Friday, January 8, 2010

Tutorial: Sweet Treats Mini Soap Chocolates


I always love to give handmade goodies for holidays and I think these little soap chocolates are the perfect Valentine's Day gift for a sweetheart or even friends and co-workers. They are simple and budget friendly! I hope you enjoy it!

Materials:
• 12 oz. of Bright White glycerin soap
• 8 oz. of Naturally Clear plus 4 oz. of Bright White glycerin soap
• two, 2 cup microwave safe glass measuring cups
• Wilton Bite size brownie squares pan
Strawberry Fragrance Oil
Dark Rich Chocolate Fragrance Oil
Non Bleed Red Liquid Color
Brown Oxide Liquid Color
• two, 2 or 4 oz. Plastic Squeeze Bottles
• Rubbing Alcohol in a Spray Bottle
a simmering pan of water (optional)

Directions:
1) Melt 12 oz of white soap in microwave - about 2 minutes. Add 6 drops of Non bleed red color, less or more depending on how light or dark you would like your pink, and 4 ml of Strawberry Fragrance. Set aside
2) Melt 8 oz of clear soap base plus 4 oz. of white soap base in microwave - about 2 minutes, Add 30 drops of Brown Liquid Oxide, more or less depending on how light or dark you would like the chocolate color, and 4 ml of Rich Dark Chocolate Fragrance Oil. 

here are the colors you are looking to get

3) Pour about 1 oz of pink soap into one squeeze bottle and about 1 oz of Chocolate Brown soap into the other squeeze bottle. If the soap starts to set up, place the bottles in a pan of simmering water until the soap is liquid again.
4) Working in only 12 of the mold cavities, make thin lines of soap across the mold in a diagonal motion using one of the soap colors. You may get a little pooling depending on how hot the soap is – this is ok! Repeat in the remaining 12 cavities with the other soap color. Let set for about 5 minutes.

I make the lines across the entire mold but if you are less messy than me,  you can concentrate the lines within the individual cavities. The lines will just be thicker if you do that.

5) Make sure the soap in the glass containers is at about 120 degrees, not too hot to melt the soap and not too cool to look goopy. Let cool or heat as needed. Spray the brownie mold with a generous amount of rubbing alcohol coating all of the soap lines. 
6) Pour the pink soap in the mold cavities with chocolate brown stripes and the chocolate brown soap in the mold cavities with the pink stripes. Spray with rubbing alcohol to remove air bubbles and let set about 1 hour until the soap is completely firm.

 
 
7) Pop out of the mold and you are done!

Variation: Once you get the hang of the squeeze bottles you can make other designs such as hearts, swirls or dots.



Packaging ideas:
Stack soaps in a wide mouth glass apothecary jar. Decorate with an antique key to your heart and a handmade heart tag and finish with ribbon!
 
4 soaps fit perfectly in a 3.25 in square by 1 inch box. Add a little paper shred in the bottom of the box, place soaps, and finish with a ribbon and handmade tag.


Add pink wood shred to the bottom of a shallow tin and fill with soaps! What  a nice surprise when the lucky recipient opens the box!




resources:

10 comments:

  1. What a great idea!! I am definitely going to try to make these!

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  2. I thought this was a really neat idea, especially for V-Day. It is also really nice to share your soap tips! I love it and they are definitely something I'd like to try and do.

    Casey

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  3. Thanks for the compliments guys! If anyone tries them I would love to see pics!

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  4. What a beautiful tutorial! I love all of your pretty photos, the packaging suggestions, and links to supplies! Thanks so much!

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  5. how sweet! i'm gonna try to make some and put them in a basket. :+)

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  6. absolutely fantastic! awesome! thanks, erin!
    cheers!
    martha,
    from brazil

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  7. Congratulations from Altea, Alicante, Spain.

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  8. Hi :)

    Your soaps look great! I wish I was half as good at it as you are at this point, lol.

    I followed a link to your raspberry chocolate soap and while reading the ingredients noticed that it contained iron oxides...I'm not sure, but I think that is a metal pigment, and I read somewhere recently that pigments should not be used on babies.

    I also noticed that you appear to paint some of your soaps, you may want to check whether the paint is safe to use on skin unless you specify that the soap is only for decoration.

    Just thought I should let you know in case you hadn't thought of that since you mention on the same page that the soap can be used for children. If you are already aware of these things, I apologize in advance.

    On the design end of things, though, I have to say, wow! lol. Happy soaping :)

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  9. Hello,
    Thank you for the compliments. If you have the link or source for the article you read on pigments I would love to read it! The pigments in the soap do not stay on the skin. Though I do say they are safe as hand soap for children, on babies in particular, I would not recommend using anything but unscented, dye free soap. The soap paint I use is specifically made for use in soap and is made form FDA approved colorants. :) I also have a lot of all natural soaps as well as a dye free unscented castile soap, so customers can use their best judgment when purchasing soap for their children or for babies.

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