I have a thing for naturally occurring gemstones, specifically anything that looks like marble, agate or druzy. The fact that I know those names is telling of my obsession. I recently got into the Pinterest game (It’s hard to believe I own a DIY blog and have not been on Pinterest all this time!) and chanced upon gemstone soaps. There are lots of different variations, but the ones by Fran of Fall for DIY and Erica of Honestly WTF are by far my favorite. I must add that this project is SO much easier if you have a picture of gemstones that you want to mimic; a simple google search will provide you with some great inspiration.
The best kind of gifts are handmade, and for Mother’s Day last year I made quite a few of them, including soap. I gathered some supplies and got to work on these fab soaps to give out as gifts for Mother’s Day this weekend.
what you need:
- Goat’s milk melt and pour soap base
- Glycerin melt and pour soap base (clear)
- Ceramic or glass bowls for melting
- Essential oil of your choice (I used lavender)
- Liquid soap colorants
- Mini disposable cups
- Large plastic cups
the how-To:
step one: Cut up the goat’s milk and glycerin soap base and melt in 2 separate bowls according to package instructions .
step two: When the soaps are melted, stir in drops of essential oil into them. Careful, melted soap is very hot!
step three: Divide each soap into 3 mini disposable cups per soap type.
step four: Add the soap colorant (one color for now) to each soap type so that you have 3 different shades of melted soap; light medium and deep (see picture). You want to work fast during these steps so the soap does not begin to solidify.
step five: Allow the six mini cups of soap to sit and harden for about 45 minutes. I’m pretty impatient so I placed them in front of my air conditioning to speed up the setting process.
These are chopped up, but you definitely want them a bit thinner than this!
step six: Once the soaps are set pop them out of the mini cups and shave/chop them up with a knife. Make sure to keep the individual color shades separate.
step seven: Melt another bowl of each of the two soap bases while you do the next step.
*I know the instructions call for a disposable cup, but since I didn’t have one I used my silicon macaron mold.
step eight: Randomly place the soap shaving pieces into the larger disposable cup*. Use your gemstone picture for inspiration here! Keep in mind that more of the translucent color should go to the bottom of the cup and more of the opaque color at the top. Still, let the placements be relatively random.
step nine: Pour the clear glycerin soap into the cup first and allow it to semi-harden for about 5 minutes. You can stick a wooden skewer into the cup and swirl around a bit for a more natural and seamless look.
step ten: Now pour in the white goat’s milk soap, allow to semi-harden and swirl a little with a wooden skewer.
step eleven: Allow soap to set for about 45 minutes then pop it out of the disposable cup.
You can make whatever shape you want!
step twelve: Use a knife to shave and cut the large soap piece into a gemstone-like shape.
It may seem like quite a few steps but trust me it’s all quite easy! And not to mention a LOT of fun to make. Feel free to experiment with different arrangements, color combinations and scents – the possibilities are so many!
I took the shavings from creating the final shape and used those to create smaller gemstone bars in an ice cube tray. These actually turned out great because they were more random and blended than the first bars I made.
I’m so pleased with how these turned out and I will be making more in the future for sure. I also have some leftover soap base so there’s possible another handmade soap DIY in the works, hopefully before Mother’s Day.
I hope you enjoy this project as much as I did. If you attempt it be sure to share how your results turned out! What are you making for mama this Mother’s Day? Comment below to let me know!
This post contains affiliate links which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission, which may go towards my wine fund. #holla
