I have been ridiculously crafty this holiday season – I’m not quite sure what’s gotten into me. I guess I’ve been bitten by some sort of Christmas spirit that made me decide to make gifts for every single friend, and all my coworkers too.
It started when I ran into this DIY blog post on making handmade soaps, posted on A Beautiful Mess, but originally written by Sarah from Team Rhodes Weddings. They looked so pretty and fun, and I said to myself, “Hey! That’s easy enough to do,” which then led me to pretty much the most amazing store I’ve been to in Seattle – Zenith Supplies. I had no idea it existed before this, but I’m so glad I found it! It’s a huge building full of everything you could possibly need to make handmade soaps, body butter, lotion, candles, lip glosses, lip balm, massage oils – you name it. They have everything from containers for your homemade treasures, a library full of books on aromatherapy and recipes, and at least 100 scents to choose from for making your treats smell like a million bucks.
After much deliberation, I came home with a bottle of Sweetgrass and Cabernet Sauvignon scents, and two blocks of glycerin. Besides images for your soaps and milk cartons – that’s all you need to make these beauties! I decided to use magazine cutouts instead of drawing images like Sarah suggested. I also came across a bunch of oops and uh ohs that I’m going to share with you, so if you ever decide to take this project on too, you’ll learn from my mistakes.
Here’s my picture guide to making homemade soaps for Christmas gifts:
Rinse out your milk cartons, and start cutting out pictures from magazines that are slightly smaller than the bottom of the milk carton. (If you cut it the exact same size, the soap won’t seal around the image, and will break apart between the two halves. This was one of my many lessons).
This was my favorite part of the project – it was fun to hand select the images I thought fit my friends the most. High heels and Lois Vuitton bags for my fashionista girlfriends; music, mountains, roast beef and beer for my guy friends; glasses and bottles for my wino friends, etc. I tried to select images that fit each of my friends, to make the gift as personal as possible!
When you have all your images, cut your glycerin in manageable chunks and melt them over low-medium heat in a soup pot. Once they’re melted, add your oils.
I love this oil I picked up at a boutique in Seattle – it was way more expensive than the natural essential oils at Zenith, but how cute is the name, “Wiggle Remedy.” I love it! Maybe my guy friends will find themselves a bit more grounded this coming year. (Not that they aren’t already).
Pour the liquid soap in the milk carton, and add your image to the top. Here’s the tricky part – if the soap’s too hot, the image will curl up. Sarah mentioned using a spoon to push your image down, and to not let it float to the top. I actually had better luck with the image being just below the surface. Too low, and the image curled from the heat of the soap, but too high and the glycerin won’t cover the image. This is the most difficult part! I also didn’t make my soaps thick enough at first, so ended up having to add more glycerin to them after they froze. Make sure you’re pouring at least a good inch and a half to make nice-sized soaps.
Stick the milk carton in the freezer for quick setting, then here’s the coolest part – just repeat pouring the liquid soap right on top of the frozen ones. Stack them up to the top of the milk carton, then when you peel off the milk carton, you can just slice through the soaps easily with a kitchen knife!
Be careful when cutting – I had a number of the soaps come apart where each one was poured, and sometimes split where the image was (back to the not sealing part if your image is too big). You can trim them up, and worse comes to worse – I just used one of those candle torch lighters to remelt the glycerin and seal some of the pieces that popped off.
When you’re done, you have a beautiful set of personalized soaps to give away to your friends! I spent a little bit of money on magazines ($10), my supplies were $75 (although the Wiggle Remedy oil was $14, much more expensive than the standard $6 bottle of oil), and I spent about $20 on freakin’ milk cartons. I ended up making approximately 30 bars of soap, so it came out to roughly $3.50 a soap, and I gave most of my friends two soaps. Not too bad for a small, thoughtful Christmas gift idea!
Here’s a couple of my favorites:
(I ended up keeping the last one to myself. I think an old lady dressed like a munchkin and carrying a lollipop was just to weird to give anyone. Ha! Merry Christmas to me!).
And Merry Christmas to YOU, blog lovelies!
P.S. When I was done with the soap project, I whipped up a batch of my favorite, favorite caramel corn recipe I’ve been making for three years now. So easy, and really great to put in decorated bags and leave on your coworkers’ desks!
Currently Feeling: Terrible that I haven’t announced the winner of my Snuggie giveaway yet. I’ll do it this week, I swear!
Currently Anticipating: Pilates tomorrow at lunch! It’s been a great mix-up to my yoga routine.
Currently Loving: Teatro Zinzanni dinner theater in Seattle. I’ve always wanted to go, and finally did it Saturday night for a girls holiday party. It was the BEST thing I’ve been to in a loooong time! Stay tuned for my post about it this week.
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Tags: Arts and Crafts, Do It Yourself Christmas Gifts, Essential oils, How to make handmade soaps, Making handmade soaps, Sometimes I'm a Little Crafty, Zenith Supplies
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