The 2-Ingredient Handmade Gift That’s As Beautiful As It Is Easy

Soap is one of those DIYs I thought would be more complicated than it turned out to be. All the soaps on Pinterest are so beautiful — there was no way they could be easy as well! But with my rapidly growing essential oil collection, and need for some quick holiday gifts, I thought this would be a good way to use them.

Before even preparing the soap base, mix your essential oils to preference in a non-reactive container (like glass). The soap starts to set quickly and won’t give you much time to play around with scent ratios. I wanted these to be extremely holiday-ish, so I went with a mix of fir, cinnamon, sweet orange, and black pepper. Some companies sell pre-mixed “holiday blends” so that’s also an option.

Chop up your soap base into even, small chunks. Microwave in a glass container in 30 second intervals, mixing in between, until your base is completely melted. This shea butter base took three 30 second turns to melt.

Tip: There are a lot of different soap bases to choose from (shea butter, goat’s milk, hemp, etc…). I chose shea butter for moisture and its very light smell. Experiment with pairing essential oils with different bases!

Quickly add your essential oils to the base and pour into the mold. Spray the tops of the soap with rubbing alcohol to pop the bubbles. (This is definitely not necessary, but makes it look that much more professional.)

The soaps should set in a few hours! Just let it do its thing, and maybe do some holiday shopping in the meantime?

The best part about gifting soap is the wrapping! I took some tree trimmings, cinnamon sticks, and these adorable tiny bells (adora-bells?), and just wrapped each soap together with twine.

Another fun idea is to make a set of coordinating soaps and gift them as a bundle! The box used in the photos perfectly fits the six soaps from the mold.

This is one of the quickest DIYs I’ve ever made, and I can’t get over how professional they look. Everyone is getting a custom soap this year, stocking stuffers in their favorite scent! What would your perfect soap smell like?

Have a really great DIY project or tutorial that you want to share with others? Let us know! We love checking out what you’re making these days, and learning from our readers. When you’re ready, click here to submit your project and photos.