Handmade soaps make a great gift for the holidays and you don't have to be an expert to make them. The secret is using melt and pour soap. Melt and pour soap takes a lot of the prep work out of soap making and as you are using a premade base it is a great option for the beginner to the advanced soap maker. The recipe I am sharing today is for my Peppermint Christmas Heart soap. It looks impressive and festive for the holidays and bonus, it's super simple to make. I chose to scent this soap with Peppermint purely because it is one of my favorite holiday scents. Peppermint essential oil is both cleansing and invigorating but truly the smell just reminds me of the holidays so that is what I chose to use.......and everyone loves Peppermint, right?
For this recipe you will need:
To make:
First you will make the heart bases. Melt 16oz of Goat's Milk Melt & Pour in a microwave safe container in 30 second intervals until completely melted. If you prefer to use a double boiler instead, you could do that as well.
Once melted stir in your .4oz of Peppermint essential oil which is a 2.5% usage rate. If you prefer a lighter scent use less of the essential oil. Stir until combined.
Pour your base into your silicone molds. You should get four bars out of this amount of soap and allow to cool completely. I left mine overnight but typically they will be completely cool within 4-6 hours.
Once your hearts have cooled completely, remove them from the mold and now we are ready for the fun part!
Take your remaining 2oz of melt and pour and place 1oz in two seperate microwave safe containers.
Next mix up your drizzle colorants. I did 1tsp of mica to 1 TSP of Isopropyl alcohol. I typically just use a small dixie cup to mix each mica in. For the red I used Firecracker Red and for the green Alpine Green, both from Nurture Soap, but you can use whatever colorants you prefer:) Be sure to stir well to combine.
Now heat up your remaining melt and pour base. Since it is a small amount, I just heated for 10 second intervals until completely melted to avoid scorching the base.
Next pour your red into one of your bases and the green in the other. Stir well to combine.
Spritz the top of each of your heart bases with isopropyl alcohol. This will help your drizzle adhere better.
Now use a pipette to drizzle a layer of each color on top of your heart bases.
For a little extra holiday sparkle you can sprinkle a dusting of gold glitter on top of your drizzle.
Allow your drizzle to cool completely before packaging your soap.
These soaps look super cute in a guest bathroom or make a great stocking stuffer or hostess gift for the holidays. You can switch these up a few different ways by either changing the colors, scents or sprinkling botanicals like lavender buds over the top instead of the glitter. The possibilities are endless once you know the basic recipe:)
*This post contains affiliate links, meaning I earn a small commission when you use my link at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting The Oily Life!