Luffa soap

Difficulty:  Beginners
Time: 15 mins
Yields: 4-6 soaps (depending on the mould)

Luffa soaps are great for rough skin, like on your knees, elbows or feet. I love using them in my foot bath after a scrub, but also have one in my shower. These ones are for my foot bath and I’ve used a combination of lemon eucalyptus essential oil and peppermint essential oil to keep my feet smelling and feeling fresh. Also lemon eucalyptus is very effective to keep sandflies away, and since my bare feet always seem to attract them at night, I’m hoping that the scent will discourage them feasting on my feet and find someone else to nibble on.

You can use any melt and pour soap base for this project, even transparent soap base if you like. I’m using the SFIC Shea Butter soap base which I bought from Pure Nature. I really like this base because it has this nice creamy lather and it is one of the soap bases that is the least drying to your skin. They also have really nice luffa that are easy to cut into rounds.

The mould I’m using is one of my old Milky Way moulds. Oldies under soap making probably still remember them. They were probably one of the first companies to over soap moulds in the 90s. I don’t think they exist anymore and were bought up by Crafters Choice? Maybe someone can tell me more?

PREPARATION: Cut the luffa into rounds, the same width as your mould. Don’t wet it, we are using it dry. Add a luffa round to each cavity of the mould.

ONE: Cut up the melt and pour soap base into small blocks. You will have to eyeball the amount, because how much you need depends on the mould you are using and the sizes of the luffa rounds. I like to be safe than sorry, and always cut up a little more. Any extra soap I can always use in another mould or for another time.

TWO: Add the cubes to a microwaveable bowl or jug and heat it in the microwave on high in short bursts. I usually start with 20-30 seconds and then do short 10 second bursts. Always keep an eye on your soap in the microwave. You don’t want it to boil and you definitely don’t want it to boil over. It’s better to have some small clumps floating around, which you can melt by stirring.

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THREE: Once it’s melted add your essential oil or fragrance at about 10 drops per soap. Again this depends on the size of your mould, but also on the essential oil and fragrance. Some are very strong, and others are very volatile (they evaporate quickly). I’m using only 8 drops here because lemon eucalyptus and peppermint essential oils are rather strong. The blend is made with 1 part peppermint essential oil to 3 parts lemon eucalyptus essential oil. Or in other words 2 drops peppermint and 6 drops lemon eucalyptus essential oils per soap. If you have 4 soaps like me, then it’s 8 drops peppermint and 24 drops lemon eucalyptus essential oils.

Stir well! Fragrance or essential oils that haven’t been stirred in properly, will end up floating to the top, leaving these oily residues. The same will happen if you use too much fragrance or essential oils. If that does happen, just wipe it off.

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FOUR: Pour the now melted and scented soap into each cavity with the luffa round. You can fill them all the way to the top, or if you like the look of mine, fill them just below the top of the luffa.

FIVE: Leave it to cool down and harden completely before unmoulding.

Because most melt and pour soap bases contain a lot of glycerin (hence also called glycerin soaps), they will attract moisture and ‘sweat’. To keep them dry, wrap them in cellophane or place them into cello bags, or store them in an airtight container.

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