Christmas Guest Soap

What you'll need:

White or transparent soap base (generally sold in two-pound blocks at the craft store)
Soap dye in your choice of color
Cosmetic-grade fragrance (also found at the craft store, or use your own perfume)
Soap molds – small size, with a Christmas motif like snowflakes or stars
Double boiler, metal spoons, glass measuring cup with handle, large kitchen knife or grater

Procedure:

1. Fill bottom of double boiler with water and bring it to a gentle boil. Reduce heat to simmer. Meanwhile, grate or finely chop your soap base. You’ll need enough to fill the cavities of your chosen molds.

2. Place grated soap base in the top half of the double boiler and place it over the simmering water. Allow the soap to melt slowly, stirring occasionally, until almost completely melted. Remove from heat.

3. Stir a few times to get the soap completely melted. Add your color a few drops at a time, stirring just enough to blend after each addition, until you get your desired color. Note that white soap tends to fade slightly when cooled.

4. Add your scent. For one pound of soap base you’ll need anywhere from a teaspoon to a tablespoon of scent, depending on the brand you’ve chosen. Make sure the melted soap has cooled slightly before adding your scent, because very hot soap base will burn off your fragrance.

5. When the melted soap just begins to form a skin on the top, pour into your molds. You do not need to prepare your molds except to clean them. Set aside your molds until the soap has set – at least two hours, but it doesn’t hurt to leave them longer, even overnight.

6. When your soap is completely set, turn your molds over and pop out your finished soap! If there are rough edges, you can smooth them by running a metal spoon under very hot water, then use the back of the hot spoon to run around the edges of the soap. You can also use a vegetable peeler on larger edges, but do so carefully as the peeler will easily cut into your soap.

7. Wrap each little soap individually in plastic wrap to keep them dry – you want to keep them away from any sort of moisture until they are ready to be used.

To store your finished and wrapped soaps, put them in zip lock baggies, and only store soap with identical scents in the same bag. Even with the plastic wrap, scents can mix and mingle if stored together.