Wondering, how do I make melt and pour soap recipes for beginners? I’ve got you covered. Keep reading to learn how to make easy melt and pour soap recipes with this modern guide to natural soapmaking that incorporates natural melt and pour soap bases with with natural botanicals, colorants and essential oils.

How to Make Melt and Pour Soap Recipes for Beginners

Traversing the soap-iverse for the right information.

There is SO much information on the internet, and Pinterest especially, on how to make melt and pour soaps for beginners. Some of those so called easy melt and pour soap recipes are spot on. The recipe works exactly the way it should and you’re presented with all the right information from the start. Unfortunately, there’s also a lot of bad soap recipes mixed in. And if if you’re a beginner soapmaker, incorrect recipes or flat out bad information can be costly as well as discouraging. 

The first few times I made homemade melt and pour soaps, well, I messed up. One, I had no idea that using lavender buds in a melt and pour soap base would eventually turn the entire bar of soap brown! Not only did it not look pretty, but what was actually happening was that those botanicals were rotting. Can you imagine gifting a bar of homemade soap to a friend and then realize later on they’re slathering decaying plant matter on their skin? How embarrassing!  

I learned from that mistake pretty quickly, thank goodness. However, it still bothers me, that close to twenty years after that incident, there are still bloggers sharing recipes with botanicals that just don’t work with melt and pour soap recipes.

Not long after my first major mistake making melt and pour soaps, I had another. (I mean, that’s how many of us learned prior to the youtube era. So PLEASE don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Occasionally it leads to a happy accident.) I bought a (way back) organic soap base that I decided to add cocoa butter too. The soaps looked great. I wrapped them in scrapbooking paper and gave them as gifts to family one Christmas. Unfortunately, I didn’t test my homemade soap bars before I gifted them. (I know. I know. But to err is human.)

Shortly after gifting my bars of homemade soap, I was told they didn’t lather. At all. (Scented paperweight, anyone?) Back then there weren’t really guides on how much of an additional ingredient you should add to your melt and pour soap bases. Luckily, that information is out there now. Along with insight on where and how to select the right melt and pour soap base for your needs. But where can you find all the information your need to make melt and pour soap recipes for beginners? And how do you know that it’s the right information?

Where do I learn how to make melt and pour soap recipes for beginners?

Are you a beginner soapmaker? Or do you simply want to learn how to start making homemade soaps using melt and pour soap bases? Then this is the perfect place to start your soapmaking journey! The new book, Easy Homemade Melt & Pour Soaps, by Jan Berry (which you can purchase here) is a modern guide to navigating the world of soap crafting and learning how to create custom natural soaps using botanicals, essential oils, natural colorants and soap bases. The latest addition to Jan’s collection of books, which also includes Simple Natural Soapmaking, this guide is the perfect way to learn how to make melt and pour soap recipes for beginners!

I received an advance copy of Jan Berry’s new book today to review. For those of you who don’t know, Jan and I are *almost* neighbors. She lives about an hour and a half north of me right here in Virginia! I’ve long been a fan of her blog, The Nerdy Farm Wife, and I have to tell you – her books are just as amazing. The photos inside her new book, Easy Homemade Melt & Pour Soaps, are absolutely dreamy! I especially love all the information on natural colorants for melt and pour soaps. Along with the RIGHT way to use those botanicals you now have a slew of and just realized they’re not going to look as pretty as you thought they would a few weeks down the road.

There’s really so much more to this soapmaking book than just the easy melt and pour soap recipes! By the time you’ve worked your way through the book, you’ll have some pretty solid knowledge on how to formulate your own custom soap recipes. And you definitely won’t feel like a beginner soapmaker anymore! 

What’s Inside Easy Homemade Melt and Pour Soaps?

This book is divided into three parts. Each part combines for in depth information on making herbal soaps with natural botanicals, colorants and essential oils for successful products. There are also tips and tricks so you know the best way to make natural soaps without making the same mistakes I did. 

Part 1: Getting Started

Everything you need to know about the different types of  melt and pour soap bases, melting points and the ingredients. There’s also information on how to infuse soaps with herbs and flowers as well as the basic soapmaking tools and equipment you’ll need to get started. In addition, this section also includes a brief overview of tips for successful melt and pour soapmaking for your easy melt and pour soap recipes along with a basic melt and pour soapmaking tutorial to get you started.

Part 2: Melt and Pour Soap Recipes for Beginners

Part two of the book, Easy Homemade Melt & Pour Soaps, is filled with fifty amazing melt and pour and pour soap recipes for beginners. These easy melt and pour soap recipes are divided into six separate sections:

• Nourishing Infusions
• Spa Day Luxuries
• Springtime Delights
• Sunlight & Seashore 
• Field & Forest
• Desert Inspiration

Recipes in the Nourishing Infusions section feature easy melt and pour soap recipes made with classic, skin soothing flowers and nourishing green herbs. The recipes include chamomile honeycomb slices (soap bars) infused with chamomile flowers and naturally scented with lavender and orange essential oils as well as facial soaps infused with thyme and rose.

In the Spa Day Luxuries section, you’ll discover melt and pour soap recipes for beginners that are designed to polish, cleanse and pamper skin. Highlights include charcoal & sea salt spa bars, adzuki bean & rhassoul clay bars, moringa detox bars and mocha mint massage bars. While the chapter on Springtime Delights includes easy melt and pour soap recipes for a spring weeds gardener’s soap, aromatherapy soap dough, floral bouquet (flower shaped) soaps and herbal soap favors perfect for weddings.

The Sunlight & Seashore section of the book highlights summer fun in the sun – and everything associated with that. Like the beach! Learn how to craft seashell mini soaps, sea glass guest soaps, ocean waves soaps, loofah soaps and mermaid tails soaps.

For those that love to forage, you’ll find the Field & Forest section perfect for your needs! There are melt and pour soap recipes for making pine resin infused soaps, a rustic woods shave soap, camping soaps and even a wildflower honey soap made from a goat milk soap base and scented with a natural blend of lavender and Peru balsam essential oils.

If aloe is your go to for soothing skin care, then the chapter titled, Desert Inspiration, may be your favorite. This natural skin care ingredient is key in these easy melt and pour soap recipes for beginners. Learn how to make triple aloe soap bars, cactus landscape soaps and even jojoba sage shampoo & body bars.

Part 3: Melt and Pour Soapmaking Information & Techniques Library

This section of the book, Easy Homemade Melt & Pour Soaps, is a must for anyone looking not just to recreate melt and pour soap recipes, but to also harness the knowledge needed to develop your own custom formulations. This chapter alone is a must for any soapmaking library. You’ll find yourself referencing it time and again for information on natural ingredients you can use in your own homemade melt and pour soap recipes. 

Discover details on natural colorants along with photos of the finished soaps and the amounts needed to achieve the same look. There’s also in depth information on the properties of essential oils used in soapmaking along with essential oil blend ideas and recipes. Plus information on exfoliants and other additives you can use when crafting your own easy melt and pour soap recipes. You’ll also learn the eco-friendly ways to package and store the melt and pour soaps you create.

If you want to get extra creative with your melt and pour soap recipes for beginners, this section also highlight various melt and pour soap making techniques. Discover how to incorporate soap curls, cookies cutter shapes and embeds into your melt and pour soaps as well as how to use soap stamps and create layers. Can’t quite figure out that pencil line? There’s detailed information on creating a pencil line in melt and pour soaps as well as step-by-step photos on creating visually pleasing diagonals and triangles as part of your soap designs.

And, for those times, that things don’t quite work out the way you expected, information on troubleshooting things like separating layers, a lack of lather, soap shrinkage and more is also included.

In addition, there’s also a list of fourteen soapmaking suppliers you can source ingredients from in both the USA and Canada. (She even included one of my personal favorite suppliers, Mountain Rose Herbs.)

You can purchase Jan Berry’s new book, Easy Homemade Melt & Pour Soaps, on Amazon here.

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