this the hard way. Believe me no one wants to try to get clean with something that smells like chocolate and also my soap turned out a tad sticky (you don’t want to know).

Here are some actual good ideas to get you started.

Caffeine Soap:

While my chocolate experiment failed, I’ve actually had good luck with coffee soap. It’s a nice morning pick-me-up. To about 4-6 ounces of melted glycerin add a small shot of very strong espresso and around a teaspoon of ground espresso. Add 2 teaspoons powdered milk. Mix well. Pour in to mold and let set for 2-3 hours or until hardened. If you like you can add a few drops of pure essential oils to your mixture before the hardening process. I’ve added miscellaneous scents to my coffee soaps with mixed results. I’ve tried orange (good), cinnamon (good, but more holiday style), and lavender (not so good).

Lavender Blue Soap:

Add 10 drops lavender essential oil, a heaping tablespoon of blue cornmeal, and a good dash of strong olive oil to a 6 ounce chunk of melted glycerin. Mix. Pour into mold. Let harden. Enjoy.

Basil Mint Scrubby Soap:

To 4-8 ounces melted glycerin soap add: 1 ounce chopped fresh organic basil, one tablespoon finely crushed oatmeal, and a few drops of peppermint essential oil. You can also use spearmint essential (which smells great with the basil).

This is good experiment soap. The general recipe never changes you just mix it up to suit your tastes and needs. A good book on herbs and another on essential oils will help you to create some great soap with the qualities you’d like (I.e. softening, refreshing, relaxing, etc.).

Always use:

• 4-8 ounces melted glycerin.
• Around an ounce of your favorite organic herbs, either crushed, ground, or chopped.
• One tablespoon ground oatmeal.
• A few drops of your favorite essential oil.

Mix, mold, scrub. Easy and makes a good gift.

Orange & Shea Butter Soap

Mix 8 ounces of your melted glycerin with a teaspoon of honey, ½ tablespoon shea butter, 1 teaspoon organic orange peel zest, and 10 drops of essential orange oil. Also, break open and add the oil of a vitamin E capsule. Mix up well, pour into two molds, and harden.

A quick word about molds:

You can use almost anything for a glycerin soap mold. You can fashion a box (open on one side) of wood. This will make a big old block of soap that needs to be cut into chunks – unless you make a bunch of small wooden molds. You can buy real soap molds. Or you can use just about any hard plastic container. (Butter tubs, popsicle makers, yogurt containers, old school Tupperware, and more). To make soap removal easy you can also line your mold with wax paper. For a special gift bar you can press small flowers and herbs into the mold before pouring your soap in.

If you want to make shapes you can buy specific pre-made molds or try my method. I pour my glycerin mixture into a long skinny pan (like a baking tray) then I wait. When the soap has started to harden – but is not totally set I use metal cookie cutters to cut butterflies, stars, and more. BUT this method is hard because you need to basically baby sit your soap and wait for the perfect (not to hard-not too soft moment to cut your shape). Molds are easier by far.

These recipes are great jumping off points on the way to creating your own soap masterpieces. Get out there and start experimenting. And then get squeaky clean.