In honor of St. Patrick’s Day which is coming right up, I’ve designed a fun St. Patrick’s Day, green themed, soap project. You can find other St. Patrick’s Day inspirations, including more molds and colorant ideas here.
You’ll need:
2 pounds, 8 ounces clear melt and pour
8 onces white melt and pour
Milky Way Shamrock Mold
Loaf Mold (ours aren’t ready but I have 20 made up in a slightly too flexible plastic if anyone wants them for $17 each. Just email me at info -at- brambleberry -dot- com to get it)
Opalescent Green Mica
Iridescent Glitter
Emerald Green (Shamrocks on top)
Non-Bleeding Oxide Green (Shamrocks on bottom)
Fragrance: Lettuce or Green Tea is perfect!
Pyrex Container
Spoons
Rubbing Alcohol in a Spritzer Bottle
Step 1: Make the Shamrocks. Be sure to fragrance them. They end up making up 20% of your total soap in the final product. We used Emerald Green (which bleeds) and Non-Bleeding Green Oxide.
Step 2: If you allow the Shamrocks to sit overnight, be sure to cover them in an airtight container. The more fresh the soap is, the easier it is to adhere in the final product.
Step 3: Heat 8 ounces of clear soap in the microwave. Stir thoroughly until it is no longer steaming and there are no chunks. Fragrance this soap with .1 to .2 ounces of fragrance oil.
Step 4: Pour the clear soap in the bottom of the loaf. Spritz each Shamrock down with rubbing alcohol. Embedd them at an angle to allow air bubbles to flow up the sides. The loaf mold holds three Shamrocks easily.
Step 5: Allow a thick skin to form. Pour a layer of white soap to really make the shamrocks pop. 
Step 5.5: Then, it’s time to swirl! Using 2 to 4 ounces of colored soap per pour (don’t forget to fragrance), swirl and layer varying green. We used Emerald Green, Irridescent Green, and White melt and pour to get the final look.
Step 6: Allow to harden to a very thick skin. This layer needs to support the next layer of soap and three Shamrocks! Pour a thin layer of Clear Soap (colored with Iridescent Mica).
Step 7: Spray each Shamrock liberally with rubbing alcohol. Gently set each Shamrock, face up, into the thin layer of soap. Pour remaining soap around the Shamrocks, filling the soap so that the Shamrocks are just barely set into the surface of the soap.
Step 8: Do one final spritz of rubbing alcohol and allow soap to harden at least four hours or overnight.
Check back tomrorow for the final photo to see how this fun loaf turned out.
BeautifulSpirit, As long as I use fresh soap, poured in layers quickly, and it’s the same brand, it always sticks together for me. ‘Course, I only use the Bramble Berry house brand so maybe that’s why I’m getting so lucky but I suspect freshly poured soap with any brand would do well. Tell me more deets – I’d love to help.
So lemme get this straight…I have used different methods including hot soap and witch hazel to properly secure multilayer soaps with no long term luck. Rubbing alcohol does this best? And how long are your shelf lives on layered soaps in this way (ie do they come apart, peel and when)?
Tinka,
Welcome back to the site. I’m glad you come for soapy inspirations. It’s good to see that you are soaping and continuing to soap even with limited supplies available to you in Solvenia. =)
Hello,
lovely work, I keep coming back to see if there’s anything new.
You can appreciate the supplies you are able to get over there 🙂 Our market in Slovenia is so undeveloped when it comes to soapmaking. Only clear and white bases are avaliable and a few colors to choose from. Don’t get me started with the molds. I use plastic ones that are supposed to be used for casting powder, so I have to be a bit resourceful. 🙂
Keep posting the instructions, they are very helpful.
KR, Tinka
Hi Evermore,
No, it won’t smell like beer. You’ll want to add something like the Fresh Baked Bread or maybe Oatmeal, Milk & Honey (wheat smelling, sort of) to the soap to give the illusion of beer fragrance.
You don’t need anything else besides the beer. =)
Anne-Marie
I was hoping to actually add beer to the soap. I figured it wouldnt be much and 5% sounds about right. Do I need to add anything else? And will it actually smell like beer?
Evermore, tell me more about the beer soap. Do you want beer in the soap or just the scent? I know you can add beer to MP but you can’t add much – 5% concentrations of flat beer max – and then, the soap is hard and needs a bit of drying time.
Teresa, I agree. MWM are nice to craft with. =)
Love these! And Milky Way molds are wonderful – so sturdy, with perfect details.
That looks so cute! As soon as I find some money I will have to try some of these specialty soaps.
These are so cool looking! I was actually searching for a beer soap recipe for M&P soap but Im coming up empty. Any ideas?