Shampoo bars are versatile enough for most hair types. They are fun and easy to make and you can create them to suit your needs. Not only are shampoo bars beneficial for your hair, they are also beneficial for the environment. They can be as natural and organic as you choose, using only the finest plant, fruit, nut and vegetable oils. If you sell, or are thinking about selling soap and/or other bath and body products, they can enhance your inventory.
Shampoo Bar Benefits:
They don’t spill!
Minimal packaging.
Excellent for travel/camping/the gym.
Custom made to suit YOUR hair type.
Unisex.
Easy to use.
No color needed.
Generally, they are preservative-free.
Scented or unscented.
Shampoo bars are versatile. Use as a facial soap and/or body soap.
Economical and earth-friendly
Good for people and dogs!
Shampoo bars can be made in various shapes and sizes.
Meet Icy, the saber tooth tiger. I bought this cute stuffed toy at the La Brea Tar Pits gift shop. I thought he’d be a great model for this soap, as I used to live in the vicinity. There was a mini tar pit on the rental property. Below is a photo of the oozing tar spilling onto the sidewalk, which my former landlord refused to fix. I have another photo of the smelly tar seeping onto the narrow walkway leading up to the stairwell, but I decided not to share that one.
Living in that environment motivated me to make a cleansing soap that got rid of a substance that fixed roofs, not stained hands and skin.
La Brea Tar Pits soap is loaded with oatmeal, pure Bulgarian Lavender and Australian Tea Tree essential oils, cornmeal and extra shea butter. This soap is for those of you who garden, paint, fix your car, or need a super cleansing soap. And yes, it does remove tar.
Instructions: Slice up soap base into small cubes and melt. If not using goat’s milk base, add the powdered goat’s milk. Just before it’s fully melted add oatmeal and cornmeal. Stir well. Add essential oils and remove from heat. When soap is just starting to form a layer, pour into molds. Spritz away any bubbles with rubbing alcohol. Allow soap to harden in fridge, freezer, or remain at room temperature. Remove from molds. Make sure soap is at room temperature before wrapping. Wrap in cling wrap and label.
After writing and making the recipes for Kitchen Soap for Chefs: 4 Easy Melt & Pour Soap Recipes, I came up with yet another cool soap idea that I hadn’t published before. In fact, I used to sell it when I had my Everything Shea business, but it went by another name. I changed two of the ingredients, but it’s pretty similar and it’s now called Vanilla Bean soap. I have my almost year-long baking binge to thank for this recipe, too. So if you’re looking for a fun and easy soap recipe to make for the holidays or just because, here it is…
Vanilla Bean Melt & Pour Soap Recipe
Learn how easy it is to make this creamy melt and pour soap with natural vanilla beans. This type of soap is wonderful for all skin types and would make an excellent addition to any bath & body gift basket!
It’s almost a month until The Walking Dead returns for a seventh season. There are six seasons where no one’s seen Daryl bathe or shower. Of course, when we left him back in April in the episode “Last Day on Earth”, he wasn’t thinking about cleaning up. In fact, with the introduction of Neagan and Lucille, Daryl wasn’t looking too good.
While I’m looking forward to the return of the show on October 23, there’s a part of me that doesn’t want to know who Lucille’s going to meet up close and personal. Yes, I’ve read the rumors and have visited some sites that have leaked photos and other news. However, I’ve been too busy making soap [and French macarons] to do more than glance at the information. I’ll find out for sure next month. I’ve waited this long, what’s another four weeks?
I received a wonderful gift from a friend who’s also a fan of the show and of the Daryl Dixon character. I was so pleased with how appropriate it was that I used it in this photo:
As many chefs know, coffee removes strong odors such as onions, garlic, fish, and meat. It’d probably be great for a guy like Daryl after some run-ins with zombies…and maybe a few of Neagan’s unpleasant companions. People who probably don’t have access to hot and cold running water and soap. If they did, I have a hunch they’d all like some Espresso Coffee Kitchen Soap.
So, I’d like to introduce my latest soap crafting eBook. Naturally, I made all the soaps and took photos of them. I was running low on soap. Now, my soap dishes and soap cabinet are full again.
Kitchen Soap for Chefs: 4 Easy Melt & Pour Soap Recipes
It’s easy to create chef’s soap in your kitchen. Quickly cook up a batch of soap that will wash away strong kitchen odors. Now you can make excellent smelling and deodorizing soaps with four classic and carefully tested recipes.
For less than the price of a cup of coffee you’ll get:
I’ve heard and read the argument that any soap that’s made from scratch using oils, liquids and lye is handmade soap. I agree.
There’s the other side of the debate where soapers think that melt and pour soap isn’t handmade. I agree.
Some claim that it’s not handcrafted. I disagree.
I appreciate what made from scratch soap entails. Whether made for personal use or sold online or at crafts fairs, homemade soap is true soap. Those who are new to it may make some mistakes. Fragrances and colors morph, they’ll encounter science-fair worthy lye volcanoes, and they might inadvertently discover DOS [dreaded orange spots] that can appear days or even weeks later. Handmade soap can have a high learning curve for some people. That’s why melt and pour soap crafting is more appealing as crafters don’t have to work with lye and it’s generally considered easier. That may or may not be true as some melt and pour soap crafting techniques are more difficult to master, especially swirling and layering. Yes, even melt and pour soap crafting can be quite time consuming.
Melt and pour soap crafting is a legitimate craft. It’s not just slicing up soap, popping it into the microwave, and getting a perfect bar of soap each time. There are color and fragrance considerations. What, if any, skin-loving additives will you put in your batch? What type of mold will you use? How will you wrap and label your soap?
Nor is it buying a log of soap, cutting it up into a few bars, and wrapping and labeling them. 1. That would be an unscented and uncolored bar of soap. 2. It wouldn’t be handmade or handcrafted — it would be handcut!
Genuine melt and pour soap crafters use the best type of soap base available as they’ve learned what ingredients to look for – and what ingredients to avoid. As I’ve been hand crafting melt and pour soap since 1998, I’ve seen the two standard types of soap base [transparent and opaque] multiply into dozens of different bases such as: shea butter, honey, goat’s milk, avocado oil, yogurt, carrot oil, mango butter, SLS free, etc. I’ve also seen some highly talented crafters out there who make soap in a wide variety of colors and shapes. Handcrafting melt and pour soap has so many wonderful possibilities. Just go to Pinterest and type in the term “M&P” or “melt and pour soap”. You’ll be amazed – and inspired!
Let’s get visual. Here’s a photo of two different types of soap base, transparent and Castile. [Click to enlarge images].
blocks of soap base
A crafter will see this soap base as the raw material. How does it go from nicely wrapped blocks of soap to much smaller and more colorful [and fragrant] bars of soap?
There are several steps from slicing the soap base, melting it, adding colorant and fragrance and pouring the correct amount into a special soap mold.
Black Cat Soap
Here’s the end result.
See how a raw base can be handcrafted into a dramatically colored and scented bar of soap?
Learn how easy it is to make this creamy melt and pour soap with natural vanilla beans. This type of soap is wonderful for all skin types and would make an excellent addition to any bath & body gift basket!
lisa maliga 