10 February

DIY Handmade Valentine’s Day Soaps

Giving gifts for Valentine’s Day can be difficult and expensive. Flowers and chocolates are perishable and can quickly get repetitive. Homemade gifts are inexpensive and last longer than the typical pricey Valentine’s Day gifts. They always say gifts that are homemade are made with love which makes them more memorable than the store bought ones! We created a homemade soap recipe for the upcoming lovable holiday. Our homemade soaps are fresh in appearance and very easy to make! They stick with the Valentine’s Day theme while also combining a winter theme, so you can use them throughout the entire season.

DIY Valentine’s Day Soap Instructions

The materials you need for this Valentine’s Day project are:

•     Heart Shaped mold (can be candy mold)
•     Mod Podge Mod Melts
•     Hot glue gun
•     Soap mold
•     Glycerin soap base
•     Goat milk soap base
•     Liquid Measuring Cup
•     Essential Oils
•     Stirrer

The Mod Podge Mod Melts come in many different colors. We used the sparkly colored melts because they added an extra shine in our soap. For the essential oils, we used peppermint essential oil. However, there are a wide variety of other scented oils that you can use for these soaps.

The first step for making these soaps is heating up your hot glue gun. This will take a few minutes, so it makes for the perfect time to organize all of your materials for this DIY project. Next,  select the color of Mod Podge Mod Melts that you would like to use for the hearts that are going to be inside of the soap. We started off with red colored melts for our Valentine’s Day theme. Once your glue gun is hot, insert a Mod Podge Mod Melt into the back of your hot glue gun.

Tip: To ensure that your hot glue gun is hot enough, insert a Mod Podge Mod Melt into the hot glue gun, pull the trigger and test it on a piece of paper.

Next, fill each heart mold with Mod Podge Mod Melt. We went through 2-3 Mod Podge Mod Melt sticks per color of heart.

Change things up by using a new color of Mod Podge Mod Melt stick, so you can have multiple colored hearts in your soaps. We picked out red, silver, and gold to contrast with the soap base colors.

After waiting 5-8 minutes, your hearts should be dry. To ensure this, gently squeeze the bottom of the mold to see if they have hardened completely. Once they are dry, pop out the plastic hearts from the mold by pressing up from the backside of the mold.

Tip: You can easily change out what type of mold you choose to use for the Mod Podge Mod Melts. By doing this, you can create soaps for other occasions or seasons.

Some of the molded hearts may have excess plastic around the edges. We recommend taking an x-acto knife and slicing off the excess to clean up the edges of your plastic hearts.

Time to start working with the soap bases! Next, slice the glycerin soap blocks so they can fit into your liquid measuring cup. You will need roughly 1 1/2 cubes of glycerin soap base per soap bar.

Next, microwave the glycerin soap base in 15 second increments. Make sure you stir the soap after you microwave it to ensure that the soap is melted completely.

Following this, pour the glycerin soap base into the soap molds. Fill each soap mold to about the halfway full point. Wait for this layer of soap to form a skin on top before moving onto the next step.

Place the plastic hearts on top of the glycerin soap base. Once you place down the hearts, it becomes their permanent spot in the soap. Make sure that you have an idea of where you want to place the hearts before adding them into the soap.  We used red and silver hearts in half of our soap then used red and gold hearts in the other half.

Next, melt the goat milk base for your soap. We used roughly 2 1/2 cubes per soap bar. Put the goat milk soap cubes into your liquid measuring cup and melt them in the microwave in 15 second increments. Don’t forget to stir after melting! Next, add your choice of essential oils to this base. We added a little less than 1/4 of a teaspoon of essential oils to our base. Stir your soap base after adding in the essential oils.

Tip: You can change the amount of essential oils you put into your base depending on how strong of a fragrance you want your soap to have. But be wary! A little goes a long way with essential oils.

After the soap base has cooled slightly, pour the goat milk base over the hearts. Ensure that this layer covers the hearts completely by filling to the top of the soap mold. It will take 30-60 minutes for the soap to dry completely. We recommend waiting longer, if possible, to make sure that the soap has fully solidified. Finally, remove the soap from the molds and enjoy!

Watch the step-by-step tutorial here:

 

These two layered DIY soaps are very festive and seasonal. Furthermore, the hearts almost look like they are in snow or ice, which fits in perfectly with the month of February. They make beautiful gifts and are a great way to get your house ready for Valentine’s Day.