Christmas Bar Soap - Two-Toned Festive Soap

What you'll need:

* White soap base – about ½ pound
* Transparent soap base – about 1 pound
* Soap dye – red or green
* Cosmetic grade fragrance, your choice of scents (see recommendations below)
* Soap mold – rectangular bars, or domed bars (or you can use circles, stars, hearts – whatever you fancy as long as they’re larger than guest soaps)
* Rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle
* Double boiler, metal spoons, glass measuring cup with handle, large kitchen knife or grater

Procedure:

1. Melt about a pound of clear soap following the directions above. When melted, add red or green color to get a deep shade, followed by your fragrance. For the red soap I use cranberry scent, and for the green ones I use a combination of mint and pine.

Substitute as you wish, however! Just a note about red color – your finished soap will have a deep pink look to it, as it is very difficult to make a pure red soap.

2. Fill your soap molds about ¾ full. Set aside.

3. Clean and dry the top portion of your double boiler and melt the white soap base. Follow the same instructions as in step one to color and scent the base. Set this aside for a moment while you lightly spray the tops of the setting clear soap in the molds with rubbing alcohol. Pour the slightly cooled opaque soap base over the clear base, and set aside to harden completely.

4. When set, turn your molds over and pop the soap out, wrapping them in plastic wrap and storing them as you did for the other types. It is not uncommon for layered soap like the two-toned bars to split between layers. The rubbing alcohol helps to hold them together. Make sure that your first layer has only set enough that there is a skin on top, and that your second layer is still warm enough to adhere. If your soap does split apart, it’s easy enough to melt the layers again (clear layers together, opaque layers together) and pour them once more.