In this episode, I show how to make all natural, earth-friendly, eco-chic soap. Using an organic melt & pour base, natural colors and essential oils, this soap project is made even more eco-friendly by using recycled containers as soap molds. I love how stylish and understated the soap turned out in the video and I hope you will, too! PS – I know I sound like an over-caffeinated parrot in the video (sorry). I have no idea why I was so hyper. I shot the video at 3 1/2 months pregnant on no caffeine, so I think I was overcompensating for my tiredness.
Make Natural, Earth Friendly, Eco-Chic Soap from Soap Queen on Vimeo.
Ingredients – Green Bar:
Organic Melt & Pour Soap Base
Spirulina Powder
Lavender Essential Oil
Various cleaned and recycled plastic containers
Get what you need to make this soap and more by clicking here
Ingredients – Layered Loaf:
Organic Melt & Pour Base
Kaolin Clay
Orange Valencia Essential Oil
Activated Charcoal
Coffee Grounds
Cleaned Box Milk or Soup container
The best soap supplies on the internet are found at Bramble Berry. Click here to browse Bramble Berry.
I have the eco chick soap making kit. I even went the distance to buy extra essential oils so I can experiment the fragrances. I would like to make this as Christmas presents to family and friends. I am confused when you say set aside. How exactly are you meaning set aside? What are you doing to make them harden? Do you stick in the freezer or refrigerator?
I am a little confused on the tutorial part.
Sincerely,
Cassie P.
Good morning, Cassie!
When we say ‘set aside’ we just mean putting it somewhere where it can’t get bumped or moved. I like to keep mine on my kitchen counter where I’m soaping so that I can keep an eye on it. The soap base will actually harden by itself as it cools and you don’t need to do anything extra to it.
We don’t suggest sticking your M&P soap in the refrigerator or freezer as it might cause the soap to sweat and get glycerin dew. If you stick your soap in the fridge or freezer, it could end up looking like the soap in this blog post:
Augh! What’s THAT All Over My Soap?!: http://www.soapqueen.com/personal-ramblings/augh-whats-that-all-over-my-soap-2/
Here are a few videos on M&P soaping that I think could help clear up a few questions you might have:
Soap Queen TV Episode 1: Fragrance and Essential oils: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5ouJZfluMY
Soap Queen TV Episode 2: Herbs and Colorants: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3VbeNl1Nqg
Soap Queen TV Episode 7: How to prevent Morphing & Fading: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-KjcS-L2Sg
Soap Queen TV Episode 12: Basic Layers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oyh1Bf3Gxo
I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions. 🙂
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Hello soapers. I would like to use spirulina in my M&P soap and I already use the product for myself, so I was wondering if I could crush the tablets I already have instead of buying the powder. I know you can purchase it either way at my health food store. Thank you. LM
Good morning, Sammy!
While we normally use the loose Spirulina powder, I don’t see why crushed Spirulina tablets wouldn’t work! I’d try it in a small batch and let us know how it turns out for you. 🙂
https://www.brambleberry.com/Spirulina-Powder-P4013.aspx
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Hi,
I would love to know the recipes for the smaller green soap and the orange oatmeal soap as well. Thanks!
Smaller green one is easy:
Ingredients – Green Bar:
Organic Melt & Pour Soap Base
Spirulina Powder
Lavender Essential Oil
Various cleaned and recycled plastic containers
I need to go find my notes on the orangeish oatmeal one.
Thanks! I love the look of the spirulina bar.
Just like your layered bar, I found another recipe that also asks for clay. Would I have problems if I first make the clay powder into a paste and then add it to the soap? Are there any nutritional benefits to the skin if I do so as opposed to mixing the powder right into the soap (like you did for the last clay-isnt-so-mixed-in layer)?
The round oatmeal bar looks a little orange because of the natural orange color in the Valencia Essential Oil. But the soap base just has those two ingredients: Orange Valencia and Oatmeal.
Courtney from Bramble Berry
I have been flirting with the idea of starting to make my own soaps, but I’m very intimidated by that lye stuff – especially since I have two toddlers running amuck. Melt and pour soap base looks much easier and your awesome tutorials make me feel like this is something even I could do! And totally off subject, I loved the way you sounded – it reminded me of my mom trying to get me up in the mornings when I was a kid. That bright, cheerful tone makes me smile…now that I’m an adult anyways 🙂
You are really doing the right thing with the toddlers in the house. I highly recommend to never make CP soap with little ones underfoot. Send them to Grandma’s or to the neighbor’s for 4 hours and that will be enough time to make the soap, clean up the soap, and allow the soap to mostly set up by the time the little ones return home. That said, melt and pour is fun to make AND it gives you peace of mind =)
I sound like that almost all the time, even first thing in the morning. It drives my non-morning-person husband crazy! LOL! =)
Thank you for watching and piping up!
Thanks for the love! I thought the photo was SO cute that you mashed up.
I featured this on the N.E.E.T. magazine blog. I’m their eco-beauty blogger and I thought your eco-soap tutorial would be a perfect fit!
http://www.neetmagazine.com/bl…
To Anne-Marie and the dedicated folks at BrambleBerry:
The organic, “Eco Chic” product is my absolute FAVORITE soap to make for personal use. As it is my favorite, I have a number of comments and suggestions… bear with me!
I have sensitive hands and an intense germaphobia (a BAD combination, fyi) and my hands become easily irritated by chemical ingredients and sythentic colors & perfumes, so the combination of organic coconut and palm oils (with help from the moisturizing ingredients BrambleBerry uses) is the perfect relief for my over-washed and winter-dry hands.
The use of spirulina/kelp powder makes for an unusually beautiful colored soap that slowly decreases in color densities as you use it: starting out a beautiful, dark forest green and then washing away to reveal more of a lime green hue (with cool spirulina clumps!) that is always a pleasurable finale to the soap’s lifecycle. I was thankful to see a video demonstration of how to make the natural black soap using charcoal tablets [and some other, very cool ideas (kaolin clay!)], as I wasn’t sure how to use charcoal in a soap.
A note to future soapmakers who purchase the Eco Chic kit: the fun (and bright red) cranberry seeds included in the kit are a great exfoliant-scrubber. However, if you use them in a bath, you will end up bathing amidst a sea of floating cranberry seeds. This isn’t a bad thing, just something to consider. I always end up giggling at the end of a bath when I look out at the red dots floating in my now-green (due to the spirulina powder) bathwater. What can I say, I get a kick out of the small things in life!
My favorite containers to use as a mold are the ones that Target uses for their deli-prepared chicken strips. The container has these great dotted imprints that end up creating little scrubber dots on the soap that are perfect to use on worn-out feet or sore muscles.
Finally, I want to thank the folks of BrambleBerry for creating the organic melt-and-pour base and this eco-friendly tutorial/kit. In the future, I would love to see BrambleBerry carry more organic fixed oils that can be used in cold process soap AND an organic or sustainably harvested palm oil. Palm oil production is one of the leading causes of rainforest destruction in Africa and Latin America and results in the loss of habitat for the diversity of unusual, beautiful, and important animals that live in the rainforest (and global) ecosystem. (For more information, see the Australian Orangutan Project’s website, http://www.orangutan.org.au/pa… ) If BrambleBerry were to carry a sustainable palm oil, I would be the first in line for it.
Again, thank you for this great product and for being such a positive, productive company that really cares about its community and its customers. It does not go unnoticed!
-Roberto (Salt Lake City, UT)
The juice container with the layers?
Yes, totally excited for the little one! I just six 1/2 month belly bump photos yesterday: http://www.flickr.com/photos/b… I should probably do a blog update after I measure my tummy at its widest point! =)
Tutorials on baby products … probably, probably. I am still stuck on making the perfect belly balm but I’ll end up making my own nipple/irritated skin balm that would most likely work for a diaper barrier protection too. =)
Great video! You are definitely excited over the little one to come! What is the recipe for the soap in the juice container? I can tell it had oatmeal in it, what else?
Will you be doing any tutorial on baby products coming up? I am sure you are making your own!
making your own!
Thanks Marla. That’s high praise coming from you =) We’re working on an infusion-colorants episode next and I can’t wait to release that one with a little instructional booklet bundled with it.
I split a gut on “over caffeinated parrot”! I do love the looks of nature-inspired soaps.
That’s OK Anne-Marie, your voice goes with the Amped Up, Juiced Out, Totally RAD, Mach 5 with your hair on fire piano music! 😉
So did you ever figure out which brand that rockin’ tofu container came from?
We simply MUST have it for our arsenal….along with the darling little mini mixer!
Better yet, take her across the street to ELF and let him have at it. I promise I will buy the mold, but only if from ELF himself….hee hee. I love the super heavy duty molds!
Awesome job on saving those containers. They are so durable that I hate to throw them away anyways. =)
Funny, I was just talking about the Eco Chic soap the other day to my husband. I saved some yogurt containers to use as soap molds and it reminded me of that tutorial.
The soaps you made in the video looked great!