Men’s Soap Recipe & Holiday Gift Idea with Free Printable Gift Labels

It’s often hard coming up with great holiday gift ideas for men. However, this homemade ferocious & fantastic men’s soap recipe is sure to be a hit!

To tackle the tough challenge of coming up with unique homemade men’s Christmas gift ideas I enlisted some help from an artist I found through Etsy, Anna Dance. Anna Dance of Hello Pants is graphic artist and illustrator from Australia who creates fun and whimsical watercolor illustrations and digital drawings. Through this collaboration, Anna designed the graphics for the free printable gift labels while I created a ferocious & fantastic men’s soap recipe!

There are several variations of printable labels that can be used for the soaps you create from this men’s soap recipe. In addition there are also printable gift tags for women as well. So even if you aren’t making soap, you can still use these label sheets! Also please be sure to check out Anna’s other artwork! You can follow her on Facebook and Pinterest as well as shop with her online at Etsy.

Ferocious & Fantastic Men’s Soap Recipe

© Rebecca D. Dillon

Ingredients:

10.8 oz. pomace olive oil
7.2 oz. 76 degree F melt point refined coconut oil
1.8 oz. sweet almond oil
5.4 oz. sunflower oil
3.6 oz. sustainable palm oil
1.8 oz. shea butter
1.8 oz. cocoa butter
3.6 oz. castor oil

12 fl. oz. distilled water
4.8 oz. lye/sodium hydroxide

2 oz. Ferocious Beast fragrance oil
1 oz. kaolin (white cosmetic) clay
1 Tablespoon rosehips powder
1 Tablespoon powdered loofah
pinch Chromium Oxide Green Pigment Powder
pinch Copper Mica

How to Make Soap for Men

This men’s soap recipe will fit one of my DIY wooden loaf soap molds. Alternately you can use a silicone loaf mold or two 6-Cavity Silicone Mini Loaf Pans. If using a wooden mold, begin by lining your mold, then follow your basic cold process soapmaking instructions.

Start by measuring out the distilled water into a pitcher or a four cup or larger glass Pyrex measuring cup. Then, using a digital kitchen scale, weigh out the lye and pour into the water. Stir into the lye dissolves and set aside in a safe location to cool. Now weigh out the soapmaking oils and butters and place in a large non-aluminum pot. Heat over medium heat on the stove until fully melted, then remove from heat and allow to cool.

While your lye-water and soapmaking oils are cooling you can prepare the other ingredients in separate containers and set aside. If you can’t find loofah powder, you can run a dried loofah through a food processor to make your own.

Once the lye-water and oils have cooled to about 100 degrees F you are ready to make soap. Start by adding the kaolin clay and powdered loofah to the soapmaking oils. Then mix with a stick/immersion hand blender until the ingredients are fully incorporated. Now, slowly pour the lye-water into the soapmaking oils and mix until you reach a light trace. Add the fragrance oil and stir again until you reach a medium trace then pour a third of the soap into your prepared mold. Evenly dust this layer of soap with the powdered rose hips.

Now pour about 1/3 of the remaining soap into a measuring cup and set aside. With the soap left in the pot add a pinch of the green pigment and mix well with the stick blender until it’s thoroughly incorporated. Then pour this soap into your soap mold on top of the first layer of soap with the rosehips powder on top.

With the remaining soap you set aside, add a pinch of earthen mist mica and mix well with the stick blender then pour on top of the first two layers of soap. Level the soap as much as possible so the final size of your bars will be consistent. I generally level out the top of my soap using a butter knife. I run a butter knife back and forth along the width of the mold to evenly distribute the soap, then run it back and forth along the length. However, you can use whatever method works best for you. Now cover the soap and insulate for at least twenty-four hours.

Once the soap has completed the saponification process, you can unmold the soap and cut it into bars. {Learn how to make a soap cutting guide here.} Allow soaps to cure for 3-6 weeks, then wrap and label. I use professional plastic food wrap film to wrap my homemade soaps as it works GREAT and is MUCH cheaper than buying small containers of cling wrap. For my labels, I used full size white label sticker sheets from WorldLabel.

There are several fantastic versions of labels to choose from. You can download a printable version of this soap recipe and Rebecca’s version of the printable soap labels and gift tags here. You can also download Anna’s version of super cute printable woodland deer soap labels here.  Anna’s version also includes a version of soap labels for women with a sweet doe in a winter scarf and hat carrying a basket of flowers! (All labels are for personal use only.) To print your labels, simply choose your favorite label or gift tag design and print only that page onto a sticker label sheet.

Looking for more printable holiday gift tags? Download and print my Printable Kawaii Inspired Holiday Gift Tags and Cute Holiday Printable Gift Tags. Or browse my Printables board on Pinterest.