Makerly – April 2018

How very exciting to have another craft box! Makerly send out a different craft project each month, and include all the bits and pieces you need to complete it.

The box just about fit through the mailbox! It was thin but surprisingly heavy.

It’s a Gemstone Soap Kit! 

Two bags of soap pieces. (They’re white and clear so rather difficult to see!) There’s a pretty generous amount of both.

Four little bowls for colour mixing, a mould, and stirrers.

Soap dyes, glitter, and plastic dinosaurs! But why dinosaurs? You’ll see.

The instructions are all very clear, and are accompanied by photographs. Look at those beautiful colours!

This is why plastic dinosaurs were included. Another suggestion is to make fossil soaps (see above). Aren’t those brilliant? What a fantastic idea.

I’ve never made soap before! I love these ideas, especially as soap is something that’s so practical.

It’s terrific that everything you need is included, even sticks for stirring the soap! Apparently the dyes are very strong, so I suspect there will be plenty left over for making more soap when the mood strikes.

I think the gem soaps are lovely. I’ve looked at those big blocks of pretty soap in Lush and thought how amazing they are, so it’s going to be very interesting to try to make them myself! The colours are beautiful as well, I especially like the turquoise and lilac.

Offering two different versions of the project is also really thoughtful. The gems will look great, but the dinosaurs look like tremendous fun, not least because I think my daughter will think they’re hilarious!

I like the suggestion in the instructions to add a bit of fragrance oil. I’m definitely going to do this, because I have quite a few essential oils, and I think lavender will go beautifully with the gem colours.

I think this is pretty good value for £15. Handmade soaps are remarkably expensive to buy, and I think I’ll get a good amount of bars from this one. Plus I get the fun of making them myself and learning something new!

I’m looking forward to trying this out very soon! It looks like it it needs to be done in stages, melting and the waiting for it to cool, which is very useful for me because it can be difficult to find enough time to sit down and spend a long time on something. I think this will be a great weekend project that I can do in between times in the usual busy family life. I might even let my daughter lend a hand with the dinosaurs!