5 Handmade Christmas Soap Bars (Natural Gift Ideas)

Are you in need of a new bar of soap? If so, today is a post for you! I wanted to share with ya’ll how to make an easy handmade bar soap to give to your family or your best friends as a Christmas present. These don’t require any fancy equipment or skills as you only need to have a melt and pour base plus the essential oils you want to use for your ingredients. With the current winter weather, I’m super ready and excited for the Christmas soaps!

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I personally love to add soaps to stockings and think they make a great gift for others. Who doesn’t use soap? (maybe don’t answer that!)

When people take the time to make me handmade items for the holidays, I love it. You can add a homemade sugar scrub, body butter, bath salts, and this natural soap into a gift box or gift basket and you have a wonderfully, thoughtful gift that will get used.

Something I love about making my own soap is knowing the ingredients. If you know me, using natural products and avoiding toxins is something we’ve been doing for awhile. When you make your own soap, you get to see the natural ingredients and use an essential oil blend you enjoy while avoiding artificial fragrance (my arch nemesis) used for many soap fragrances. 

what are melt and pour soaps?

These handmade soap bars use a melt and pour base, an amazing product I found a couple years ago. Just like in my fall scented, pumpkin spice melt and pour soap, these Christmas scented soaps are made with melt and pour bases. These soaps are suitable for daily use and make a wonderful bath soap.

A huge benefit of using melt and pour soap bases is that you can make small batches with different scents and combinations in a small time.

I became a fan of melt and pour bases because they allow you to still use oatmeal, goat milks, glycerin, or shea butter in your soap without having to perform the saponification production process. This is the process where lye is used to make the soap into soap.

​benefits of different melt and pour soap bases

Goat milk and oatmeal soap bases are two that are known for being suitable for all kinds of skin problems and tend to be suitable for most skin types.

Goat Milk

• • This is one of the most extraordinary moisturizers for dry skin, rich in vitamins and minerals, cleanses gently without stripping all the oils, pH balancing, soothing, and anti-aging 

Honey

• • Honey has wound healing properties, is antibacterial, gently exfoliates, balances skin (making it suitable for most skin types), & is a natural humectant – meaning it helps draw moisture into your skin

Oatmeal

• • Oatmeal is renowned for its gentle exfoliation, aids in removing dead skin cells, contributing to softening skin, contains anti-oxidants and anti-inflammatory properties (this has helped me take care of my dry itchy skin in the past)

Glycerin

• • Gycerin is non-irritating, hypoallergenic, skin barrier protectant, moisturizing, versatility in adding different scents, and a gentle cleanser

Shea butter

• • Shea butter is a deep moisturizer, nourishes and softens the skin, protective barrier, and reduces aging affects

where can I buy soap molds?

The first thing people need to remember is that you are not limited to soap molds from Hobby Lobby or Joann’s. You can also go into their cake decorating aisles and look for silicone molds there too! This is a great idea for those cute gingerbread men or snowflake impressions that so many make into a sampler sets of Christmas soaps this time of year.

Before the first use, make sure to wash them in case anything is on them. 

adding color, dried herbs, or flowers to your soap

There are different ways to do this. Honestly, the best way I’ve found (and most appealing to my eye) is laying your decorations to your soap mold then pouring your base on top. This helps to keep it on one side of the soap. But in some of the I do mix in powders.

If you want a layered, two tone look, this involved allowing your base to harden then adding the second color on top. 

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you. Please see my full disclosure here. As an Amazon Affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases. 

my favorite melt and pour soap bases

I emailed this company and as of November 2022 they’re fully made in the USA. Also, if they’re out of stock on Amazon, try searching their website. Been using them for over a year and they make great products! 

• melt & pour goat’s milk soap base
• melt & pour oatmeal soap base
• melt & pour shea butter soap base
• organic melt & pour clear gylcerin soap base

You can also check out one of my favorite essential oil companies here. Since they’re not a MLM, they’re very reasonably priced (a huge bonus for me!) and their blends and diffusers are top notch! I love using them in all my DIYs from lotions to homemade Christmas soaps!

Maybe you even make each of these soaps, then make them into beautiful handmade soap gift sets! 

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Spiced Vanilla

• ½ pound melt and pour soap base
• 10 drops vanilla
• 4 drops cinnamon
• 4 drops orange
• 2 drops clove
• 2 drops nutmeg 
• orange zest (optional)

instructions

1. Cut up ½ pound of melt and pour soap base. Add to pan and melt, stirring occasionally.
2. Once base is melted, removed from heat.
3. Add orange zest to bottom of mold & essential oils to melted soap base. Stir well.
4. Pour soap base into mold.
5. Allow to harden for 12-24 hours (depending on your home’s temperature.)

Christmas Cookie

• ½ pound melt and pour soap base
• 10 drops vanilla
• 4 drops peppermint
• 6 drops lemon
• lemon zest (optional)

1. Cut up ½ pound of melt and pour soap base. Add to pan and melt, stirring occasionally.
2. Once base is melted, removed from heat.
3. Add lemon zest to bottom of mold & essential oils to melted soap base. Stir well.
4. Pour soap base into mold.
5. Allow to harden for 12-24 hours (depending on your home’s temperature.)

Christmas Tree

• ½ pound melt and pour soap base
• 10 drops fir
• 5 drops cypress
• 5 drops cedarwood
• spirulina (optional, a natural colorant)
  

  

1. Cut up ½ pound of melt and pour soap base. Add to pan and melt, stirring occasionally.
2. Once base is melted, removed from heat.
3. Add spirulina & essential oils to melted soap base. Stir well.
4. Pour soap base into mold.
5. Allow to harden for 12-24 hours (depending on your home’s temperature.)

Candy Cane

• ½ pound melt and pour soap base
• 10 drops peppermint
• 4 drops spearmint
• 4 drops vanilla 
• red beet power or red clay powder (optional)

1. Cut up ½ pound of melt and pour soap base. Add to pan and melt, stirring occasionally.
2. Once base is melted, removed from heat.
3. Add beet powder & essential oils to melted soap base. Stir well.
4. Pour soap base into mold.
5. Allow to harden for 12-24 hours (depending on your home’s temperature.)

Cinnamon Roll

• ½ pound melt and pour soap base
• 9 drips cinnamon
• 6 drops cardamom
• 6 drops vanilla 
• ground cinnamon

1. Cut up ½ pound of melt and pour soap base. Add to pan and melt, stirring occasionally.
2. Once base is melted, removed from heat.
3. Add ground cinnamon & essential oils to melted soap base. Stir well.
4. Pour soap base into mold.
5. Allow to harden for 12-24 hours (depending on your home’s temperature.)

notes about homemade Christmas soaps

Essential oils provide great options in terms of scent diversity and benefits, but they are very concentrated. Some people, to include small children, may have sensitivities to cinnamon, peppermint, and clove as they are “warm” oils. No one should ever use these undiluted on their skin as it can cause a burning sensation. Also, test your soap bar on a small patch of skin before using. 

I hope ya’ll will make some wonderful Christmas gifts with these soap ideas!