Basically, MP soap is a fun and easy way to make soap into any shape, color, or aroma you desire, and all from a ready-made base block.
You don’t need to worry about spending a lot of money on soapmaking equipment. All you need is a bit of imagination and time to create some wonderful unique gifts that will be perfect for friends and family.
Below I use my basic cinnamon & rose soap recipe to describe the process of a melt and pour soap recipe. You can then have some fun creating some of your own recipes at home and you can take a look at some of my other MP soapmaking recipes.
What You Will Need
- Melt & Pour Soap Base
- Soap Mold
- A Microwave or a Double Boiler
- A heat-proof bowl or pitcher
Cinnamon Or Rose Soap
Both of these melt and pour soap recipes have a wonderful scent and are extremely easy to make.
The cinnamon soap is excellent for men that want to introduce exfoliation into their weekly skincare regime. You can do this by sprinkling the soap with the poppy seeds.
Of course, you can sprinkle the rose-scented bar with poppy seeds too! And remember you can melt this over and over again until you are happy with the shape, color, or scent.
Ingredients
(makes 1 bar)
- 4oz of Melt & pour Soap Base
- 10 drops of Cinnamon essential oil or Rose essential oil
- 1 drop of red food coloring
- A sprinkling of poppy seeds (optional)
Method
- Usually, one pound of MP soap will give you roughly three or four bars, depending on the size of your mold. To find out how much soap you need, simply fill a mold with water then transfer it into your measuring jug. Measure a little more soap than needed, it won’t go to waste you can always pour any leftovers into a spare mold and reuse next time. In this example, I’m making one bar and using 4oz of soap.
- Chop your chosen base into little pieces and transfer to a heat-proof bowl or jug and microwave on full power for 30 seconds at a time being careful not to overheat it. Avoid stirring the soap whilst it’s melting, just push it about a little once or twice if you must. If using a double boiler fill the bottom half with water and gently melt the chopped soap in the top part without stirring it.
- Once melted you’ll need to work fast or the soap will begin to form a skin and this will ruin the appearance of the finished soap, try to keep stirring it to avoid this happening.
- Now for the fun bit it’s time to add those little extras be as creative as you like but always use cosmetic grade fragrance and colorants, as a guide you’ll need between 1/8 to 1 tablespoon for each cup of soap. Here I am adding the 10 drops of cinnamon (or rose) essential oil and 1 drop of red food coloring then mixing well.
- If using the poppy seeds sprinkle into the melted soap just before pouring it into the molds
- Now fill the mold with the melted soap, giving it a light tap to relieve any air bubbles that could ruin the look of your soap. If the soap still looks bubbly then give it a spray with rubbing alcohol to remove them.
- It is harmless to re-melt your soap base, so If your soap begins to solidify before you are ready to pour it in your mold or start to introduce the additives, simply reheat it to melt it again.
- Leave the soap in the molds until hardened. Putting them in the refrigerator until cool will help them to set quicker. And then pop your soap out of the molds and then wrap or store them in a dry place ready for use.
Now let’s take a look at my favorite melt and pour soap recipes.
I found your website and want to let you know that your article is very helpful. This is my first time of making M & P soap. This year I decided to make soap since I’d bought clear soap bases last year and hope the soap comes out right since I’m planning to give them to my co-worker as a Christmas gift.
What a thoughtful gift, Nat. You are such a great co-worker! Hope you have fun making your soaps and I’m so happy this post was helpful.
Im a follower of your ideas. Love from India.
What a great tutorial! Just what I was searching for. Tyvm!
Hi Angela;
One of the things I learned when I first started using Melt and Pour Soaps was that your base will affect your final color, if you are using colorants. If you use a white base (such as goat milk) the colors will be a lot lighter then if you use a crystal clear glycerin base. Since I want the purer colors I go with the crystal clear base.
I also found that food coloring has a tendency to bleed out of the bar and onto your skin (just ask my wife about our first batch of Rose Soap 🙂 ) so I do use either Mica powders or soap colorants.
Great blog you have, and I enjoy all the recipes and ideas. Now that I am retired, it helps me keep my mind occupied.
One of these days I will e-mail you my home made wood clocks that I make. Cost is very minimal (maybe $3.00 MAX) and people always ask me where I find the clocks
Hi Larry
Thanks for sharing a few of your experiences with melt & pour soap… And its great to hear that you are enjoying the blog, it means a lot to me!
I would love to show your homemade clocks on savvyhomemade, Post photos here 😉
Hi Angela.
you are so beautiful…..
I like your page. lovely soaps and colorful scrubs. Really love them, after my soap making class i have practiced melt and pour combinations from your site. Excellent….
Thank you so much.
Hi Suneetha,
I’m so glad you had fun making these soaps, and thanks for such positive comments, it means a lot to me!
just learning to make my own soap. Everything I can do for myself, is that much more I save…
Indeed… That’s a great philosophy 😉