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Instructions
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When you're ready to begin crafting your melt and pour soap, you'll need to gather your equipment and ingredients.
Equipment:
Most of the equipment you'll probably have right in your kitchen!
You basically need a pan, a glass measuring container, a spoon
and some hot pads. A scale is also handy. These items CAN be used
after you use them to make soap - but they should be washed thoroughly
after you are done. Some soap crafters like to have a set of equipment
just for soap making - that way you don't have to worry about leaving
behind traces of soap or fragrances.
Ingredients:
The ingredients you'll need you may have to find at a store, or order
on-line. Check out the Suppliers area to find
one of the many suppliers that have M&P ingredients. Each of the
ingredients are described below.
Finding good quality soap base is very important. A lower quality base
will not have reliable results, and may not turn out as clear as a high
quality one. The base is available in both clear and opaque (white). Some suppliers
also sell a pre-colored base.
You can use many things to color Melt & Pour soap. Soap colorant
chips and blocks work well. TKB Trading has Gel Tone TM
Colorants that work well also. You can also use food coloring, but this may not
last as long as the other colorants. Another option is to use natural colorants
from herbs/spices.
If you want to add some scent to your soaps, you'll want to get your hands on
some fragrance or essential oils. You may find them locally at a health foods
store, but there are many places on-line that they can be ordered. Essential oils
are pure oils - Fragrance oils are part synthetic, part pure. Both work well and
have their purposes - You may find that you favor one over the other. You should not
use extracts such as a synthetic vanilla extract or almond extract for scent as these
contain alcohol that can be drying to the skin.
You can use just about anything plastic and flexible for a mold. As long
as the mold is flexible, you shouldn't need to coat it or line it with anything.
You can purchase designer molds, or use Rubbermaid storage containers or
drawer dividers. Once you get into soap crafting you'll find yourself looking
at everything as a possible soap mold!
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Instructions
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