Summer Beauty Recipes: An Easy Seashell Soap Tutorial & More Ways to Care for Skin This Summer!

Celebrate summer with nine summer beauty recipes from top bloggers. Easy recipes for DIY seashell soaps, mermaid fizzing bath salts, an aloe vera face mask and more!

Summer Beauty Recipes

Summer means more time outdoors, vacations and fun! So to celebrate the excitement and opportunities of summer, I wanted to share an amazing collection of summer beauty recipes. Not only will you enjoy making these summer skin care products (on a rainy day perhaps?) you’ll also love using them! Keep reading to discover how to make a super easy seashell embed soap. Plus find eight more summer beauty recipes you can make from some of my favorite fellow bloggers.

Summer Beauty Recipe Inspiration

I grew up on trips to Myrtle beach every summer until I was sixteen. Most of those years, we saved money by camping out in a campground. Not only did it give me a greater appreciation for the outdoors, I also learned that you should ALWAYS wear flip flops when using a campground shower. (Thanks, Mom!)

One of my favorite things about staying on a beach campground was the lack of hotels. Sure, there were lots of people, but there were no hotels to mar the skyline. Just beach and plants and trees. It was easy to make daily discoveries of beautiful shells, sand dollars, tiny crabs and clams in the sand.

Much like my early adventures in a hometown creek that fed into our river, I always tried to take at least one of my live discoveries home with me. While at home, I tried to create a habitat for crawdads I caught. At the beach, I took baby clams and other small (yet to be identified) creatures home in a bucket of sand and water.

Being that Myrtle Beach is a good 8-9 hour drive from my home in Virginia, these tiny sea creatures never managed to survive the trip. However that didn’t stop me from trying. Being the stubborn girl that I was (and still am apparently) I tried again year after year, until the camping trips ended. My parents, probably in their wisdom to never argue with a strong willed little girl over something so simple, never protested. Although I’m not sure how they DIDN’T looking back. An eight hour drive in an old school Dodge van with zero air conditioning and sea water left quite the lingering aroma.

How to Make Beach Themed Seashell Soaps

My DIY seashell soaps are a nod to those carefree summer beach trips of days past. They are reminiscent of time spent outdoors in the sun and sand. Long days hunting for seashells and mysterious creatures hidden just under the sand as the waves roll in and onto the beach.

What makes this summer beauty soap project so easy?

Made using a melt and pour soap base, this soap making tutorial incorporates pre-made soap embeds into the recipe. This eliminates some of the challenges that come with working with embeds as a beginning soapmaker. It also saves you money, as you’ll only need one soap making mold for this soap tutorial. This helps reduce the otherwise more expensive costs of investing in multiple soap making molds. There’s also no need to work with lye. So if you’re still not ready to make cold process soap, then this soap making project is perfect for you!

Save on materials & time by purchasing pre-made elements for your summer soap recipes.

While you can make your own melt and pour soap embeds for my beach soaps, this can be challenging and time consuming. Therefore I chose to use pre-made seashell soap embeds that I purchased from a fellow soapmaker. I used seashell soap embeds that I purchased from Spruce Mountain Soap to make this soap making project both simpler and faster.

My seashell soap is the perfect summer beauty recipe for cleansing your skin on hot summer days. Made with a blend of fresh litsea cubeba and peppermint essentials oils, these fun beach inspired soaps help to brighten and energize dull skin. Discover my summer soap making tutorial and recipe below. And don’t forget to check out the other summer beauty recipes for everything from an aloe vera face mask to mermaid fizzing bath salts after the recipe!

Summer Seashell Soap Recipe

© Rebecca D. Dillon

Seashell Soap Ingredients:

21 oz. clear melt and pour soap base
3 mL litsea cubeba essential oil
1 mL peppermint essential oil
12 drops amyris essential oil
1-2 oz. white melt and pour soap base
skin safe blue mica powder, of choice

DIY Seashell Soap Exfoliate Ingredients:

1 teaspoon calendula flower powder
1/2 teaspoon poppy seeds
1/2 teaspoon cornsilk powder

Additional Materials & Supplies for Making Summer Soap:

seashell, beach rocks or sea glass soap embeds
rectangle silicone soap mold
digital scale
graduated transfer pipettes
glass measuring cups or bowls
spray bottle with 99% isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol
utensils (for mixing) and a large Chef’s knife
cutting board
measuring spoons
microwave
your imagination

How to Make Seashell Soaps

Being by weighing out the clear melt and pour soap base. Cut the base into chunks and combine in a large Pyrex glass measuring cup. Heat the cubed soap the microwave in 30-second increments until melted.

Once melted, use the graduated transfer pipettes to measure out and add the litsea cubeba and peppermint essential oils to soap. Follow with the amyris essential oil. Then stir the soap to mix in the fragrance.

Now pour a few ounces of the clear melted soap base into a separate measuring cup. Stir in a pinch of the blue mica and set aside.

Position your soap mold at an angle on a stable surface on a cutting board. (I used a cardboard box I cut at an angle for this step. I place the cutting board on the box, then put the mold on top of the cutting board for easy transport.)

Next, measure out the exfoliants into a small bowl. (You can make substitutions as desired for this step. The purpose of the exfoliants is to mimic the look of beach sand.) Mix to combine.

Then add a small amount of the mixture to each of the cavities of your soap mold.

Now slowly pour the clear melt and pour soap base onto the exfoliants and into the soap mold. Be sure to leave room for the seashell embeds by only filling each cavity about 1/3 of the way.

Use a utensil to reposition the exfoliants along the bottom of the mold as desired. Then spritz the top of they poured soap with alcohol to remove any air bubbles. Allow the soap to cool and harden before proceeding to the next step.

Once the first layer of soap has hardened, place the mold flat onto your work surface.

Now weigh out the white melt and pour soap base. Cut into chunks then heat in a microwave safe container in 20-30 second increments until melted. Set aside.

Spritz the tops of the soap in the mold with rubbing alcohol. Then place your seashell soap embeds onto the hardened soap, arranging as desired.

If necessary, gently reheat the remaining clear melt and pour soap base as well as the blue soap base. Then pour the clear soap base into each of the mold cavities leaving a small amount of space at the top.

Add a drizzle of both the blue and the white soap base into the melted clear soap base in each of the cavities. Use a utensil to gently swirl the white and blue bases as desired.

Spritz with rubbing alcohol to remove any air bubbles. Then allow the soaps to cool completely.

Once the seashell soaps have fully solidified, gently remove the soaps from the mold. You can clean up the tops or edges of your soap bars with a small knife or a potato peeler.

All that’s left is to tightly wrap your seashell soaps in foodservice film. They’re now ready for use or gifting!

Like my easy seashell soap tutorial? Then be sure to pin it (along with the other summer beauty recipes you’ll find below) for later.

Alternative Ways to Make DIY Seashell Soaps

Of course, you don’t have to make your seashell soaps the same way I did. The great thing about artisan soap making is that is unique to the creator. So don’t be afraid that you’ll mess up or get it wrong. There really is not right or wrong way to craft your own artisan soaps for summer.

If you have a loaf mold, you can go into more detail creating water designs. Pictured above is a slice from the ocean portion of my mermaid soaps I made two years ago. You can find the tutorial for my melt and pour mermaid soaps here.

Alternately, Spruce Mountain Soap sells a beautiful Island Dreams Soap (pictured) that you can draw further inspiration from.

More Summer Beauty Recipes to Try

Ready to try your hand at even more summer beauty recipes. Following you’ll discover eight more gorgeous skin care recipes that are perfect for your summer skin care routine!

After Sun Aloe Face Mask Recipe

This easy DIY aloe vera face mask recipe from A Life Adjacent is a wonderful addition to your summer beauty routine. It’s not only moisturizing — it can also soothe sunburn, irritation, and redness, as well as aid in calming the inflammation caused by acne breakouts. (Also be sure to check out my own aloe after sun lotion bar recipe for natural after sun skin care!)

Beach Body Coffee Scrub Recipe

Coffee scrubs are by far one of my favorite summer beauty recipes for summer skin care. This beach body coffee scrub recipe from Botaneri is great for exfoliation and gives a teeny hint of color to the skin.

DIY Mermaid Fizzing Bath Salts

These DIY fizzing mermaid-inspired bath salts by Creative Green Living are easier to make than a bath bomb but just as fun to use! Your kids will love using this fun bath fizz as they splash and play in the tub.

Mermaid Whipped Soap Summer Beauty Recipe

This mermaid whipped soap recipe from Everything Pretty is so light and fluffy! Learn how to use a melt and pour soap based to make a creamy whipped soap that’s perfect for the shower or as a shaving soap before you head to the beach.

All-Natural Sunscreen Lip Balm Recipe

While you get chapped lips in winter, you can get burned lips in summer. Making this project from Garden Therapy a must for your to-do list of summer beauty recipes! Protect your lips with a homemade sunscreen lip balm. It will keep your lips safe from sunburn, make them kissably soft, and it’s made of all-natural ingredients!

Natural Solid Perfume Recipe

Learn how to make this solid perfume recipe at Life-n-Reflection. This natural perfume DIY is a luxurious multi-layered scent of the heady, rich florals jasmine and geranium with a top note of sweet, citrusy grapefruit. Blended with natural beeswax and oil and poured over delicate dried jasmine flowers into zero waste tins, this makes a lovely natural beauty gift.

DIY Melt & Pour Cactus Soap

Make these adorable shea butter melt and pour cactus soaps from Lydi Out Loud in just minutes for last minute gifts or party favors. Boasting a refreshing natural lime scent, these easy DIY soaps are perfect for an invigorating summer shower! (Discover more succulent soap inspiration and recipes at Soap Deli News here.)

DIY Strawberry Lip Scrub

This strawberry DIY lip scrub with coconut oil is another of my favorite summer beauty recipes. Perfect for exfoliating, this recipe from Country Hill Cottage makes dry, chapped lips feel and look smooth, soft, and supple. The scrub removes dead skin and moisturizes your lips at the same time. (You may also enjoy my own pink lemonade lip scrub recipe.)

Summer Beauty Recipes & Inspiration on Pinterest

I’m always amazed by the creativity of others. Pinterest is a great way to expand on that creativity and find inspiration. If you’re looking for more summer beauty recipes for your next DIY adventure, then be sure to follow my boards on Pinterest. You’ll discover great DIY ideas for making 42 homemade sugar scrubs, 12 summer skin care recipes for dry skin, 17 whipped sugar scrubs you can buy or DIY, 10 magical summer skin care recipes for your inner child, a foaming strawberry salt scrub recipe and a unicorn glitter butter recipe (pictured.)

For more DIY soap making ideas and summer beauty recipes, make sure to follow me across your favorite social media platforms. You can find and follow me on Blog Lovin‘, facebook, twitter and instagram. Or sign up to receive my semi-weekly newsletter to stay in the loop.