Hello folks! Sorry for the late post on our series of Soap Saturdays. We've had a whirlwind of a week with toddlers having fevers, filling soap orders, and preparing for an extremely busy but profitable soap selling weekend. Let's get into our topic for the week: molds! After making your soap, you are going to need a mold to form the soap. Molds can be made from many different materials. Soap molds come in a lot of different shapes and sizes and you can have a lot of fun being creative to come up with your own molds. Some of the materials used for soap molds can be wood, glass, cardboard, ceramic, plastic, silicone, or metal (only if it is large enough to be lined with freezer paper).

Boxes: Here at Horse 'O Peace Ranch, we use mainly wood boxes that we've built ourselves to pour our soap into and then cut our soap into bars. Boxes are great because they don't have to be anything fancy, and if you build them yourself, you can tailor them for the sizes of bars you need for your batch size, plus you can use cheap wood such as plywood and furring strips. You can use shoe boxes, wood drawers, loaf pans, homemade wood boxes, etc. If you use a wood, metal, or cardboard box, you will need to line it with freezer paper, and tape the corners with masking tape to keep the soap from escaping out the corners.

Plastic Molds: This could be as simple as using a Tupperware container, candy molds, or a zillion different styles and sizes of soap molds to choose from that you can buy at a soap making supply shop or over the Internet. Generally, plastic molds do not require a releasing agent.

Silicone Molds:  Lots of soap molds to choose from. Most silicone molds do not need a releasing agent, but sometimes they do. If you need a releasing agent, do not use a silicone-based agent. Here's a good article with some simple tips for using, maintaining, and cleaning silicone molds for soap making : Six Tips for Using Silicone Soap Molds. 

Creative Molds: Think filling loofah sponges, ice cube trays, Pringle cans, or PVC pipe with your raw soap. Loofah sponges simply need cutting apart after the soap is set, PVC pipe or Pringle cans require popping the soap out of them. PVC pipe will need a releasing agent, to help the soap slide out, but Pringle cans don't need a releasing agent. You can also cut the bottom off of a 16 or 20 ounce soda bottle to create flower shaped soaps. Do not use small metal molds, like muffin tins, as the metal can discolor your soap, and the lye can corrode the metal. Also, you do not want to mix the molds you use in the kitchen with your soap making molds.

 Releasing Soap From a Mold: Some molds require a releasing agent, such as mineral oil, to help the soap slip out easily, some molds are lined with freezer paper, and other molds require nothing other than to pop the soap out of them, wash and reuse. There are a few ways to release soap from a mold. Molds that require a releasing agent are either very detailed, are made from ceramic, glass, or PVC pipe. Like I mentioned above, boxes will be lined with freezer paper, which can be simply torn away from the soap. But for other molds, you can use a light spraying of Pam, use mineral oil, or if you are still having difficulty getting your soap out of your mold, you can put your mold in the freezer for about 2 hours and pop the soap out after it is firmer.   

Now you have a few ideas for soap molds. Do some research on the kind of mold you'd like to use for your handmade soaps, get creative, and don't forget to have fun!

Do you have a good idea for a soap mold, or want to share what you are currently using? Tell us about it!

If you'd like to follow the previous Soap Saturdays posts:
-Soap Saturdays: The Beginning of a Soap Maker
-Soap Saturdays: Processes to Make Soap
-Soap Saturdays: Equipment (On Sunday)
-Soap Saturdays: Ingredients
-Soap Saturdays: Fun Ingredients