Want to make a personalized gift for dad on Father's Day? Then try your hand at crafting a handmade shaving soap mug! This craft project makes a great Father's Day gift and even the kids can join in on this one!
1. Grate your bar of handmade soap or leftover soap slivers into a saucepan.
2. Your grated soap should look like this. There's no need to grate it as fine as possible. Stir in 3 Tablespoons of milk (alternately you may use distilled water, but I think milk works best) and put on medium heat.
3. Stir the soap occasionally until fully melted. Once melted stir in your choice of essential oils or fragrance oils and mix well.
Sandalwood is a great choice for a masculine scented essential oil as is a combination of
cedar and sage essential oils. Generally you'll want to use about 2-4% of essential oil per your total soap weight or 4-8% in fragrance oils. But always refer to manufacturer guidelines on how much fragrance or essential oil should be used. I used a fragrance oil called Edward's Temptation for this soap that is a blend of
Bergamot, Rosemary, Moss, Sandalwood, Mint, and Amber.
4. Spoon the melted soap into your clean mug. Then allow to cool and harden. The soap is ready to be used as soon as it has hardened and all excess liquid has evaporated from the soap.
5. Pair your mug of shaving soap with a
Shaving Brush
and gift to your favorite man!
Alternately this method of soapmaking - which is commonly referred to as handmilling or rebatching - can be used with any leftover handmade soap to create new soaps with a fresh, new fragrance outside of a mug. Instead of pouring the soap into mugs, simply pour it into molds and remove once hardened. (The soap will shrink slightly as the excess liquid evaporates making them easier to remove from the molds.) Or, wait for the melted soap to cool and roll into soap balls. Gifting can be as easy as wrapping in waxed paper with a ribbon!
Don't forget, Father's Day this year is June 17th! If you don't have time to make dad something special, you can still give him the gift of handmade! From now through June 17th, 2012 at 11:59pm ET
Rebecca's Soap Delicatessen is offering
25% off all Handmade Men's Soaps. Simply apply coupon code:
FORDAD to your cart before you make your payment and 25% will be deducted from all qualifying soaps in your cart. Choose from masculine scents like Bay Rum, Fragrant Woods, Abalone and Sea, Cedarwood and Sage, Eucalyptus Tea Tree, Forest Pine, Mountain Lake, and Appalachian Trail.
