DIY: 4 Original Soap Recipes (with organic soap base)

I'm not an expert soap maker, but it happened that I bought 330 grams (about 11 oz) of organic soap base* with a thought that once I'll melt it and add different herbs and oils to make special soap for myself and for gifts to give others. This day came when I understood that I need a gift for my sister for the next day. And so I invented 4 kinds of different soaps (probably someone has made similar soaps previously,  but I definitely feel like inventor because I didn't follow any specific recipe)!

My recipe was absolutely easy: cut soap in smaller pieces, melt it in a water bath over fire, add herbs, peels or spices necessary for each kind of soap, let other ingredients soak in melted soap for a minute or more, before removing from heat add essential oils and stir in well, then transfer to containers to cool and harden. That's it. I also covered some of the containers with foil from inside to make it easier to get the soap out of containers when it's cooled. 

I'm absolutely satisfied with the results! They smell nice, feel nice and oh, they look so tasty! And without adding any special coloring I got 4 different colors!  This is what I made and in pictures you can see what I got in result: 

Orange - Rosemary soap:

- organic soap base*

- grated orange peel

- dried rosemary (I guess fresh rosemary will work as well)

- few drops of orange and rosemary essential oils (you can go without them as well)

Orange and rosemary both are know as natural anti-cellulite ingredients, both are good for relieving muscle pain and work as antidepressants as well. I simply had to put them together in this soap. It really looks good and positive enough to scare away all possible depressions and orange peel in it makes it a very gentle body scrub as well.

Peppermint soap:

 - organic soap base*

 - dried peppermint (crushed), I'm pretty sure you can go with fresh peppermint leaves as well

 - peppermint essential oil (I guess you can go without this one if using fresh peppermint leaves)

Last summer I got a peppermint shower gel and in unbearably hot summer days a shower with peppermint shower gel was truly refreshing and leaving the entire body lightly, pleasurably tickling. 

Peppermint is another antidepressant that also relieves pain and headache, it's aroma is uplifting, helps for emotional overload, tiredness, skin diseases, relieves menstrual pain, helps to normalize menstrual cycle, and is cooling and antiseptic as well. A perfect summer season soap!

Bees pollen -Lemongrass soap:

- organic soap base*

- bees pollen

- lemongrass essential oil (could live without this one, because the scent is sweet already from pollen, but lemongrass adds some freshness to it)

I'm not a fan of bees' pollen in my diet although I know that it's healthy to get it there as well, but bees pollen helps for irritated skin, looks really good in soap, it gives the soap golden-brown color and smells as sweet as honey. You could actually enjoy this gentle scrub-like soap without adding lemongrass essential oil, but I just felt that a few drops of it will complement the composition. 

Lemongrass essential oil has uplifting scent, it is antiseptic, eases headache, helps to control appetite, relieves muscle pain, and is good for disinfection as well. 

Cinnamon-Vanilla soap:

- organic soap base*

- cinnamon (spice)

- vanilla infused oil

- coconut oil (you can go without it as well)

Adding cinnamon essential oil wasn't a good idea here because cinnamon essential oil is strong enough to irritate skin, but milled cinnamon was exactly what's necessary. It gave the soap such a great chocolate look and vanilla infused oil perfectly complemented the aroma. Cinnamon also improves the circulation of blood, strengthens nervous system and is antidepressant that gives the feeling of warmth and comfort. So it makes a perfect cold season soap!

I added also a bit of coconut oil because of it's health benefits for skin - it helps for dry skin,  prevents skin dehydration, nurtures skin and protects it from the negative influences of external environment - sun, wind etc.   Just one thing to add about this soap: it seemed like a very gentle soap, but when I finally tried it I got to discover that it wasn't gentle at all - that's a scrub, and definitely not as gentle one as orange-rosemary soap.

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When the soap was ready I simply cut soap in smaller pieces, wrapped each piece in parchment paper, tied with woolen yarn and added a little paper with names to know which soap is inside in each little pack (although it would be pretty easy to recognize each of them by the scent as well). For one "gift set" I'm putting together a piece of separately packed all 4 kinds of soap I made. Doesn't it make a nice, small assorted-soap gift?  

Now I'm impatiently waiting for summer to make firstly my own rose infused oil and then rose soap with that oil and rose petals! Yeah, I know it sounds very romantic - and that's exactly how it is! :)

Feel free to share your thoughts of my soap recipes and you are also welcome to put in comments links to your soap recipes! 

*Ingredients of the organic soap base I used: Aqua, Glycerine, organically obtained Sodium Palmate, organically grown Sucrose, organically obtained Sodium Cocoate, Decyl Glucoside, Sodium Chloride, Citric Acid, Sodium Citrate, Sodium Palm Kemelate, organically grown Aloe Barbadensis