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Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Soapy Stud

Okay so this post is super late.  I took pictures for it months ago, as I made these for my Ma/Gma for Mother's Day.  Procrastination at it's finest.  Unfortunately crafting doesn't pay the bills...  Anyways, per my dilemma from 3 months ago, it is always so difficult to get gifts for Mother's Day.  And I really do get a lot of joy out of giving people a great gift that they love/appreciate.  Anything that my Mom wants or needs she'll just buy herself, so I always try to be really thoughtful and man is it tough!  Of course, I know my Mom/Gma really just want to spend time with me, so I'm already giving them the perfect gift, but I wish I could also get them something they really love.

So instead of buying something this year for Mother's Day I decided to make gifts.  My Grandma is a big bath person, so I decided on bath salts for her.  And for my Mom, I decided on scented soaps since I don't think she's ever had the time to relax and take a bath!

Both of these items are great gifts that are easy to make.  Let's start with the bath salts.

Ingredients:
-Epsom Salts
-Baking Soda
-Food coloring
-Essence of whatever you want to smell like
-Jar/Container

Literally all you do is dump the ingredients together in a bowl, mix to the desired effects (smell/color), and put in your container.  I used Mason Jars for these babies.  I used about 2-3 cups of Epsom Salts, and then a half cup-ish of baking soda.  My scents were Orange Mint, and Lavender Eucalyptus mixes.  It's really not an exact science - more of a go with the flow type thing.  It would have been great to also add some sprigs of lavender or mint.  My house smelled AHH-MAZING after for a few days.  I'm planning on making a jar or two for myself to freshen up the bathroom, and to use whenever I want to jacuzz.  Jacuzz is a verb right??  If not it totally should be.  Who doesn't love the occasional jacuzz.

And now the soaps.  I made two separate kinds:  Orange Citrus and Honey Almond Oatmeal.

Ingredients for Orange Citrus:
-Soap base (I used Goats Milk Soap Base from Michaels)
-Soap molds
-Food coloring
-Citrus essence (I used orange, I think lemon would be good too)
-Chopped up orange peels
-Food coloring

Ingredients for Honey Almond Oatmeal:
-Soap base (again I used Goats Milk Soap Base from Michaels)
-Soap molds
-Oatmeal
-Honey
-Almond essence

The first step is to melt the goat milk soap base.  Put in a microwave safe bowl, and heat at 30 second intervals, stirring in between.  Throw in your ingredients and stir.  I don't have any specific measurements because it really depends on your personal preferences and how perfumey you want to be.
















Pour into your soap molds and let sit.  I let sit for about 30 minutes, and then put in the fridge for another hour.  They should solidify fairly quickly.


 Remove from the molds and use immediately to clean up your mess!