by Rustic Escentuals

If you have been following along with the tutorials you may have noticed that you have a growing collection of leftover soap. Whether from your own soap making or your practice sessions, there is always a “stash” of soap that you can do something with to make it useful. Here is a simple but creative tutorial that will show what you can do with your leftovers. There are endless sizes and shapes of cookie cutters on the market, so have some fun with unique ideas!

Skills: embeds, shredding

Supplies and equipment needed
Microwave
Microwave safe glass container
Sharp knife to cut soap into cubes
Spray bottle with rubbing alcohol
Butter knives for stirring soap
Rubber gloves
Cheese Grater
Disposable pipette
Cookie Cutters (your choice)
Wax Paper
Thermometer (Optional)
Ultra Clear Melt & Pour soap base
Body safe fragrance oil
Left over soap pieces

PREPARING THE SHREDS

Step 1: Most soapers have extra soap pieces from past projects. If you’re like me, you may have enough extra soap pieces to take up a shelf. Pull out a few of these pieces to shred. No need to worry about the scent — pull out what you like.

Note: If you do not have extra soap, you can easily make a couple soap samples — follow this basic soap tutorial for some how-to’s: Basic Melt and Pour Tutorial.

Step 2: Now that you have your soap ready, using a cheese grater begin to grate the extra pieces of soap. Any color, any type! Once done, set aside. Note: Please be careful as you get closer to the grater – those finger tips of yours are precious!

 
Step 3: You can mix the shreds together if you want more than one color. Here I’ve shredded different blues and greens then mixed them together. You can choose one color or a rainbow of colors.

 
MAKING THE SOAP

Step 1: Cut up 5 to 8 ounces of Ultra Clear Melt and Pour soap base into small cubes using a sharp knife. Melt the soap base in a microwave for 30 seconds. Repeat if necessary. Depending on the size of the cookie cutters, you may need to adjust the amount of soap base.

Step 2: Take a piece of wax paper and place flat on your workspace. Pour a little bit of melted soap base onto the wax paper. You want to pour slightly larger than the cookie cutter. This will be used to seal the bottom of the cookie cutter.

 
Step 3: Moving quickly, place the cookie cutter onto the poured soap. Press down until set — it will take less than 30 seconds.

 
Step 4: Once that is sealed, using a disposable pipette add 4 ml of soap scent to the melted soap base and stir slowly.
Tip: If your shreds are pre-scented, you may skip this step or only use 2 ml of fragrance oil.

 
Step 5: Spritz with alcohol and pour a little more soap into the cookie cutter. No need to allow this to set.

 
Step 6: Take some of the shredded soap and spritz with alcohol.

 
Step 7: Place the spritzed shreds inside the cookie cutter. Fill it up! Press down on the shredded soap to compress it into the cookie cutter so you can add more.

 
Step 8: Now take the melted soap base and pour more into the cookie cutter over the shreds and all the way to the top. The soap should be cool enough to pour over the shreds at this point. If you’re not sure, you can check the temperature — it should be approximately 135° to prevent the shreds from melting. Note: Because you have a lot of shreds the soap will cool quickly.

 
Step 9: After filling up the cookie cutter with the soap base, spritz with alcohol and take more shreds and sprinkle some on top. You can take a small amount of melted soap base at this point and pour a little over the top to “glue” the top shreds to the soap.

 
Step 10: Repeat the steps above to make more soaps in any shape or color!

Step 11: All done! Set aside the filled cookie cutters to completely cool and harden. It’s easiest to simply let them sit overnight.
Note: If you find these difficult to remove from the cookie cutter, put them in the freezer for 30 minutes. They are much easier to push out from the bottom end. You can also try using a small heat gun to warm up the outside of the cookie cutter just a little to pop out the soaps.

 
Cookie cutters can be found in all types of shapes and are easily found in crafting, grocery and dollar stores. Special note: These cookie cutters shouldn’t be used on food after being used for making soap.

Enjoy and be creative!