How to Choose a Soap Mould

Soap moulds come in a huge variety of shapes and sizes and there are so many possibilities for your finished soap that choosing which moulds to use can be almost as exciting as making the soap.

To name a few you can choose to make cupcake soaps, heart soaps, lego soaps, star soaps, round soaps, traditional bars etc.

When I started making soap I poured my first batch into a modified orange juice carton. It worked well as it simply needed to be peeled away when the soap was ready to be removed.

Starting out you are more likely to stick to simple moulds until you have a few batches under your belt which is a sensible approach.

Various kitchen items can be used for soap moulds such as plastic food containers, cupcake cases, silicone bakeware and juice cartons. You can also use a simple cardboard box but it must be thick walled and lined.

A trip to the supermarket can take on a whole new meaning as all your purchases might be based on the potential of using food containers as soap moulds. You may even find yourself buying items that you don’t really need just because you want to use the container as a soap mould. You have been warned!

Silicone loaf moulds are the easiest kind to use for beginners as they don’t need to be lined and they create a nice ‘loaf’ shaped soap that you can cut into bars using a stainless-steel kitchen knife.

You can also use plastic pencil boxes like these but they will need to be lined so you can easily remove your soap.

You can have lots of fun getting creative with your soap moulds as one of my soap making class participants did when he decided to create a smoothie soap using a plastic cup and then topped it off with a drinking straw. Cheers!

Lining a Soap Mould 

There are various ways to line a soap mould if you need to use a liner. You will obviously need to line a cardboard box, a wooden mould or any containers that are rigid and inflexible like the pencil boxes.

Lining options include:   

• Baking paper

• Bin liners

• Cling film

• Greaseproof paper

• Plastic bags

If you are having trouble removing your soap from a mould you can try placing it in the freezer for an hour or so which can sometimes make the task easier.

I use HDPE moulds that are assembled easily with bolts and they come apart when you are ready to unmould after 24 – 36 hours. Lining these moulds is not supposed to be necessary but I use greaseproof paper as the soap can be difficult to remove otherwise.

I love using cupcake cases too as they are available in so many wonderful shapes and pretty designs which make perfect gifts.

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