Archives for February 2015

I’m excited to share with you a new, easy beauty recipe from the DIY queen, Anne-Marie Faiola. Inspired by her love of crafting and her desire to make handmade toiletries easy for everyone, Anne-Marie founded handmadebeautybox, a DIY subscription service that cater to the crafters need by delivering quality beauty and spa projects monthly to your door. In less than 30 minutes, you can make your own Melt-And-Pour Loofah Soaps!

Loofah soaps make a great addition to any winter beauty regimen. Including loofah, a natural exfoliant, in the cleansing bar itself helps removes dead skin cells and soothe flaky and patchy skin, while moisturizing with its essential oil base. Formulated with sunny herb garden fragrance oil, these loofah soaps help the scrubbing particles glide over your skin and provides a nice lock of moisture after you wash.

What You’ll Need

2 lbs Clear Melt and Pour Soap Base 1 Dropper
1 Spray Bottle (for rubbing alcohol)
2 Heat Safe Containers
2 Spoons
Scissors
Paper Towels
Rubbing Alcohol
8 Soap Molds with Lids
1 oz Sunny Herb Garden Fragrance Oil
Electric Bubble Gum Color Block
1 Tagerine Wow Color Block
1 Loofah
Instructions:

Loofah Prep: Cut the dry loofah sponge into 8 even pieces by cutting once vertically then cutting each half into 4 pieces. Next, add the loofah sponge pieces to water to reconstitute and remove seeds as needed (this is a natural vegetable product so you may have seeds). Towel-dry each loofah piece to remove excess water. Set aside.

Rubbing Alcohol Prep: Add rubbing alcohol to the 2 oz spray bottle. Spritzing the melted soap with rubbing alcohol eliminates air bubbles.

1. Cut the soap base into 1 inch cubes and divide equally into 2 microwave safe glass containers.

2. Melt the first container of soap in the microwave on 30 second bursts, stirring in between bursts with a spoon, until the soap is fully melted.

3. Slice off a sliver of the Tangerine Wow color block and mix a small amount into the first container of melted soap until you achieve a bright orange hue. What you see is what you get with these colorants so feel free to add more if you   want a brighter color.

4. Add 4 droppers full of fragrance oil to the melted orange soap base and stir until the fragrance oil is fully distributed (about 12 ml).

5. Repeat steps 2, 3, and 4 using the Electric Bubble Gum color block and your second container of soap.

6. Place 1 loofah sponge in each rectangle mold. It’s ok if the loofah sponges are still a little damp. Trim the sponges if needed. Ideally, we want both containers of soap around the same temperature when we pour. If you have a thermometer, the magic temperature is about 130° Fahrenheit. If you don’t have a thermometer, no problem. Let the soap cool down until it gets a little bit thicker and starts to form a “skin” on top of the soap. The soap should not be hot. If the soap cooled down too much, just pop it back in the microwave on 30 second bursts. Heat as needed.

7.The color fusion technique is about the “pour.” Pour the pink soap into 4 molds only filling up the molds half way. Next, pour the orange soap on top of the pink soap to fill the mold all the way to the top. Repeat this step for the remaining 4 soap molds pouring the orange soap first and the pink soap second. Spritz all of the soaps with rubbing alcohol to eliminate bubbles.

8.Let the soap harden for 12–24 hours before unmolding.

The soap is ready to use right away or add the raffia and labels  found here download here to the soap mold and give them away as gifts. Your friends and family will love you!