Making your own soap really is child’s play! Why not try making homemade soaps with your children? We have put together some inspiring ideas for creative fun for children involving making and decorating coloured soaps. Time spent with your children is precious and what better way to spend time together than doing something fun and creative to stimulate their development? Making your own soap encourages learning through play and can be a great family activity. Your little ones are sure to enjoy it!
Homemade soaps – how to make them with your child?
How to make soap – easy steps for children
Children of all ages can help with making homemade soap, older children can be more hands on with supervision. They can help with measuring the ingredients, adding them to the bowl and mixing the ingredients together. Adult supervision is always required though as the soap ingredients need to be heated to a high temperature
How to make homemade soap
First of all prepare all the equipment you will need, including an apron, gloves and protective glasses for you and your child. This will ensure you can make the soap safely while making your child feel like a scientist! On the internet you can find many different free recipes for homemade soaps which are easy to follow. Choose the recipe you want to try, follow the steps carefully and have fun getting creative!
Tell the child what you will be doing – step by step.
Before you start working, explain step by step to your little one what you will be doing. This will not only make the play more interesting for the child but also safer. Right from the beginning, you can specify that only a parent or older sibling handles hot substances and indicate which tasks will belong to the youngest child. While going through the steps, you can talk to the child about the colors or scents they would like to use or which molds they care about the most. This will also help avoid later disputes, especially if several children are involved in the play.
Allow your child to be creative! For you, combining glitter and star anise may not be the best idea, but if your little one insists on it – let them create their own masterpieces. Remember that the main purpose of making soaps together is to have fun and spend time together. There is still plenty of time for the child to learn to create aesthetically pleasing compositions. Who knows, the little one might surprise you with their good taste? Even if the soaps are not perfect, what matters most is that they are made with love.
Recipe for simple glycerin soaps
The simplest to make are undoubtedly glycerin soaps. To make them, you will need glycerin base, preferably plant-based – you can easily buy it online. For one small soap, you will need about 5 grams of the base, so order as much as you plan to make soaps. Natural glycerin soaps are suitable for all skin types: they do not irritate the skin but provide excellent moisturization and protection. You can also prepare scented and colorful soaps (more about this later in the article).
The glycerin base should be cut into smaller pieces and placed in the microwave to melt. This happens at a temperature of about 60 degrees Celsius, so relatively quickly – make sure the base does not boil. When the base reaches a liquid consistency, you can start pouring it into molds – for children who will decorate the soaps in molds, you should wait until the mixture cools slightly and becomes the consistency of playdough.
How to mold homemade soap
Once the ingredients have been combined and heated you can pour the homemade soap in to molds. There is no need to buy any specialist equipment for this, children’s sandbox molds or silicone muffin trays are perfect. If you are looking for a more decorative effect, slightly freezing the soaps means they can then be carved. Other designs you can try are a handprint or specific shape such as an animal figurine. Once the soap has fully set, the block can be cut with a sharp knife, another alternative is to use cookie cutters…there are so many possibilities!
Homemade DIY soap can be poured into silicone molds.
Hand-decorating homemade soaps with the children
Even toddlers can get involved with this fun activity! Children can get creative and invent their own decorations and designs, they will enjoy the freedom to get arty. We are sure you will be pleasantly surprised with what they come up with. To decorate the soaps, why not try using flower petals, cinnamon sticks or even glitter to create a sparkly soap?! Transparent glycerin soaps are ideal for setting decorative objects in, you can even set small toys or colourful beads in to your homemade soap! This not only looks great but will make washing your hands so much more fun, as well as encouraging your children to be hygienic.
Decorating household soap
Homemade soap – creative fun for children
To make the process of creating your own homemade soap even more fun, why not try setting it up as a fun laboratory? Children love to get involved with experiments!
How to make scented soaps with your children
Children can also get creative with the fragrance of the soap using natural, essential oils. Prepare some essential oils, a small dish, mixing stick and a pipette. Carefully place a few drops of your chosen fragrance in to a bowl then mix thoroughly with the rest of the soap ingredients for a wonderfully fragrant soap!
How to create colourful soaps?
Making colourful homemade soaps can be another opportunity to teach children all about what happens when you mix different colours. Not only is it fun for children to experiment with different colours but you will also end up with some beautiful multi-coloured soaps. Simply add natural dyes to the soap and let your child mix the soap ingredients. To create a rainbow soap, pour different coloured layers in to the mold for a stunningly colourful soap!
Golden satin bag in the background with colorful soaps.
How to package homemade soaps as a gift
Now you know how to create your own handmade soaps with the children, it’s time to think about how you will package them to make unique gifts. Soap prepared by young children and beautifully presented can make a thoughtful gift for loved ones such as grandparents or for Mother’s Day. Material bags, such as organza are so easy to use that your children can package them completely independently. Simply pop the soap inside the bag and draw the strings to close, see, it’s child’s play!
Soap in a pink organza bag.
Do you like to create DIY gifts? If so, choose to package your creative gifts in our linen bags. Our linen bags are great as they can be decorated with drawings using acrylic paints, crayons or markers for truly personalised gift packaging. Personalised fabric bags made by children are the perfect packaging to present their unique gifts in. Material bags can also be decorated in many other ways! For further inspiration, have a read of our blog post: Original, handmade packaging. Creative ideas.
Our high-quality material gift bags are available in a wide range of sizes and colours to suit any gift. Thanks to the vast choice of designs, you can easily find a bag to complement your stunning homemade soap!
