Treat your kids to Treasure Bubbles!

Turn bath time into playtime with this easy DIY soap!

A bath is not every child’s favourite time of the day. But with just a little imaginative effort, you can make it a lot more fun. Our latest soap recipe promises to do just that! 

With tiny toys buried inside each bar of soap, this recipe turns a chore into a treasure hunt! Absorbed by the promise of treasures, your little ones might no longer resist soaping up. Not only is it a fun alternative to regular soap, your whole family can enjoy making our Treasure Bubbles. This melt-and-pour soap recipe is quick, easy, and contains only non-toxic ingredients: unlike a cold process soap, you don’t need to worry about lye (sodium hydroxide), so it’s perfectly safe to make with young ones. 

Read on to learn how to make your kids’ new favourite soap! 

How to make kid-friendly soap

Before you begin

• There are no essential oils in this homemade soap recipe. Children and pregnant people should avoid essential oils as some contain ketones, which can be neurotoxic and can cause nerve or respiratory spasms as well as nausea if used improperly.

Ingredients

• 2 x 454 g (99.8%) clear glycerin soap
• 1 g (0.1%) caprylis oil
• 1 g (0.1%) aromatic essence of your choosing (optional)
• Small plastic toys of your choosing

Tools

• Components to make a double boiler
• Scale, accurate to 0.1 g
• Large stainless steel bowl
• Ramekin
• Spray bottle containing 70% isopropyl alcohol
• Small silicone spatula
• Pipette
• Thermometer
• Round silicone soap molds
• Soap cutter

Good to know!

• If you’re using different molds than the round molds we suggest above, there’s an easy way to calculate how much soap you’ll need. Just weigh the empty mold, then fill it with water and weigh it again. The weight of the water is the weight of soap you’ll need!
• Glycerin (melt-and-pour) soaps contain a large amount of glycerin—that’s how they get their name! Glycerin is a hydrating ingredient and helps provide a gentle lather. 
• Isopropyl alcohol helps burst any air bubbles that may form on the surface of your soap. 
• We offer a few different kinds of clear glycerin soap at COCOÉCO (standard, organic, or with added aloe vera). For this recipe, we opted for our standard clear glycerin soap, but you can opt to use a different one. Just note that this may change the final appearance of your soap, as the transparency of different glycerin soaps varies.
• You can adapt this homemade soap to your heart’s desires—or your children’s! Here are a few ways you can do so. We recommend using any of the following in small quantities if you want the final product to be transparent. 
  • Want a colourful soap? Just add some liquid colourant of your choosing at step 4 below. Start with a couple drops, mix gently, then add more if desired. 
  • If you’d like a scented soap, add the aromatic essence of your choosing at step 5 below. However, the quantity of aromatic essence used must not exceed 1% of the total weight of the recipe, or else your soap may “sweat.” Sweating happens when there’s too much oil in a glycerin soap. Our aromatic essences are suspended in a vegetable oil base, so when you add aromatic essence, you’re adding oil. If you follow the quantities recommended above, the total added oil is just 0.2%, so you’ll be perfectly safe. We also recommend using colourless aromatic essences so that your soap stays clear. 
  • Want your soap to sparkle? Just add mica or biodegradable glitter at step 5 after adding the caprylis oil. 
  • Instead of using small plastic toys, you can use other small objects in this melt-and-pour soap recipe: try dried flowers or an exfoliant, such as poppy seeds. We advise against using toys, or any other small objects, made of paper, foam, or fabric, or that contain any electronic parts.

Steps to follow

1. Prepare and disinfect your equipment and workspace.
2. Use a soap cutter to cut the glycerin soap block into smaller cubes so that it melts more quickly. 
3. Place the soap cubes in a bowl, then melt on the double boiler. Alternatively, you can use a microwave to melt the soap, just be sure to use a microwave-safe container instead of a stainless steel bowl. If you use a microwave, heat the soap for just a few seconds at a time (maximum 10 seconds), or you risk creating a soap “volcano.”
4. When the soap has melted, remove the bowl from the heat (or microwave) and stir gently for a few seconds. If the soap cools quickly, reheat it.
5. Add the caprylis oil and mix gently.
6. Pour one centimetre of glycerin soap into each compartment of the mold. Spray some isopropyl alcohol on the surface of each.
7. When the soap has slightly hardened, spray the toys with isopropyl alcohol and set them on the surface of the soap in the molds. Spray the surface of the soap again with isopropyl alcohol.
8. Pour the rest of the glycerin soap into the soap molds to cover the toys and fill the molds.
9. Spray isopropyl alcohol over the surface again. If desired, cover your mold with plastic wrap to keep the soap shiny.
10. Cover the soap and leave to harden for at least 24 hours. 

Use and conservation

This homemade soap is formulated for all skin types. 

This soap recipe was designed to entertain children in the bathtub. Keep in mind that this soap contains small objects that may be a choking hazard, so it’s important to always keep an eye on young ones when they’re using this soap.

When made in optimal sanitary conditions, it will keep for about one year.