How many bars of soap will one pound of soap make?
It really depends on the size of the mold you have, but the average is 3-5 bars per pound.

Some very tiny guest soap molds like our Victorian teardrop mold or the guest rectangle tray mold will make 15 bars.

Some larger molds like the massage egg mold may only make 3 bars.
If you know what size soap your mold makes, you can figure out how many bars you’ll get per pound by dividing 16 (16 oz per pound) by the oz in the bar. So if your bar is 3 oz, then 16 divided by 3 = 5.3—you’ll get 5 bars per pound.

My melt and pour soap doesn’t lather very well. Can I fix it? Did I do something wrong?
Some Melt and Pour soapbases do not lather well. Soap Crafter's Melt and Pour Soap very rarely has this complaint. It is all in how it was made and what they used to make it.

Can I add oils/herbs to my melt and pour?
A better question is, “will it work to add those things to melt and pour?’.
Oils generally don’t work well in melt and pour because it has such a high water content. They usually float to the top leaving a slimy residue on the surface of your soap. Yuck!

Also, adding oils can reduce your lather which is already a factor in melt and pour soap.

The good news—aloe vera liquid suspends quite well in M&P and is a nice additive.

Herbs/flowers/powders are tricky to suspend in a M&P base. If you put them in while the soap is still hot they sink to the bottom or float to the top, much like if you put them in a glass of water. They will suspend better if you wait until the soap has cooled quite a bit (to the point where it is starting to get thick).

Also, powders seem to suspend better, so you might want to try putting herbs and flowers through a food processor or coffee grinder and then suspending them in the M&P.

Even taking all these measures, you’ll still get more that will settle at the bottom. But taking the steps above will help them to suspend more evenly through the soap.

Another thing to note about herbs/flowers:
Most of them will turn brown in soap. That is another benefit of making them into powders.
In my first batch of lavender M&P soap that I made I used whole lavender flowers. In a few days it looked like I had little mouse poops all through my soap. Eeeeew! Oh well! We live and learn.

If you’d like a flower that stays true to color try calendula flowers. They are a pretty yellow and look great in soap.

How long do I have to let my M&P soap cure before I can use it?
Melt and Pour soap requires no curing time. Just pop it out of the mold and it’s ready to use. (How cool is that?)

Speaking of molds……”How do I get my soap out of the mold?”
If you let it sit at room temperature to harden up and then try to get it out, you’ll have to fight with it to get it out of the mold.
But….. if you stick the mold in the freezer after it has set for
About15 minutes, then wait an hour or so until the soap is very cold, it will pop right out of the mold.

That way you don’t need to worry about oiling the mold which isn’t good with glycerin soap anyway.

How long will my soap base last?
As long as you keep it well wrapped, your soap base will last for years. It may yellow over time or loose some of its moisture though.
If you’ve had it for awhile and it feels a bit stiff or dry, you can add about 2-3 tsp of water per pound to it while it is melting.

What is the best way to melt my soap?
You can melt it in the microwave or over a double boiler.
However, when I am doing a lot of soap at a time, like when I am teaching a class or doing a birthday party, I melt it on low in my crock pot. It keeps it liquid and with the lid on, it won’t dry out.

Can I use food coloring to color my soap?
Not unless you want it to fade or mutate into some strange color (yes, unfortunately, I speak from experience on that one too :-}).
There are several soap book s out there (including one by a famous person who I can’t name here) that say to use food coloring. Don’t believe them! It isn’t stable in soap. A good water based color is what you need. Remember…. Don’t over color. You don’t want to give someone red or blue skin or have your embeds bleed.

How do I make a layered soap?
First you pour a small layer in the color that you want. Let it get a good skin on it then spritz it with witch hazel and add your next layer. Repeat until you have the desired effect.
Why witch hazel? It helps the layers to adhere to each other. If you don’t use it, your layers will separate.

How do I get rid of the bubbles that are on the surface of my soap?
There are 2 ways.
You can spritz the soap with alcohol after you have poured it.
Or you can use the toothpick method.
For the toothpick method, you wait until the soap you have poured gets a light skin on it (3-7 minutes depending on the size and depth of your mold). When it has a light skin, go all the way around the outside edge of the mold with a toothpick, then pull the toothpick toward the center of the mold. Then remove the skin. All the bubbles will come off with this layer, leaving behind a nice, smooth finish.
The alcohol method is faster but I personally prefer the toothpick method because I don’t like the idea of adding anything drying to my soap.

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