# Tips for making homemade soap? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 11, 2012, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tips-for-making-homemade-soap/631175 "2012-08-11T06:44:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sateryn76](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Sateryn76](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sateryn76)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2012, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tips-for-making-homemade-soap/631175/21 "2012-09-15T02:36:09Z")
> [@Rachellelogram](#): > > Update: my sister bought my whole Brambleberry wishlist as a birthday gift! :eek: So, yay! I’m finally getting some soap-making supplies. And I have a question about mica-mixing. All I’m doing is melt-and-pour, so I don’t have to worry about cold-process messing up the colors. But I’d like to know, what is the best way to produce a rainbow of colors? I was thinking to buy red, yellow, & blue mica and mix them together. Does color-mixing with mica work like plain-old ROY G BIV? Can I mix primaries to make secondaries? (R+Y=O, R+B=V, B+Y=G) Or would it be better to buy mica in all 6 colors separately? > > On my wishlist I hadn’t planned to optimize my color-mixing, so I’ll just be getting blue, pink, & purple for now. But going forward, I would like to know the best way to get an actual rainbow of colors. I’ve seen various rainbow-colored soap techniques, and I really want to replicate that. The easiest way to use micas is to mix it with something liquid before adding it to the soap. One uses liquid glycerin ( they have this at Hobby Lobby if you didn’t order it) and one with rubbing alcohol. Check Brambleberry for instructions on which is which. But I wouldn’t suggest adding it directly in powder form to the soap - it never mixes completely and looks grainy and basically like shit. I would mix the colors after adding the micas to the liquid. ---
**Author:** ![papergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/aca169/32.png) [@papergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/papergirl)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2012, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tips-for-making-homemade-soap/631175/22 "2012-09-15T17:00:01Z")
You can mix your micas. The results can be stunning. I used to have a whole little side-business selling mica cubes–basically, a m&p cube with enough mica to color 2 pounds of soap. I had a bunch of standard micas, with a whole lot I mixed up myself. Because it’s m&p, it’ll always be pretty, but the colors may not always combine as exactly as you might expect. If you need really specific colors, you might use a dye and then add a similar color mica for the sheen/glimmer. But to just play with–micas are a blast. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2012, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tips-for-making-homemade-soap/631175/23 "2012-09-19T06:58:45Z")
I [del]saponified[/del] [del]soapificated[/del] maded soap! Here’s the photo album: [Imgur: The magic of the Internet](http://imgur.com/a/8qOXz#0). It actually cut into 6 bars, but the bottom layer broke off the bar I’m keeping (none of the others, thankfully). The gimpy bar isn’t pictured. I forgot to add my apple pie fragrance to all the layers, oops. I only got 2 of them, because I was just winging it instead of using written instructions. But it looks great for a first attempt, and still smells pretty good. And it sudses up SO well! Brambleberry’s bases are top-notch, and cheaper than the stuff you can buy at craft stores. Thanks for that tip, **Sateryn76**. I couldn’t find glycerin at Walgreens so I bought… glycerin Fleet enemas. Seriously! Emptied them into a small bottle after removing the lube plugs (a bit gross, ok, I know). But it worked! They contain pure glycerin, and it was a totally great way to pre-mix my micas. For my next project, I’ll either need to buy more base or get some smaller molds. Or probably both, because I’m hooked now! Here’s my ingredient list, for the curious (spoilering to prevent the appearance of blatant product placement!): 1.5 lbs [Clear Melt And Pour Soap Base](http://www.brambleberry.com/Clear-Melt-And-Pour-Soap-Base-P3189.aspx) 1 lb [Shea Melt and Pour](http://www.brambleberry.com/Shea-Melt-and-Pour-P3192.aspx) [Glossy Silicone Square Tray Mold](http://www.brambleberry.com/Glossy-Silicone-Square-Tray-Mold-P4752.aspx) [Red Blue Lip Safe Mica](http://www.brambleberry.com/Red-Blue-Lip-Safe-Mica-P3454.aspx)[ [URL=“http://www.brambleberry.com/Amethyst-Purple-Mica-P3598.aspx”]Amethyst Purple Mica](http://www.brambleberry.com/Red-Blue-Lip-Safe-Mica-P3454.aspx) [Blue Mica - Cellini Lip Safe Mica](http://www.brambleberry.com/Blue-Mica-Cellini-Lip-Safe-Mica-P3069.aspx)[ [URL=“http://www.brambleberry.com/Hot-Apple-Pie-Fragrance-P4162.aspx”]Hot Apple Pie Fragrance](http://www.brambleberry.com/Blue-Mica-Cellini-Lip-Safe-Mica-P3069.aspx) ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2012, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tips-for-making-homemade-soap/631175/24 "2012-09-19T07:06:29Z")
BTW I know it maybe looks like I didn’t mix the blue top layer properly (what with the speckling), but it was intentional. I sprinkled a shitload of blue mica powder directly onto the light-pink layer while it was half-dry, smeared it around with my hand, let it dry, and then topped THAT with a clear colorless layer. I love the effect, because it looks like the ocean! The camera absolutely doesn’t do justice to the stunning sparkly blue color. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tips-for-making-homemade-soap/631175.md?page=1)