Soap embeds are a fun way to make your soap stand out. They’re easy to make, and once you get the basic technique down, this skill opens up a whole new world of soap design possibilities! Today we’re going to show you how to make a basic loaf soap with square embeds. This recipe makes a great template for trying your own design ideas. Follow along as we make this fun project!
Skill Level: Intermediate
Hands-On Time: 1 hour
Cooling Time: 4+ hours total
Yield: 8 soap bars (5.5 oz each)
Project Overview
We’ll start by making two colors of soap embeds using a basic square soap mold. Once hard, the bars will be cut into small pieces. Next, we’ll melt some white soap base that we will use to suspend the embeds. The melted soap is poured into the loaf mold, and a handful of embeds are placed into the soap. This process is completed in four steps to ensure the embeds are suspended evenly. After the loaf sets up, we will remove it and cut it into 8 bars of soap. Cutting the bars revels a beautiful cross section of embeds.
This recipe calls for Spring Air fragrance oil and green mica. With this color and fragrance combo, this would make a fun St. Patrick’s Day project! However, you can easily swap out the color and fragrance to create any combo you want. If changing the fragrance, be sure to check the IFRA statement for maximum usage levels.
Supplies & Ingredients
- 12 oz Premium Extra Clear Soap Base
- 32 oz (2 lbs) Detergent-Free Goat Milk Soap Base
- 6 micro scoops Peacock Green Mica
- 6 micro scoops Green Yellow Mica
- 1 oz Spring Air fragrance oil
- 3 1 oz Measuring Cups
- 2 Micro Scoops
- 1 Whisk
- 1 Pipette
- 1 Loaf Soap Mold
- 1 Square Soap Mold
- 3 16 oz Mix & Pour Funnel Pitchers
- Digital Scale
- Digital Thermometer
- Soap Cutter
- Isopropyl alcohol (at least 91%) in a spray bottle
- Cutting board
- Gloves
- Face mask for working with mica
Step-By-Step Instructions
Part 1: Making the Embeds
In the first part of this project, we’ll be making two different colors of soap embeds. These need to harden and be cut into small pieces before we can move onto the second part of the project. Note that we won’t be adding fragrance to the embeds. Instead, fragrance is added to the suspension base in the next part of this project.
- Use the digital scale to weigh 12 oz of clear soap base. Cut the soap into 1” cubes.
- Add 6 oz of the cubes to one of your funnel pitchers (save the other soap cubes for later).
- Microwave in 15-second intervals until melted.
- In one of your 1 oz measuring cups, mix 6 micro scoops of Peacock Green mica with about 1 tsp of rubbing alcohol. Add mica to the melted soap base and stir.
- Pour the melted soap into one of the square soap mold cavities. Spritz the top of the soap with rubbing alcohol to remove bubbles.
- Add the remaining clear soap cubes to a clean funnel pitcher. Microwave in 15-second intervals until melted.
- In a clean 1 oz measuring cup, mix 6 micro scoops of Green Yellow mica with about 1 tsp of rubbing alcohol. Add mica to the melted soap base and stir.
- Pour the melted soap into a separate cavity of the square soap mold. Spritz the top of the soap with rubbing alcohol to remove bubbles.
- Let the soap bars harden, then remove from the mold. Cut each bar into small, uniformly sized cubes.
- Mix the two colors of soap cubes together in a bowl. Set aside for later.
Part 2: Making the Suspension Base
Now we will use white soap to create a base for suspending the soap embeds. This is done in four layers to ensure the soap embeds are evenly distributed.
Start by using your scale to weigh 32 oz of white soap base. Cut the soap into 1” cubes. Next, weigh out 1 oz of fragrance oil in one of your 1 oz measuring cups. Set aside for later.
Once those two steps are done, follow this process to create each layer of soap:
- Add 8 oz of white soap cubes to a clean funnel pitcher (you can reuse the same funnel pitcher for each layer). Microwave in 15-second intervals until melted.
- Use a pipette to transfer about .25 oz of fragrance oil from your measuring cup to the melted soap. Stir to combine.
- Let the soap cool to about 130 degrees F.
- Spritz a generous amount of rubbing alcohol into the mold/onto the last layer of soap that you poured into the mold. This will help the soap bind together without separating when you remove the loaf from the mold.
- Pour the melted soap into the mold.
- Spritz the embed cubes with rubbing alcohol. You can spritz them in the bowl and stir them with your hand. The cubes can be sprayed multiple times without harming them (the rubbing alcohol just evaporates).
- Drop a handful of soap embeds into the loaf mold, spacing them out as evenly as possible. You want to grab about one quarter of the cubes from the bowl for each layer of soap. This ensures each layer has an equal amount of embeds. It’s okay if the embeds are not fully covered by the soap.
- Immediately after arranging the cubes, spritz the top of the soap in the mold with rubbing alcohol to remove any bubbles.
- Let the soap layer set up for about 30 minutes.
Complete the above steps a total of four times. You now have four layers of soap. After pouring the final layer, let the soap harden completely. This may take several hours. Don’t attempt to remove the soap before it’s completely set, as this may cause the loaf to be dented.
Once completely hard, remove the soap from the mold. Cut the loaf into 8 evenly-sized bars with a soap cutter and package as desired.
Note: You can make as many colors of embeds as you like! For this project, we stuck with two colors. If you want to make more colors, keep in mind the loaf mold can only hold 44 oz of soap. To make it all fit, you can use less soap to make each embed bar, or use less white soap base for the suspension.
Did you try this recipe? We’d love to see how your soap turned out! Share your pictures by tagging @northwooddistributing on Facebook or using #MadeWithNorthWood
NorthWood is not responsible for any products that you make with our supplies or recipes.