You are a gem. That was what I stitched onto an embroidery hoop and embellished with some craft stones. You know what? I’m still a little crazy for gems. But instead of working with a needle and thread, these gems are made from soap.
I’ve never made soap before, so this Gem Stone Soap DIY was my first attempt. I did make some Honey Lotion Bars a few months ago and these gem stone soaps were just as simple. It only takes a few supplies and some time.
Gem Stone Soap DIY Supplies
To get the stone look I was going for I used a combination of glycerin soap and shea butter soap. In the end I used about 2 cups of glycerin soap (melted) and about 1/2 cup shea butter soap.
Melting the soap base was almost like melting chocolate. I put the soap in a glass measuring cup and microwaved it in 30 second intervals, stirring after each heating.
Once the glycerin soap was completely melted I added in the soap dye. I bought a package of purple, blue, and green dye from the craft store. Since my birthstone is amethyst I went with the purple for my first set of gem stone soap.
I combined about 1/2 cup glycerin soap with the shea butter soap and stirred together thoroughly.
I used some silicone cupcake liners I already had as soap molds and they worked perfectly. I poured the soap in layers. I started with the glycerin/shea butter soap combination. This gave it a more opaque bottom. When that started to set I added more glycerin soap on top.
Once the molds were filled I had to let the soap sit until it was completely hardened. This took a few hours and was the longest portion of the project. You can pop the molds into the freezer to speed the process up, which is what I did (I’m a little impatient sometimes.)
When the soap was hardened I popped it out of the molds and got my knife out to start transforming the soap into rocks. Using different shaped molds gave me several different starting points for my rocks and helped me create a variety of shapes.
Carve away at your soap, cutting facets around the sides until you get the look that you want.
Here’s a glimpse from the side. I think the addition of the shea butter to the glycerin soap on the bottom half really makes it look more like a stone.
Littlest and Oldest Twin were pretty impressed by my soapy rocks. Youngest Twin would have been impressed, except he was hoping they were some sort of candy. In his defense, I had them sitting on a white plate when I came home from school. (The plate is what I photographed them on.)
I think these will be great to use in the bathroom for guests and would make fabulous gifts. I do like practical gifts after all, and they would look so pretty wrapped up in cellophane.
Want to see me make these soaps live? Check out Facebook Monday January 23rd at noon central!
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Those are super pretty!! Love it!
This is awesome! I love how they turned out. This would be a great gift!
I love this idea some of the pieces reminded me of amethyst. Pinned and found over at the Moonlight and Mason party.
I absolutely LOVE specialty soaps (hesitate to say homemade because it’s so much more!) This looks just gorgeous, bet they would be pretty in green too – look just like an emerald. Thanks for sharing with us at #FoodieFriDIY – just stopping by to say thanks and do some sharing!
this is so cool been wanting to try my hand at homemade soap thanks for sharing have a great week