Getting gifts for those who help us and our children during the holidays can be a nice way to thank them and show them that you appreciate all they do during the year.
Yet, it can be hard to get gifts for all the teachers, therapists, doctors, and caregivers, as that many gifts can be expensive and create a lot of load on the family.
Don’t worry; I have a great Christmas gift option for you that won’t break the bank, is unique, and is a lot of fun to make together with your child.
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Today, I will walk you through how to make small decorative soaps as holiday gifts. Specifically, snowflake glitter soaps – perfect for winter. They turn out beautiful and are easy to make at a reasonable cost.
As a spolier, it cost me $3.88 a soap – we made 35 soaps, (not including the optional packaging supplies, but that cost is minimal). The full cost breakdown is below.
Gifting with your child
If your child can help in the gift creation process, it’s a great opportunity to help them learn this valuable life lesson: saying thank you.
During the year we meet a lot of helpers, and we want them to know that we appreciate their help, so we like to give small gifts to show our thanks.
Snowflake glitter soaps
Here is a picture of the final product. As you can see, I bagged them and created a cute label in Canva. There are lots of other soap designs you can create; I’ll go through them a little later on in the post.
Supplies you’ll need for these homemade soaps
You don’t need a ton of supplies, and the good news is that they last forever, so they keep nicely to use again next year if you only make a partial batch.
Ingredients:
- Snowflake silicone molds – 12 cavities
- White soap base (white regular)
- Clear soap base (crystal clear)
- Extra fine glitter (we used electric blue)
- Peppermint essential oil
- Rubbing alcohol
Silicone Snowflake Molds, FineGood 2 Pack Cake Pans Cookie Trays Handmade Soap Making Moulds, Also for Chocolate Pudding Jelly Muffin Cups Kitchen Baking Decoration, 6-Cavity – Blue, Purple
- PRACTICAL: These silicone snowflake trays can be used to make chocolates, cakes, candles, hard candy, fondant, Jelly, ice cubes, soap, muffin, etc.
Packaging supplies (optional):
- Clear bags
- Ribbon
- Tags (click to download a free PDF copy)
Equipment:
- Cutting board
- Large knife
- Cookie sheets (flat ones, not warped)
- Food scale
- Microwave-safe measuring cup (2 cups at a minimum)
- Spoon
- Spray bottle
Steps to make your DIY soaps
Click here to download instructions in a PDF
Step One: The glitter layer
Firstly, lay out your clean silicone molds on a flat cookie sheet. You want to be sure they’re not warped, as the soap needs to dry in an even layer.
Cut up your clear soap base block into chunks, place 14 ounces on your food scale, and then into your microwave-safe measuring cup and melt it for 30 seconds, stir, and repeat until melted. (Be careful, it will be hot).
Measure out .1 oz of essential oil and stir in. Or if your essential bottle oil has a dropper, add 50 drops. (This is great counting practice for kids).
Note: If it’s your first time making these, maybe start with a little less essential oil. You can always add more to your mixture if you want more scent, but you can’t remove oil once it’s in (aka too stinky).
Next, add your glitter colors. In the pictures, we have used 2/3 blue glitter and 1/3 silver. Start with 1 – 1 1/2 teaspoons, and stir. Don’t go overboard with glitter, or your soaps could end up feeling like sandpaper.
Look at the picture below; you can see the difference in color when we use 2/3 blue and 1/3 silver vs a 1/2 & 1/2 mix. The color preference is up to you. More blue = a darker tone.
When it’s all combined, slowly pour your glitter soap into the molds until it’s about 1/3 of the capacity of the mold. If you have bubbles on top, you can spritz them (right away) with rubbing alcohol to get rid of them. Don’t wait on this, or the rubbing alcohol trick won’t work.
Carry your trays to cool in the fridge (or a cold garage for at least 30 minutes). After 30 minutes, test one soap by gently pressing it in the middle. You may need more cooling time depending on how cold the environment is.
Step Two: The white layer
As we are making snowflake soaps, we are using a white base (because a snowflake is white). You want the glitter color you chose to stay true, and a colored soap base may alter the coloring. But for other designs, a colored base may be pretty.
Bring your cookie sheets with molds back to the table.
Next, chop your white soap base into blocks and weigh out 32 oz. (If you’re using a smaller 2-cup measuring cup). You may have to partially melt your blocks and add more as there’s room in your cup.
Next, measure out .15 oz of essential oil, or use 100 drops to start with (you can always add more if you want a stronger scent). Stir to combine.
Pour your white soap base into the molds and add it right under the edge. Don’t stretch the white out to have enough for the molds and then go back to add more; it won’t work. The soap starts to dry fairly quickly, and adding more after the initial pour creates weird bumps and lumps (trust me).
Quickly spritz any bubbles with the rubbing alcohol.
Allow these to harden overnight.
Step Three: Packaging your DIY soaps
The first thing to do is carefully remove the soaps from the molds. Just start peeling back the mold from the edges of the soap. You can turn the mold cavity inside out since it’s silicone. Once you have your soaps out, it’s time to wrap them.
I use clear plastic food treat bags. You can get them at the dollar store or Walmart – here’s a link for easy ordering.
Next, you’ll need a ribbon. I use about 12 inches per bag. I don’t try to do a fancy bow. Just enough to tie it closed and add a tag, with a little extra.
For the tag. Here is a free printout. It’s made to be printed double-sided. Ideally, you’d use a thicker cardstock. (You can always send this to your local Office Depot to be printed on thicker paper).
The I cut out the tags, hole-punched them, and tied them on.
How much soap base should I buy?
First, you need to know how many soaps you want to hand out. As I said above, we hand these to our physical therapy clinic (about 18 therapists) and her teachers & school staff (about 15). Plus, we have a few for her to give Christmas gifts to family members.
For my family, we need at least 35 soaps.
One snowflake soap mold holds 3 oz. There are six snowflakes to a mold, and we have two molds. So….
(3 oz x 6 soap cavities) x 2 molds = 36 ounces total for one batch of glitter snowflake soap. This makes 12 soaps. So, we’ll need three batches of soap to have enough to hand out to everyone.
36 ounces x 3 batches = 108 ounces.
Remember, we need both a white and clear soap base. Ideally, the clear is about 1/3 of the soap, and the white is 2/3rds of the soap.
108 total ounces x 1/3 = 36 ounces of clear
108 total ounces – 36 ounces = 72 ounces of white soap
For your glitter:
– 1 tsp = 4.2 grams
– Since I’m making three batches, I’ll need about 3 – 3 1/2 tsp. So I’ll order a 10-gram pouch and a 5-gram pouch = 15 grams. (Or, order 25 grams for a few dollars more and have enough for next year’s batch.)
Cost of making handmade soaps
Making yearly soap gifts costs all in all about $136 (for 35 soaps). About $3.88 per soap, which is pretty good. Plus, it’s a unique handmade gift where my kiddo got to do a fun activity and be involved in the “thank you process.”
Plus, I don’t need to buy essential oil or glitter next year, as I have enough leftover from the original purchase. I just need to buy the soap base for next year’s batch. (There will be some leftover soap base from this batch as the soap sells in 1lb increments).
Please remember that prices can and do change over time. This cost breakdown should give you a rough estimate.
- Silicone mold – $12
- Essential oil – $10
- Glitter – $11
- Rubbing alcohol – $8
- White soap base – $60
- Clear soap base – $35
Packaging supplies are minimal, as you can get bags and ribbons at the dollar store if you want.
Other soap molds & scents for throughout the year
There are lots of fun silicone molds (these can be used for baking, pudding, chocolates, etc). And some will make great soaps. Just switch up your scents and glittle colors.
Tips for making perfect snowflake glitter soaps:
- Pour your soap into the mold fully to the top, don’t leave room, and try to add leftover soap later; it will turn out lumpy.
- Use rubbing alcohol spray immediately after pouring, or the bubbles will harden, and the spray won’t work to get rid of the bubbles.
- DO NOT use glitter ribbon. You’ll get glitter everywhere in your home.
- Use flat cookie sheets, not old warped cookie sheets. You need the soap layers to harden flat and evenly.
At the end of the day
Every year, my daughter and I look forward to this holiday activity; it’s now a much-loved tradition. Plus, my daughter has a lot of fun at school handing these out to her teachers.
I hope you’ll give these glitter snowflake soaps a chance, as I know you’ll have a lot of fun making them!