Making Soap

In our church, I plan activities twice a month for girls 7-11 years old. It's so fun! We have a big group, but they're sweet girls who are so excited to come and participate. They're young enough, there's no drama, something I appreciate after many years of working with teenage girls (YW) and then adult women (RS). I serve with two sisters (literally) who are in their young 20's, and they're also sweet and fun. 

For this week's activity, we made soap. Long ago when our daughters were that age, we made these kinds of soaps with a friend who had all the supplies. I remember our girls liked it a lot, so I decided to make it happen for an activity for the girls in this ward.

I prepped everything and practiced making soap at home first. I used organic glycerin soap base from Amazon, and 8 pounds gave us enough for each girl to make three soaps. I cut the blocks of soap into cubes (they come pre-scored to make it easy). I chose clear glycerin, but there are many different soap options available.

I found these cheap plastic measuring cup bowls at Daiso.

Three cubes makes one soap with the molds I used. So, each girls used 9 cubes total for their 3 soaps and washed their bowls out in between so the scents and colors wouldn't bleed into the next soap.

I microwaved the cubes for just 30 seconds.

Then I added drops of soap colorant (soap dye doesn't stain like food dye would) and essential oils. I bought fruity scents for this soap. I mixed pineapple and coconut for my blue soap, and only used apple scent for my red soap. The colors and scents are from Amazon. I already had the little wooden spoons, but I also got stirrer sticks from Michaels in the soap making aisle, and some girls used those instead.

There are lots of mold shapes out there. In the end, I picked squares because I could fit a lot in them, and then I found cute insects for something a little more fun. The squares are from Amazon, and the bugs are from Hobby Lobby. Each girl made two square soaps and one insect soap. I can see a future activity where we make homemade bath bombs with these same little mixing bowls, colors, scents, and molds.

I poured the soap into the molds, but that causes small bubbles to form on top. I used one spray of rubbing alcohol to make the bubbles disappear. These small squirt bottles come from Michaels in packs of two, and two was enough for 14 girls to take turns using.

Then I added a big colorful bead and some flower charms to the soaps. The flowers came from Amazon, the beads from Michaels. They emerge as you wash your hands and the soap gets smaller. You can use plastic toys too, like dinosaurs or bugs. I found lots of cool Halloween themed trinkets to put in the soaps if we were doing holiday soaps, but I chose not to do that. These soaps would be fun to make in Christmas or Valentine themes too.

I left them alone in their molds for a few hours. You can speed it up by putting them in the fridge, but then the soap might "sweat" so I didn't do that. I also practiced ways I could have the girls label them, since we'd have lots of girls making soaps close together and we'd want to remember who they belong to. In the end, it worked to wait 15 minutes or so until the top gets harder, then just put a sticky note right on top. The sticky note wasn't sticking to the silicone part.

I popped them out of the molds easily. If using silicone molds, there's nothing you need to do to the molds first. They'll come right out. I think if you use metal or plastic molds like muffin tins, you might be able to oil them first but I didn't try that.

Because I had prepped so much ahead of time, it was very busy in the church kitchen, but it was also controlled enough and went smoothly. Our church kitchen has a very long counter where I lined everything up for an assembly line. It also has two microwaves and two big sink areas on different sides of the kitchen, so that was also helpful. I brought the soap molds home on top of cookie sheets so they'd be stable.

The soaps turned out so well! They're so cute and they smell sooooo good. The girls loved making them and experimenting with the colors and smells. It was easy for them to make. The hardest part for the girls was not being able to take them home right away, and they begged me to take them out early before they were ready, but I told them that would ruin them. Instead, I've been delivering them all weekend so they didn't have to wait long.