Brown Bag Spa Gift

Handmade Soap and Bath Salts are always a welcome gift! Try my recipes for All Vegetable Soap and Vanilla Bath Salts. Don't forget to order the Holly Berry Bouquet paper before the Holiday Mini Cataloque ends on Jan. 3rd!

All Vegetable Soap

250 g. lye

650 ml. Water

Measure the water into a pitcher and add the lye to the water. It will get hot and the fumes are bad for you, so cover it and set it outside until the exothermal reaction stops. It will need to cool, too.

90 g. Castor Oil

450 g. Coconut Oil

810 g. Olive Oil

450 g. Palm Oil

Weigh the oils and melt on low heat just until liquid. Overheating can damage the oils!

When the oils and the lye solution each reach a temperature of about 110 to 120 degrees, begin mixing the oils with a stick blender and very slowly pour in the lye solution in a thin stream. Don't rush this part.

Keep mixing the soap to reach the trace stage. It will look like pudding and pile up a bit when you lift the mixer, leaving a trace.

Pour the soap into your form. I used a Pyrex baking dish and lined the bottom with parchment paper. Place it in a box and wrap a blanket around it. Leave it for a couple of days to cool and set up very slowly.

I place my pan in the freezer overnight and thaw it the next day. It falls out of the pan when I invert it over some parchment paper on the counter.

Cut the soap slab into bars and cure for about 3 weeks. Wrap them and add them to the gift bag.

Bath Salts

1 part Sea Salt

2 parts Epsom Salt

Mix together and add essential oils. I used Vanilla Absolute. Heavenly!

Supplies

Stamps

-Lovely As A Tree

-Winter Post

Ink

-Chocolate Chip ink pad

-Chocolate Chip marker

-Garden Green marker

Paper

-Holly Berry Bouquet DSP

-Real Red card stock

-Whisper White card stock

Tools

-1 in. circle punch

-1/14 in. circle punch

-Decorative Label punch

-Wide Oval punch

Accessories

-Real Red Satin ribbon

-Cherry Cobbler/White Baker's twine

-Brown Bag

-Small Jar