How to… Make Soap (for Beginners)!
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How to make soap – for beginners or a Dinosaur activity for you! (Say what? Dinosaurs AND soap? Read on..). “Real” soap making is actually tricky, you need chemicals (Lye) and safety equipment (googles, gloves) and thermometers… so after reading lots about it, I decided that maybe it wasn’t quite for me. But I still wanted a go at Soap Making in general. So researched a little and found the fabulous “Melt & Pour” soap. Which basically takes the “first tricky step” out.
Melt & Pour, is easy, safe and you can do all sorts of things… such as getting small boys to wash their hands! Melt & Pour soap, comes in all sorts of guises and if you “google it”, you will find Organic Melt & Pour soap and all sorts. It tends to come in a semi clear pot and is great value for money. Once you have a pot… you can get started and make all sorts of lovely soaps.
Today’s craft is fun fun fun craft for you, which will have the end result that little boys and girls will WANT to wash their hands!!!! We are making Dinosaur Egg Soap!! Yes. Dinosaur soap! If you are looking for dinosaur activities, look no further, this will tickle your kids pink.
Materials: Melt & Pour Soap (found on Amazon or other online stores), a jug, mircowave (you can melt it on the stove too), some cling film, container to shape your soap – we used egg shells (check out how to blow an egg out), mini dinosaurs to fit your eggs. Optional: colour & essential oils for Melt & Pour soap. I bought some lemon and lavender oils.
1) Your Melt & Pour soap will come with instructions, but in essence:
Put your Melt & Pour soap in a heat proof container and add clingfilm (to retain moisture). I did small batches at a time, so I could experiment, without wasting any soap. Cover with cling film. Place in microwave for about 40-60seconds. I found that if you “over heat” your soap, it will boil and form lots of bubbles. I think key to “good soap making” is avoiding the surface bubbles. So you are better off gently heating your soap. Check on it every 10-15 seconds.
2) Prepare your egg – I blew all my eggs out in advance and made sure they were fully dry. On the “round end of the egg, I open the hole large enough to fit the dinosaur. I did this with the help of my tack – pricking bigger holes and then gently prying it open. I think it would look great with lizards and snakes too.. anything you can manage to “fit in”. I cleaned the inside of the egg with my finger. Add a little playdough or tape to the bottom of the hole to close up the egg. If you add playdough – make sure you don’t push it inside the egg (i.e. clear any that goes in, you don’t want it upsetting the final soap!).
3) Back to your soap. Add your essential oils and colours if you wish. Stir gently. Then pour into your prepared egg – slowly and gently to avoid bubbles and cavities. The soap solidifies really quickly, so do do it gently, but don’t take too long.
make soap easy
4) Let fully cool. I put it in the fridge, as I am impatient. Once cool, carve off the egg shell with a knife. Soap is VERY soft, so you will probably not get the same smooth surface as we did with our Egg Candles. But I don’t think that matters – as a) dinosaur eggs look authentic if a little rough around the edges and b) you will be washing you hands anyway, so it will smooth out the surface with use.
DONE! A little bit of “World Play” first and then off to the bathroom.
I think this makes a great dinosaur activity, is a great addition to party bags, or for a non chocolately Easter! Melt & Pour soap really is brilliant for beginners!!!
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Category: Easter, How To's, Kids Craft, Soap Making
This looks amazing fun and dinosaur births without the pain should be on everyone\’s must do list. Genius!
Love it, really brilliant!
Will definitely be trying a girly version of this.. Now I wonder where I can find some miniature fairies?!
Oooh how cute would this be with Fairies?!?!?
what about Polly pockets? Just an idea to throw out.
WOW Maggy, you are amazing! What a FABULOUS Idea. I want to have ago as they look so fun to make! Thank you, Rachel x
Oh my goodness, this is the cutest thing I\’ve seen in a long time! What a brilliant idea.
Aaaah thank you!
you guys made smile!
We have heart and star shaped ice cube trays at home, can see these would be great for making mini soaps!
Absolutely! I started off with stars and heart shapes – I meant to post them, but forgot!! They are lovely and the kids love them too!
Ingenious! Dinosaur Soaps – that\’s so much fun!
These are way too cool!!! My sons would LOVE to wash their hands with dinosaur eggs.
If you get this comment twice, I’m sorry! My computer is being a poop this morning for some reason. ANYWAY…
I LOVE this dinosaur soap! Way too cool! Both of my boys would love to wash their hands with dinosaur eggs! And it would get my 7-year-old to stop pumping 9 pumps of soap onto his hands every time he washes them! Ah!
I like getting comments twice. Thank you for taking the time to do so!!! And yes, we have that problem with the pump soap too!!!! I guess it is fun?? But now we have our dino eggs!
You are so crafty! The soaps came out great, and thanks for the tip about the surface bubbles. These would make a really cute gift too. I bet glitter would look really neat. You could make radioactive space rocks with the glitter, and put little martian men inside or something. My kid LOVES dinosaurs, so I\’m excited to try this. You have the best ideas. Thanks for sharing this idea at the Kid\’s Co-op!:-)
I LOVE the martian and glitter idea! BRILLIANT!
I bought a soap making book from the second hand shop.3 different methods to choose from and no money buy equipment.Was thinking of using moulds I already have ( Kieran has an egg allergy so can\’t do your version).
For the family with the egg allergy…..JELLO makes an egg mold and puts it out for Easter…..you can use that, or you may be able to gently wrap the egg shell in plastic wrap…..What about using ice trays as well….as long as they are designated for art use ONLY!
you\’re a genius! i love that you used egg shells for this — it totally makes the whole dinosaur thing work. off to share it
Oooh thank you Rachelle
I confess to be rather chuffed with them.
Aly – mmmmh, you could use plastic egg moulds? Have a look in pound shops now that Easter is coming up?
This is genius – so creative to use the egg shells for molds!
I love your idea!
I am always amazed at this blog and never disappointed! It is fun just to read about your projects much less try them. I love it! I can\’t wait to try this. Carolyn
These look really great, such good fun too. So glad I found your blog, really enjoyed this post and look forward to reading through our recent ones. Hope you have a good week.
Why are you so bloody talented? Not that we\’re all jealous of course!!
You are a genius!!
You guys are simply far too nice… she says, grinning from ear to ear.
Such a great idea!
So super cool! Much better than plastic eggs filled with dinosaurs. I so love this idea
Fab! Soap-making has never appealed to me until NOW:-)
Thanks for posting, this is an awesome idea, my kids would love it!
You can find mini-characters usually at the dollar store, i\’ve seen princess\’, winnie the pooh characters & toy story -just of the top of my head, they might have fairies too.
Great idea!!
really great idea, thanks so much for sharing!
This is brilliant!
I love your idea of using blown out eggs. I did want to say that with my experince with soap “making” ie melt and pour soft objects are best in the soap as the hard objects can scratch as the soap wears down. I like to use the streatchy critters and I find them at most discount stores or in bulk at oriental trading.
Thanks for the cool idea
Oooh thanks for the tip!
I found the soap on Amazon and a few other sites. Can you tell me how many eggs you were able to get out of the 2lb block of melt and pour soap? I was going to make some as party favors for my son’s birthday.
Thanks so much for your help! I just love this idea. My son is all about dinosaurs right now
Thanks for posting
Eeek – I am sorry, I don’t know, I just “did it”? I could imagine that you get quite a few out 2 lb – prob a dozen?
Ok. Great! Thank you! I wanted to make about 20 so I will get to blocks. Thanks for your help…and for posting this!!! My boys are going to love them!!!
Would this make a good activity for a birthday party? How hot is the liquid soap? It is safe for kids to fill up the eggs or it must be done by an adult?
Thank you
Mmmh, tricky one. I would probably NOT do it as a party, as there are SO many kids. I probably would give it a go at a play date? Also you need to wait for the soap to set and then “pick off the shell”, which can take a while. So short answer: probably no! Sorry!
Would it make a good party bag gift (if you had the time and patience to make them!) I can think of lots of mum friends who would be really please to have a take home gift that was something that encouraged had washing rather than more sweets!
Great for Easter, add a little chick in it.