Homemade Coconut Soap using melt and pour soap…

A while ago now, I shared my first attempt at making soap with you.  My lovely Honey and Oatmeal Soap was so lovely that I decided to have a go at making a coconut soap because as the weather gets warmer, coconut is definitely one of my favourite scents.

I always used to think that making your own soap would be a huge complicated process involving goggles, gloves and possibly some sort of minor science qualification. 😂 I’m pretty sure the traditional way of making soap involves lye, which is the bit that always put me off looking into it properly because I am absolutely not the sort of person who wants a relaxing afternoon craft project to involve safety equipment.

Then I discovered melt and pour soap base, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. You melt it, add whatever little extras you want, pour it into a mould and leave it to set. It’s such an easy way to make homemade soap and it feels much more doable if, like me, you like the idea of making lovely homemade things but don’t want the faff or the risk of anything too complicated.

I bought my soap moulds from Amazon for under £2 a few years ago because I wanted traditional soap-shaped moulds for my first attempt, but any silicone mould would work. They’ve gone up in price a little bit now but I’ve gathered a bit of a collection now and when i make soap these days, I used prettier flower-shaped moulds from the pound shop, which make the finished soaps look a bit more gift-worthy, but for this coconut soap I kept things simple.

How to make homemade coconut soap

For this homemade coconut soap, I used melt and pour soap base, desiccated coconut and coconut essential oil. The soap base I bought was about £3.50 for 500g and that made around six bars of soap altogether, although I only made two coconut ones for this batch so I just used roughly a third of the block.

You’ll need:

• 500g melt and pour soap base, or around a third of that if you only want to make two bars
• 5 tablespoons desiccated coconut for every two bars of soap
• 15 drops coconut essential oil
• Soap moulds
• A microwave-safe jug

I found the easiest way to work out how much soap base I needed was to pop the cubes directly into the soap mould first. That gave me a good idea of how many cubes would make one bar, and I only melted enough for two bars at a time so I wasn’t rushing to pour loads before it started setting.

I melted my soap base in the microwave in a glass jug because I do love a good shortcut. You can melt it in a bowl over a pan of hot water if you prefer, but the microwave worked perfectly for me. I checked it every 30 seconds and gave it a gentle stir until it was fully melted, which took about two to two and a half minutes in total.

Once the melt and pour soap base had completely melted, I stirred in the desiccated coconut and added the coconut essential oil. I gave everything a really good mix and then carefully poured the soap into the moulds before leaving them to set for a couple of hours.

One unexpected little bonus was that most of the desiccated coconut sank to the bottom while the soap was setting, which meant each bar ended up with one smooth side and one rougher coconut side. The rougher side could almost be used as a gentle exfoliator, although I’d probably avoid using it on your face because desiccated coconut isn’t exactly delicate. 😂

I’m not sure how well you’ll be able to see it in the photo because, naturally, just as I set everything up to take pictures, a giant cloud settled directly over my house and ruined my lighting. Classic.

Still, cloudy photos aside, I was really pleased with how these turned out. They were easy to make, smelled lovely and looked much fancier than the tiny amount of effort involved. They’d be perfect for little homemade gifts, especially if you wrapped them in brown paper or popped them in a little gift bag with a handwritten label.

If you like homemade products then do have a look at my other little projects.

Also, just a side note that it’s worth reading this post before using essential oils in any homemade product. 😁

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