• transparent soap base (hereinafter referred to as MO), 100g;
• dyes: brown, green and white, instant coffee (for those who wish to use instead of brown dye);
• pine cone mold;
• a knife for cutting soap, a wooden stick from sushi;
• essential oil of pine, fir, cedar or something of your choice;
• any alcohol for sprinkling layers of soap;
• microwave oven and thick-walled glass cup.
Let's start work.
1. Transparent MO, approximately 75g, cut into small pieces with a knife. We put them in a glass and put them in the microwave to melt. Set the microwave power to maximum, melt for 10 seconds. Remove the glass from the oven and mix the whole mass in it thoroughly with a wooden stick. If there are still unmelted pieces, they will melt when stirred. The result should be a transparent, homogeneous melt.
2. Now you need to paint the base layer. To do this, add a few drops of brown dye to the glass with the melt and mix thoroughly until the color is uniform.Adherents of natural soap can be advised to use instant coffee as a dye. It gives a good brown color, is natural and does not absorb other colors.
3. Before pouring the whole mass into the mold, add 2-3 drops of essential oil to it. The oil can be any of your choice and taste. Since the pine cone is mainly associated with the Christmas tree and the New Year, you can use essential oils of pine, fir and even tangerine or orange.
4. Now pour the colored and scented MO into the mold and leave it alone for 30 minutes. But there is a small nuance. This shape has a ribbed surface and is very unstable on the table. In order not to hold the filled (hot) mold in your hands for the first minutes while the mass sets, it is advisable to place it on some kind of stand.
While the soap (the brown part) hardens, you can crumble the remaining MO into a glass.
5. Now we will do carving (i.e. cutting) on soap. We take the well-hardened soap out of the mold and use a knife to remove the upper part of the cone, the one where the twig should be according to the drawing. We insert the cut soap back into the mold.
We apply a mesh of cuts to the end of the cut with a knife. This is necessary so that the green and brown layers of soap stick together more tightly. It should look like this.
Unfortunately, with this method of making this soap, what you cut out will go to waste. But the trimmings can then be used for other shapes.
6. Now we prepare the green fill. Melt the transparent pieces and paint with green dye. If you wish, you can add fragrance to this part of the soap, although there is enough smell in the brown “bump”. Before pouring the green part, the brown “cut” must be sprinkled with any alcohol so that the multi-colored layers do not disintegrate.Pour in the green piece and leave to harden for 20 minutes.
7. The soap is ready. You can remove it from the mold.
For decoration, apply “snow” from white MO to the green part with a wooden stick (like a brush).
We process the back of the soap with a knife, cutting off everything unnecessary and ugly.
8. This soap is good as a gift for the New Year. To do this, use a small diameter drill to make a hole and thread a ribbon so that the soap can be hung on the Christmas tree.
