How to Enhance Handmade Soap with Creative Additives

Are wondering on how to enhance your handmade soap with other additives?  There are endless additives you can add to your cold process soap. In this article by Staci Marquez-Nichols. eHow Community
Member, shows how you can take your cold process bar of soap and make extraordinary by giving it better color, texture or herbs.  To learn more on How to Enhance Handmade Soap with Creative Additives read this article by Staci.

Halloween Spooky Soap

Instead of giving out candy out on Halloween, why not create these spooky Halloween soaps? They are easy to make and are a fun, candy-free option for party favors or treat bags.

http://www.hgtv.com/holidays-occasions/halloween-spooky-soap/index.html

Pumpkin Spice Potpourri

Featured in Better Homes and Gardens' Floral and Nature Crafts magazine, 11/96 issue

Ingredients:

3 c Windmill Pods, Orange; 2 c Kesu Flowers, Natural; 2 c Chili Peppers (dried); 2 c Spina Cristi; 1 c Tilia Flowers; 1 c Curly Pods, natural; 1 c Lotus Pods, mini 1 c; Acorns & "hats" (optional); 1 c Corn Husks, torn into narrow strips, 1 to 3" long (optional); 1 c light-colored seeds (pumpkin seeds, pistachio shells); 1/2 c Mace; whole 6 whole Nutmegs, cut in half

1/4 c Ginger Root Slices or Pieces; 12 Tonka Beans, 6 cut in half ; 1/2 Vanilla Bean or 10 drops of Vanilla or French Vanilla Fragrance Oil, Pumpkin Spice Fragrance Oil; 10 to 20 3" or 6" Cinnamon Sticks; 10 to 15 Chinese Lanterns (sometimes called Japanese Lanterns)

Directions:

Slit Vanilla Bean piece and scrape out the tiny seeds. Combine with Tonka Beans and Ginger Root slices in non-metallic container. Add the oils and mix well, cover and set aside or overnight to blend the scents. Add first potpourri ingredient to a large non-metallic container, add fixative/scent mixture and mix well. Add each ingredient, mixing with hands after each one, to distribute the scent. Top with Cinnamon Sticks and Lanterns. Keep covered when not "in use". 3/96


Source: http://www.aworldofplenty.com/1-ideas/2-blends.html

Let's Make Soap Whipped (Room Temperature) Soap

Are you interested in learning how to make whipped soap? Here are step by step instructions by David Fisher from About.com: Candle and Soap Making.

http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/coldprocesssoapmaking/ss/whippedsoap.htm

How to Use Black Soap Dye

Sometimes soap dyes or tints after awhile bleed between layers or in my case with soap shape embbeds.  In the article "How to Use Black Soap Dye" by fashionmujahid, eHow Community Member, explains how to use dye in the most common forms of making soap - melt and pour, cold process soap and will also illustrate techniques that carry over into rebatching and hot process soap making processes.