Finished soap

So-I lied, it didn't come out very easily after a few hours lol. It took 24 hours and right before I put them in the freezer in a last minute move, they loosened up. I think the mica dust messed up the mix a bit. Ah well, experimentation with crafts is just that! Soap molds like I have break easy, so I turned it upside down and flexed it gently, and then the little buggers popped right out :0)

The Hazards of using non-soap specific
goodies--maroon streaks from the mica dust



Here is one I made several months ago-with
gold dust (soap approved lol) and lemon grass I think. I store these in
those semi-disposable plastic food containers at the store.



Soap the easy way..

I got this awesome deal on our local craigslist. I bought 2 huge boxes of melt and pour soap and all sorts of soap molds and other goodies for like $25. It was easily about $200 worth of bubbly craft fun! Here is one of the 25lb boxes of soap-takes a big knife to get the chunks loose...



This stuff is really easy to work with if you have a microwave and some microwavable glass containers. I have bought 2lb. blocks of M&P soap at the local craft place, Michaels for $10, that was why this was such a great deal.



I never measure or weigh this kind of stuff, again, pretty forgiving to work with. I like using glass because it doesn't absorb tastes and smells from the soap. This is a 4 cup measuring cup. I microwaved this much for about 3-4 minutes...checking and breaking up chunks in-between.

Not quite done, still some chunkies in the mix...nuke it a bit longer

Here are the scents and colors I decided to go with....Orange scent, orange soap color and some cool red/brown powdered mica (leftover from another craft, not sure if it will work ok), oh, and the soap molds. I just wipe these bad boys out with a dry paper towel to get any dust and kitty hair out. Add the coloring and scent to your preference and stir gently (I just used a butter knife, really!) then pour gently into the molds so they are level. The bubbles can be removed by spraying alcohol on the soap, but I just shave these off with a sharp blade when everything is done. The cards are to level out the molds. These should sit for several hours and then I can flex the molds a bit and they usually pop out very nicely.