How To Make Pretty Eco-Friendly Soaps For Favors, Shower Gifts or Just Because

Are you looking for a wedding or shower favor that’s Eco-friendly? If so, I’ve got the perfect one for you. How about making some natural, absolutely sumptuous smelling soaps? They’re perfect for reducing waste and believe it or not….they’re amazingly easy to make!

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 pound melt-and-pour Castile base (makes about six 3-ounce soaps)
Dried flowers
Honey
Coarse Oatmeal
Essential Oil
Soap molds

There are endless combinations of dried flowers and essential oils you can use to make a soap that is just as lovely as you want it to be. I purchased my soap making products from Bulk Apothecary, so I perused their supplies to find the perfect combinations that would work for me. I made three batches:

1. Dried Chamomile, honey, course oatmeal & eucalyptus essential oil
2. Dried orange peel, sage leaves & Bergamot essential oil
3. Peppermint leaves, coarse oatmeal & peppermint essential oil

STEP ONE: Cut the Castile base into small chunks and place into a microwave safe bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and heat on high for 1 minute. (Microwave temps vary so make sure the soap base does not boil). Basically you want to melt the base in small spurts. After heating for one minute, swirl the soap base around to see if there are any chunks left to melt. If so, heat in 15 to 30 second increments until the soap base has completely melted.

STEP TWO:
For the Chamomile soap – Add 3 tablespoons of slightly warmed honey, 5 tablespoons dried Chamomile, 4 tablespoons coarse oatmeal and 10 drops of eucalyptus essential oil to the melted soap base.

For the Dried orange peel soap – Add 5 tablespoons dried orange peel, 5 tablespoons sage leaves and 10 drops Bergamot essential oil.

For the Peppermint soap – Add 5 tablespoons peppermint leaves, 4 tablespoons coarse oatmeal and 10 drops of peppermint essential oil.

Stir ingredients thoroughly.

STEP THREE: Pour soap mixture into your chosen soap molds. I purchased some plain square molds from Bulk Apothecary, but you can find all kinds of shapes and designs pretty much anywhere. Craft stores sell them and many online retailers do too. But if you don’t want to buy something, you can also use muffin tins if you’re okay with a round style soap.

STEP FOUR: Let the soaps sit for 4 hours to mold. When ready, carefully run a knife along the edge of each mold to pop the soaps out.

STEP FIVE: Now comes another fun part – dreaming up your packaging! If you’re making soaps for favors, you can simply tie a piece of raffia, twine or glittery ribbon around the soap or wrap it gift wrap style with parchment paper or some pretty wrapping paper. A pretty ribbon or fabric would work too.

There are countless ways to wrap, package and present these little lovelies so let your mind wander until you come up with the perfect idea.