Making Peppermint Candy Candy Soap has become a bit of a Christmas tradition in our house. What started of as a gift idea for school friends and teachers and has slowly spread to include family members and neighbours over the years. They look and smell wonderful and add and add an instant piece of Christmas style to bathrooms.
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Ingredients To Make Peppermint Candy Cane Soap Bars
- Clear melt and pour soap base (UK Amazon, )
- White melt and pour soap base. I like to use a goats milk base. (UK Amazon)
- Peppermint essential oil (UK Amazon)
- Red liquid colour (UK Amazon)
- Wooden lolly sticks
- Paper cups
- Silicone bar/mini loaf moulds (UK Amazon)
- Rubbing solution (not essential)
- Clear cellophane bags
- String
How To Make Peppermint Candy Cane Soap Bars You will need
Using Melt & Pour Soap Base
In case you didn’t know melt and pour soap base is a pre-made soap (the difficult soap-making part has been done for you). To use it you need to chop your chosen ‘base’ into small pieces and put them in a container to gently melt in the microwave. Heat the soap using a medium microwave setting using short bursts of 30 seconds. Keep heating and checking until all the soap has melted (I find paper cups are perfect for melting small batches of soap in). Once melted, you add your colour and scent and then pour into your mould.
Now, I don’t measure how much soap to melt or how thick the layers should be in my Peppermint Candy Cane Soaps … I’m a bit of a lazy soap maker and just eyeball it. If you like to be a bit more precise you could make a solid bar of soap in the mould, weigh it and divide by 5 to work out how much soap each layer is going to need(you need two red and one white). A cocktail stick could be used to mark the depth of each layer as well (5 cocktail stocks each with a mark)
My non technical approach is to fill one cup up to the top with white soap base and the other with clear soap base and melt as necessary adding more soap in between layers (you can use the same cup and you can reheat the soap again when it goes hard).
So first up you want to gently melt your white soap base in the microwave. Don’t be tempted to use a high setting as you can damage the soap base. When the soap has melted add 10-15 drops of peppermint essential oil to you cup and stir in carefully. Pour a small layer into each of your bar moulds so that it’s filled by approximately a fifth. If you have rubbing alcohol give the surface a quick spritz when it’s poured to burst away any bubbles that may form. You can also pop them with a cocktail stick.
Whilst your waiting for the white soap base to cool start gently melting the clear soap base. Once melted add a few drops of red liquid colour and gently stir trying to keep any bubbles to a minimum (I keep my soap bases on a radiator once they’ve melted). If you find it starts to harden before you’ve used it just gently reheat it again. You can add some peppermint oil to this soap as well if you want. I tend to leave it plain and just add the peppermint oil to the white soap base.
When the white melt and pour soap has cooled pour in a thin layer of red melt and pour soap.
Continue to build up the red and white soap layers so that you finish with a white layer. Don’t forget to add your peppermint oil!
In total you’ll have two red and three white layers.
Allow to cool over night or for a good few hours (you can pop in the fridge to speed this up). Don’t try and get them out of the mould until they are set sold and cool as you may damage them.
How To Wrap Your Peppermint Candy Cane Soap Bars
Now all you have to do is wrap up the Peppermint Candy Cane Soaps and give them to your friends and family.
I like to use small cellophane bags, natural twine (string) with a bit of our Christmas tree to it (we always buy a tree that’s way to big). It’s important to make sure they’re either in a sealed bag or wrapped in clingfilm as the essential oils slowly seep out over time forming little droplets on the outside of the soap. Once they’ve been opened and are being used they’re fine and will smell gorgeous all the way through to the end.
And don’t forget to make sure you have one left over to use yourself.
This looks so cool and much easier than I’d imagined! I definitely want to give this a try to put in my family’s stockings this year.
I love some D.I.Y these would make nice gifts, I’ve always wanted to make my own soaps x
Oh my goodness this sounds amazing and what a great idea to add to a Christmas bundle of homemade items.
These sound amazing, peppermint is my favourite, I’d be tempted to eat them though 🙂 Jo x
I have never thought of making my own soap. But it looks quite easy and i love the look of these xx
Wow these look amazing, so professional and I love the smell of peppermint, so christmassy x
these look and sound amazing and a great idea to make up as gifts too. The kids could even get involved to make them.
What a cute little soap, would make a great Christmas gift! 🙂
These are adorable! What a cute stocking filler they would be!
This is so cool, I have to make this!!
How cute are these! Pretty easy too, and they would make great stocking fillers
These look lovely and I bet they smell divine too.
What a brilliant idea! These look so effective, and great as a present
This was fascinating, I now want to make my own soap, it looks amazing x
Oh wow, how easy and amazing is this to whip up! What great gifts!
What a great idea – and a fun thing to make for Christmas x
What a fantastic idea. I never thought about making my own soap before.
Wow that’s amazing! I’ve never thought of making soap and these look so gorgeous!
Oh my GOD!! this is SO COOL! I am going to try this out next week! And they look gorgeous!! xx
Wow this looks amazing, I’ve bookmarked it to make for teacher’s gifts this year!
These look really pretty and would make great additions to Christmas gifts for friends and family.
This looks awesome, i love soap and these will make excellent gifts
Wow these look so perfect and professional! A great little gift to put in someone’s stocking this Xmas 🙂
Oh they look so effective! It would never occur to me to have a go at making something like this!
I love DIY, and I’m glad to see that soap making isn’t as daunting as I have always imagined it to be. Great gift idea!
This soap has a pleasant texture and does not dry the skin of the face, which is very important in the summer when our skin is in great need of hydration.
Thanks for sharing this! I love the look of them, they’re so Christmassy!
I am very excited to make these as Christmas presents – thanks for sharing! Does the candy cane make your hands sticky when you use the soap? I was wondering if the soap is functional or just for looks/smells …. Thanks!