Getting Creative With Natural Soap

Natural Soap has become a popular and useful hobby for many home soap makers. In fact, some novice soap makers have taken to the art like a house on fire and are even looking to become commercially successful. Making natural soap is essentially about mixing lye and water in the correct proportions and adding the right amount of fat to it. The saponification process then takes over and makes a useable soap from unusable ingredients.

However, if you are planning to use your homemade soap as gifts for friends and family or make a business venture of it, then you will need to experiment a bit more. Adding essential oils, scents, colors, flowers and other beauty products is one way to make your homemade soap more appealing. Another way of course is to package it beautifully.

Here are some creative ideas to make your natural soap more appealing.

Colored soaps are a step up from the basic white or off white bars of old. However, if you want to keep your natural soap completely natural then avoid processed food coloring. Instead use colors made from natural products.

Turmeric is a disinfectant and adds a lovely yellow hue to your soap. Alfaalfa powder and chlorophyll impart a gorgeous green color to the soap. Ratanjot lends a pretty purple color and paprika works well for reds and oranges.

Adding an essential oil has the maximum effect on elevating your soap from just another homemade experiment to a coveted beauty product. Essential oils have recognized therapeutic properties and work wonders if used correctly. Since they are highly concentrated you should look at adding no more than a teaspoon to a 400g bar of soap. Rose and lavender are two of the most popular essential oils with soap makers. Avoid citrus oils since they can cause your soap to curdle.

You can add a natural loofah like oatmeal or almonds to your soap. The oatmeal and almonds help to scrub off dead skin leaving your skin smooth.

Adding dried flowers and petals can make your natural soap look extremely pretty. Add a few dried rose petals along with rose essential oil and you can get Cleopatra’s beauty care regime.

If you want to make a soap that moisturizes the skin try adding a carrier oil like jojoba, castor or avocado. Shea butter also works very well.

Once you’ve got your natural soap bars ready, use a paring knife and shave off one side of the bar. You’ll get a pretty wave design in no time at all!

If you plan to use them as gifts then invest in some soap molds. You can get soap molds in many shapes including hearts, roses, circles and many more.

You can even make paper wrapping for the soap bars and then customize the paper with the names of the recipients.

Homemade bars make lovely wedding favors. Customize the wrapping or the bar with the couple’s wedding details and give out as wedding favors.

So, natural soap can be made very exotic and appealing with a little effort on your part.

Source: http://www.making-homemade-soap.com/natural-soap.html