DIY: Citrus & Herbal Soap

It was Grandmom Chrystie's birthday this weekend and Magda & I put our heads together on Saturday to try and come up with an idea for a nice gift we could make for her...I remembered back in an early Spring issue of Martha Stewart Living, (the April issue) there was a vibrant feature on diy (melt & pour) soaps in which citrus and herbs were added to the melted soap.  Magda thought that was a perfect idea, so that's what we did.  It was so easy and as you can see, the results were pretty and wonderful!!

I'll leave the detailed how-to to Martha...check it out here for the easy and basic instructions--there is a video, too.  But basically, you grind up your flavor of choice in a food processor and add it to melted glycerin soap that you've poured into a container...we hit the recycling bin for our containers...frozen juice concentrate containers were great to slice into disks of soap.  I like the square shape of 1/2 & 1/2 container...also, kids juice box makes for a soap that is easy to hold in your hands.

Soap mold for this one was the bottom of selzer bottle.

I melted the soap on a double-boiler on the stove.  We sprayed the inside of the containers with a spray olive oil.  I poured in the hot liquid soap; letting it sit and cool for a minute or two.  We added the grinded-up peel/herb one teaspoon at a time, till we felt it was the right amount...nothing precise about this--we just totally eye-balled it! : ) and Magda stirred with a chopstick, to keep everything from settling to the bottom.  

Basil & Mint soap in heavy whipping cream container--cream was used to make a birthday treat!

Sage soap.  I used Whole Foods chicken stock container-the square box kind.

After about 5 mins or so of stirring, we popped the containers of soap into the freezer to set up and hardened.  About 20 minutes.  After its ready, the soaps should either just pop out of the plastic containers or you can tear the paper containers away.  And Volia!  You have a lovely bar of home-made soap.  Some flavors smell stronger than others...if you want a strong scent, it would be good to stir in some essential oil right before putting into freezer.

Thyme.  Kids' juice boxes.

This was a really nice, easy project and I highly recommend it...perfect gifts for you and your favorite 6 year old to make together.