Making your own natural soap is creative, easy and fun. Whether you choose to start with a kit or make it totally from scratch, you'll enjoy experimenting with fragrances, essential oils, herbs and colors with this creative and artistic activity.

Melt and Pour is easy and safe enough for kids to do. Soap bases could be goat milk, honey, glycerin, olive & aloe, oatmeal, shea butter or any other base you can find on the market. Each one has different qualities, so choose the one that is best for you.

To make a bar soap, melt the soap base completely, stirring frequently, then add the other ingredients. Choose your own fragrances, colors, or essential oils. Then pour the soap into the molds and allow it to cool. Don't worry about getting it right the first time -- you can re-melt and try again.

Feeling adventurous? Try the more advanced method using fat, water, and lye. You will need a little more equipment, time, knowledge and caution. Lye is a caustic agent that requires special handling. Use eye protection and rubber gloves, and keep it off your skin and clothes. Also, lye will damage aluminum and Formica so avoid contact with table tops and counters. For details, recipes and more ideas, type "make natural soap" into a search engine.

Making soap is not only fun, it saves money. Compare the cost of fancy soaps to what you make yourself! Use your imagination to make your own soap look and smell exactly like you want. You can even start your own soap business!

It is environmentally friendly to make natural soap at home instead of buying soap from the store that was made in a pollution creating soap factory. Back before WWI people used to make soap at home from the fats left over from cooking. At that time, they used to buy cans of lye to make bar soap. Prior to that, people made lye from wood ashes.

The move toward sustainable living also has some healthy side effects. Skin is the largest organ of your body and taking care of it is important. By making your own soap, you know exactly what's going on your skin. If you are allergic to one ingredient, simply substitute another. You can make vegetarian soap using vegetable fats instead of than animal fats.

Fun, flexible and creative, not to mention healthy and economical -- that's what making your own soap is all about. With so many easy soap-making recipes available, you're sure to find a way to make your own unique soap. Anyone can do it.