Melt and Pour Soap Bases. Getting more for your money

There is a mind-boggling array of different melt and pour soaps and soap bases available on eBay and the Internet. From the very basic to the most exotic creations can be found in bars, brick, and combo packs. And so, it comes down to the question of what to buy, and how much of each one. Hopefully this guide will help answer some of the basic questions for you.

Ultra Clear - A very special, glassy clear glycerin soap that is so clear you can read the newspaper through an inch thick slice of it. It is the best choice for embedding when the clearest properties are desirable. If you add color, depending on what kind of colorant materials you use, you may find you have lost all or most of the properties you wanted. Many herbs, flowers and other additives can cloud or reduce some of the clarity of ultra clear melt and pours.  Because of this, it is usually best to save them for the jobs that require the most clarity and use bases known simply as clear soap bases for those where a less clear, transparent value is still desirable. A word of caution here: As much as possible, try to make sure you are actually getting Ultra Clear Soap Base when purchasing, especially in large amounts. They are not all created equally and not all soap bases being referred to as Ultra Clear, are necessarily the clearest bases available.

Mixing soaps for effect. Some Soap-makers prefer white glycerin (titanium white is added to clear glycerin soap base) or goat’s milk soap (ranging in color from batch to batch from very white, or with a slight hint of pink, to various shades of pink, cream, tan and yellow). The color has nothing to do with quality, but is a result of the particular goat milk being use on a specific day. The color can vary from day to day within the same herd.

Avid Soap-makers quickly realize that it takes much more colorant to achieve a satisfactory depth of color when working with white/opaque soap bases, (such as white glycerin and goat’s milk base), than is needed when using only clear, transparent or translucent soap bases. The best of both worlds can be found by blending equal parts of your clear or transparent soap bases with your opaque/white bases. The look is the same, but there are a number of very nice benefits to be had when using this blend. One is that you will often find you soap will yield much more rich lather when blended. We have found that to be true with Golden Glycerin Melt & Pour which produces an especially rich, thick lather. You will also need far less colorant to reach the same depth of color when blending equal parts clear to opaque/white. Blending may be more cost effective, if your goat’s milk base is considerably more costly, which it often is.

For different effects, consider blended more clear glycerin base to less of your opaque/white. You may want to measure and melt in a single action. But, blended together after both are separately melted can create an amazing, almost limitless variety of different possibilities. Add color, herbs, diamond dust, to 2, or 3 or more melts, then poured together, etc. 

    
All the samples above show examples of Golden Clear Glycerin grated, with herbs added but no color otherwise. All the color you see is achieved by the addition of the different herbs. The soaps are backlit to show the translucient properties. Oatmeal, lavender, teas, etc. were used in these examples.
Enjoy the process!