How to Make Melt and Pour Soap
Author: Sinclair A. Sheers Published on: July 6, 2001

Of the four different ways to make soap (melt and pour, cold process, hot process, and rebatch), melt and pour is the easiest. In fact, I learned how to make melt and pour soap as a craft I could do with my children.

Melt and pour soap is much easier and safer than making soap from lye, especially when you have children underfoot. My children are four and six years old; they love making soap with me. This might be too hard to do with a two-year-old.

What to buy
All of these things are located together at most craft stores. However, you can find very good quality products at internet websites such as Soap Crafters, Sweetcakes, Soap Wizards, and From Nature With Love.

Required
Soap: clear, opaque or both - they come in big blocks with indents that make one-inch squares.
Colors: one package of blue, red, and yellow.
Molds: the shapes you're going to pour your soap into.

Optional
Scents: each scent is sold separately. You can use either fragrance oils or essential oils. Essential oils can be powerful; make sure you know what you're doing if you use them. Do not use perfumes or scents containing alcohol.
Solid objects that will look like they are suspended inside the soap.
Sparkles (they will get all over your kids and your kitchen, but they're fun).
Solid soap shavings that will look like they're floating inside your soap.
If you get a loaf mold, you might want to buy a tube-shaped soap you can put in the loaf. These tube soaps come in different colors and shapes like butterflies and hearts. When the soap is done and sliced, it will look like you have a butterfly or heart suspended in your bar of soap.

I also bought (at my supermarket) a cheap, clear one-cup measuring cup in which to melt the soap in the microwave. I wanted to use the one I already had for food and get a separate one for soap.

What to do once you get your supplies
Choose which soap (clear or opaque), which color, which scent, which mold, and which solid objects you will use first.
Break or cut the soap into one inch squares.
Put the squares into a clear microwave-proof container like a measuring cup.
Microwave for about 40 seconds.
Stir the soap, check for lumps.
If it's lumpy, microwave for 10 more seconds, stir, repeat until the lumps are gone.
Keep the children's fingers out of the hot soap.
Add scent (children can do this part), about four drops per half cup of liquid soap.
Add sparkles if you have them.
Add color, one drop at a time (children can do this, too). Note: red and blue make purple; yellow and blue make green; red and yellow make orange; and red, yellow, and blue make brown.
Stir.
Add more color if desired.
Pour into molds.
If you have solid objects, pour soap half-way up, add solid objects (children can do this), then fill with soap.
Wait for at least 20 minutes (loaves take longer).

They're done! Wrestle them out of the molds and slice the loaf if you used a loaf pan. If they won't come out of the molds, put the molds in the freezer for at least 20 minutes and then try.

You can make a tie-dye effect with the colors if you add them later, after you have poured the soap into the mold. Add a drop of color and then swirl with a toothpick.

You can make stripes by filling a mold just a little, waiting about five minutes, and then filling it with a different color.

The best part about making soap with children is that later, you will find them washing their hands more often so they can use the new soap. Another good thing about making soap is the clean-up. If you make a mess, it's OK because it's SOAP!