Soap inside soap - how to use embeds

The best thing about making your own soap is having fun with different techniques.  Once you have mastered basic soap making, its very easy to play around with different ingredients to create unique soaps.  For example, embeds, which is just soap inside a soap, are very simple and effective method to make a soap a little be special. 

What is an embed?

An embed is just soap that you put into your soap batter before it sets, to create different shapes and colours within your soap.  You can buy special moulds to make small soaps for embeds - for example stars or hearts.  Some mould are long and thin to make one continuous embed (that you can cut into small pieces if required) and others are more like ice-cube trays to make several smaller individual embeds (which you can place end-to-end in a loaf soap if you want a continuous embed.  You can also just cut finished soap bars into different shapes - long and thin, chopped up confetti or even thin curls.

How to make embed soap?

You will need to make embed soap in two steps - first make the embeds, and when they are ready (hard enough) you can make the bulk of the soap and insert the embeds when the batter is still fluid.

The best effects come from using contrasting colours, so take some time to plan ahead what you want from the soap.  You can make the embed and bulk of the soap from the same recipe (with different colours) or different recipes, and you can use difference fragrances or leave the embeds unscented (then you can put them in a variety of different soaps without affecting the final result.

You can use embeds in loaf soaps as a surprise in the centre of each bar, or you can stick them into the top of loaves or single soap moulds (or both!).  

Embed are so easy to use and limited only to your imagination, so experiment with different shapes and colours to see what you can make.

The soap pictured above is my Black Magic soap (recipe available in eBook below) with stars made from two different moulds.  The orange is from annatto seed, made in a long thin star mould.  The green is indigo powder in individual star moulds (silicon ice-cube trays).

How can I find out more about Natural Handmade Soap?

If you want to make your own soap, I have an eBook with basic recipes to help you get started, including natural colours and fragrances.

Can I buy fancy Natural Handmade Soap with embeds?

Soaps with embeds, swirls and other fancy techniques are perfect for gifts, wedding favours, baby showers and other special occasions and they are lots of fun for me to make!  You can order them from me by special arrangement, so please contact me to discuss your requirements.

Have you tried make soap with embeds or any fancy techniques?  What is your favourite?

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