This wonderful orange Spring flower-shaped handmade soap for my guest bathroom was literally made in 2 seconds.
What’s my secret? I cheated, and you can too. Rather than using new soap flakes and make it from scratch, I recycled.
Wanna try it?
How to Make a Fun Mother’s Day*
or Guestroom Soap, Fast!
This is the easiest homemade soap recipe you’ll find – guaranteed.
1. Delve into the back of your bathroom cabinet and search for an old or used glycerin hotel soap.’
2. Go to your kitchen cabinet and find a metal cookie mold that is slightly smaller than your soap remnant.
3. Put the soap for 2 seconds in the microwave, which will soften it by ‘a tat’.**
4. Press your mold over the softened soap* to create a personal hand soap in a delightful shape, that will look adorable in your guest bathroom…. or your own.
You could certainly make this for Mother’s Day as a wonderful darling gift in a nice embellished gift bag, perhaps with some potpourri or rose pedals thrown in.
SAFETY WARNINGS
* NOT for children. I don’t recommend kids to every use microwaves, let alone for this project. This craft idea is for adults only.
** if your soap is still too hard, put it in the microwave for another second. Be verrryyy conservative with those seconds. Put your microwave on low & stick to glycerin soaps. Particularly other types of soaps may be flammable.
** If you happen to have an old pan you could use as a double boiler, than do this instead. The ‘pan within a pan with boiling water’ (i.e. double boiler) method is safest as there is no direct heat coming to the soap.
** NEVER put a metal mold in the microwave !!)
Soap Mold Shapes & Soap Textures to Suit the Season
I chose a fresh colored soap, and a flower-shaped soap mold because it’s Spring, and I wanted to create a Spring craft.
However, you can choose your shape and texture of your soap to suit the season: Hearts are good for Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day; actually they are good year round for women or girls.
Animal shapes are good for visiting children. Choosing a speckled oak-meal type soap would be great for this. White Christmas tree and star shapes are good for the winter holiday season.
Tips for Successful Soap Making
- After you press then glycerin soap through the mould, rub the soap’s surface with a rag till it shines.
Preserve the soap by putting it in clear plastic wrap. - While you could use plastic moulds, I recommend the metal ones, because they’re sturdier and won’t break if you really press on them.
- Ideally, create dedicated art supplies. While you could re-purpose your regular cookie shapes for this project, I find that I hold 2 collections of moulds: one collection of moulds and shapes that I use for food and the other collection of moulds I use for all kinds of crafts, such as soap making, but also for image tracing, and stamp making, etc. It’s a healthy habit to do it my way.
