Mini Oak Leaf Soap Bars | Free Melt & Pour Recipe

July 30, 2021

One of my favorite things about fall is watching the oak leaves turn from green to a bright, rich red. These fun soaps evoke the beauty of fall as the colors start changing. Follow along as we make 8 adorable oak leaf guest soaps that will make your home feel festive throughout the entire fall season. These soaps also make great gifts and favors!

Skill Level: Intermediate

Hands-On Time: 1-2 hours

Yield: 8 guest-sized soaps

Supplies

Leaf Soap Mold
Face Mask
2 Micro Scoops
3 oz Measuring Beaker
Straight Edge Soap Cutter or other cutting tool
Pipette for measuring fragrance
Mix & Pour Funnel Pitcher
Digital scale
Cutting board
Spatula or spoon for stirring
Small paint brush
Spray bottle filled with rubbing alcohol (at least 91% isopropyl alcohol)
Nitrile gloves (optional)

Ingredients

1g jar Scarlet Red mica
1 g jar Olympic Gold mica
1g jar Sea Green mica
1g jar Bronze mica
1g jar Purple Red mica
2g jar Raspberry Glitter
8 oz clear soap base such as Premium Extra Clear or Detergent Free Clear Soap Base
1 oz fragrance oil of choice, such as:

Project Overview

We’ll start by painting mica into the leaf details of the soap cavities. Once the mica paint dries, we’ll mix up a small amount of soap base to fill the leaf portions of the molds. After the leaves set, the rest of the mold will be filled with glittery soap base to finish the bars.

The fun thing about this project is that you can take any direction you want with the leaf design. I decided to paint colors that made it look like the leaves were transitioning from green to red, but you can also paint them a solid color, or go a completely different direction and choose any other color of mica you like.

With this mica painting technique, there’s no need to add details to your soap after unmolding them. The mica paint will adhere as soon as the leaf is filled with soap base. If you’re familiar with watercolor painting, this technique is very similar.

Don’t worry if you’ve never painted before. There’s really no way to mess up. But if you don’t like the results, it’s easy to wash the mica out of the mold and start fresh! Just check that you like the effect of your paint before pouring soap base into the mold.

Check out our Shimmering Mica Wax Melt tutorial to see a video that covers this mica painting technique.

Painting the Oak Leaves

Pour a small amount of rubbing alcohol into your 3 oz measuring beaker (or other small plastic dish).
Open your Scarlet Red, Olympic Gold, Sea Green and Bronze mica jars.
Dip your paint brush into the rubbing alcohol, then dip the wet tip into the red mica. Apply the “paint” to the leaf portion of the molds in any design that you like.
Simply dip your brush into the rubbing alcohol to make the paint thinner, or dip in the mica to get a thicker paint. Tip: Avoid creating clumps of mica in the mold as you paint. The soap base may trap small pockets of air if there are clumps in the mica. If you get a clump of mica in your soap mold, you can dilute it easily by dipping your brush in rubbing alcohol and tapping it in the mold to disperse the mica.
Repeat this technique with the Olympic Gold, Sea Green and Bronze micas, filling in each part of the leaves. You can blend the colors into one another so they transition, or simply dot the paint randomly into each leaf. Every leaf will look unique, which is part of the fun!
Let the mica dry, which should only take a minute or two. Once dry, can flip your mold over to get a better idea of what your leaves will look like. Don’t worry about filling in all the cracks. We’ll be pouring colored soap into the leaf cavities to make them look solid.
Wash and dry your 3 oz measuring beaker.

Filling in the Leaves

Measure out 1 oz of clear soap base using a digital scale.
Cut the soap into small, uniformly sized cubes.
Add the cubes to your 3 oz measuring beaker and microwave in 5-second bursts until the soap melts completely. Don’t overheat the soap, or it may scald.
Open your Purple Red mica powder and add 2 micro scoops of the mica to your melted soap base. Feel free to stir with your micro scoop to blend the color in smoothly.
Carefully pour the soap base into the leaf portion of each cavity in the mold. Try not to overfill them, as the excess will need to be scraped off for your finished soaps to have a polished appearance.
As soon as you fill a leaf cavity, spritz the top with rubbing alcohol. This removes any bubbles that rise to the surface. It works well to pour with one hand while spritzing with the other. If the soap cools or forms a skin before you spritz, the bubbles won’t go away.
Let the leaves set. This should only take a few minutes.

Filling the Soap Cavities

We’ve included instructions for two different versions of the design. If you want clear, glittery soap, simply add glitter and skip the optional step for adding mica.

Measure out 7 oz of clear soap base using your digital scale.
Cut the soap into uniformly sized cubes.
Add the cubes to your Mix & Pour Funnel Pitcher and microwave in 15-second bursts, stirring in between bursts. Remove as soon as the soap is melted.
Open your Raspberry glitter powder and add 3-4 micro scoops of glitter to the melted soap base. Stir to incorporate the glitter.
Optional: Open your Olympic Gold mica powder and add 1-2 micro scoops of mica to the melted soap base. This will result in gold soap bars with glints of red glitter. Stir to blend in the mica.
Using a pipette, add approximately 1 ml of fragrance oil to melted soap base and stir.
Important: Spritz each cavity of the mold with rubbing alcohol again before pouring in your soap base. This helps the leaves adhere to the rest of the soap base you pour in. The leaf portion of the design may remain stuck to the bottom when unmolding if you don't spritz them before pouring the rest of the soap.
Pour the soap base into each cavity of the mold, filling them to the top. Spritz the top of each soap with rubbing alcohol as soon as you pour to prevent bubbles.
Let set until completely hard. Soaps should set up and be firm enough to remove within an hour. However, for the easiest removal, we recommend letting the mold sit for 24 hours.