**Please note this blog was written in 2016 and is very outdate- Part 2 update will be released soon
I have always been a crafting type of girl; to be honest not as much as I would like since I have moved back into the city. My (lack of) space has limited me to only creating during the holiday gifting season and my now not so regular “need to do” projects. This holiday season I really wanted to dive back into crafting and get back into with something I have never made before, so I went with something I have always wanted to make… Soap!
After doing my research I realized it is really a two part gig: Melt down Soap Base (Milk or Soy) and whatever scents (oils or herbs) that you would like to add to it. (The third and optional component if you really want to get fancy is soap molds.)
My only issue was sourcing these items in San Francisco… There isn’t really your ideal Michaels craft store like you can find in any given suburb; which in an ideal world would be my one stop shop. (Amazon is a great stop if you aren’t impatient like me you can get the oils here and the melt and pour soap base here.) But that wasn’t really my jazz as I tend to want things NOW and there was nothing in my pantry that appealed to me in the world of scents. So I did my legwork, hopped on the back of a scooter and got all my items in a one block radius within the Mission District of San Francisco:
SF Herb Co San Francisco, CA
Herbs and Essential Oils: San Francisco Herb Company.
This place is amazing! Check their website here. They have everything you can think of in the realm of bulk herbs and essential oils and the price point is the same if not cheaper then Amazon, minus the wait time and shipping costs.
Soap Base and Molds: Rainbow Grocery; they carry both the soy and milk bases to melt down as the base to your soap.
The best part about this project in my opinion was coming up with the scent combination for my soap. With great partnership from my trusted love, we came up with two scents (broken down below with our measurements):
Lavender (a combination of a cup of dried lavender and 5 drops of essential oil), Oatmeal (fresh chopped oats Approximately 1 cup) and Honeysuckle (5 drops of essential oil).
Sandalwood (5 drops of essential oil), Oatmeal (fresh chopped oats Approximately 1 cup) and Rosemary (1 cup of dried Rosemary)
And my personal favorite; Lavender (a combination of a cup of dried lavender and 5 drops of essential oil), Rosemary (1 cup of dried Rosemary), Oatmeal (fresh chopped oats Approximately 1 cup) and Honeysuckle (5 drops of essential oil)
Wrapped and finished sop
Now to make the soap:
Melt the soap baseMy finished
Add your desired combination of “flavors” aka essential oils or dried herbs
Extract the “flavors” until your desired fragrance is obtained
Pour soap into tray or molds to set
Wait for the soap to harden; which takes quite a few hours (but if you are impatient like me, the freezer works wonders!)
Once the soaps are set break down, or break out of mold and gift away!
Enjoy gifting or using, they will be amazing!