Homemade Soap

Making homemade soap, although very time consuming, is actually not that difficult. They make beautiful gifts for friends and family, or they can be used for total self indulgence, making baths and showers 10 times more relaxing. The great thing about it is that it can be tailor made to your very own taste and skin type by incorporating different combinations of moisturiser and essential oils, giving you a fresh clean feeling like no other.

The easiest way to start is by using readymade soap as the base, preferably one with no scent or fancy additives. Mixing this with your own personal ingredients you can create a wide range of soaps that moisturise, exfoliate and cleanse or just smell damn good.

Here are a couple of simple recipes to get you started.

Lemon and Corn Soap (Exfoliates, good for oily and combination skins)

Ingredients

400 g of finely grated soap

125mls of hot, strong tea or decoction of your favourite herbs strained

4 teaspoons of vegetable glycerine

40 g of polenta

½ teaspoon of lemon essential oil

Method

Melt the soap in to the tea or decoction and add vegetable glycerine. Cool to luke warm, add polenta and essential oil then work in well. Roll in to balls or press in to molds. Special soap boxes or small jelly molds work the best. When set remove and allow six weeks for drying.

Forest Spice (Good for the boys)

Ingredients

250g of grated soap

125mls of warm water

50g of ground oats

1 drop of nut meg essential oil

1 drop of pine essential oil

2 drops of cedar essential oil

4 drops of lemon essential oil

2 drops of sandalwood essential oil

Method

Melt the soap in to the water then remove from heat and add the oats mixing thoroughly. Cool to luke warm, add essential oils and work in well. Roll mixture in to balls or pot in to molds. When set remove and allow to dry for six weeks.