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Melt & Pour

Melt & Pour bases are used to produce some of the most innovative and aesthetically pleasing solid bars on the market.

Features and benefits of our Melt & Pour products

Perfect for crafting beautifully creative finished bars

Perfect for crafting beautifully creative finished bars

Making finished bars is easy. No need for specialist equipment and only needs mixing-in additives (fragrances, oils and colourants).

Extensive range for creating bars for hair and body

Extensive range for creating bars for hair and body

Our range offers 30 soap, conditioner and solid shampoo bases and is sought after by brands, manufacturers and distributors worldwide.

Claims that align with your customers

Claims that align with your customers

Keep up with growing consumer trends

Create certified organic COSMOS and RSPO bars

Create certified organic COSMOS and RSPO bars

Some of our bases can be used to create RSPO Mass Balance and Segregated certified bars. For example; Solid Conditioner or Rebatch base

Our products

Products Certification Highlights
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RSPO
Syndopour 200-MB Melt & Pour • Sustainable • Certified RSPO
A revolutionary Melt & Pour syndet base
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Crystal African Black Soap Melt & Pour • Vegan Products
For making soap bars rich in minerals and antioxidants, creating a soothing bar with fantastic skin cleansing properties
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Crystal Aloe Vera Melt & Pour • Vegan Products
For making cleansing and soothing soap bars with aloe vera extract
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Crystal Argan Oil Melt & Pour • Vegan Products
For creating luxurious, nourishing, golden soap bars
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Crystal Carrot, Cucumber & Aloe Melt & Pour
For creating cleansing soap bars enriched with a nourishing combination of carrot and cucumber oils with aloe vera extract
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Crystal Donkey Milk Melt & Pour
For designing moisture and nutrient-rich soap bars containing donkey milk which is said to have many skin and age related benefits
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Crystal Goat's Milk Melt & Pour
For creating excellent skin moisturising soap bars enriched with natural goat's milk
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Crystal HCVS Melt & Pour • Vegan Products
For making high clarity vanilla stable soap bars without discolouration from any oils or fragrances that contain vanilla or vanillin
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Crystal Hemp Melt & Pour • Vegan Products
Crystal Hemp is a vegetable based, sulfate free hemp Melt and Pour soap base
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Crystal Honey Melt & Pour
Create rich, golden soaps that are enriched with natural honey
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Crystal Jelly Soap Melt & Pour • Vegan Products
A truly unique and fun base allowing the creation of jelly textured soaps
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Crystal NCO Melt & Pour • Vegan Products
Create none certifiable soaps made with organic oils
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Crystal No Sweat Melt & Pour • Vegan Products
For creating transparent naked and no sweat soap bars
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Crystal Natural High Foam Melt & Pour • Vegan Products
For creating soap bars using natural ingredients
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Cosmos certified RSPO
Crystal OMP C-MB Melt & Pour • Vegan Products • Made with Organic • Certified RSPO
For creating "Made with organic" RSPO & COSMOS certified soaps
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Crystal Oatmeal & Shea Butter Melt & Pour • Vegan Products
Made using a blend of natural oatmeal and nourishing shea butter with suspended oatmeal providing added exfoliating benefits

Packaging options

1kg Tray

This retail-ready option is perfect for crafting finished bars at home

11.5kg box

Perfect for larger-scale production of hot pour bars

Melt & Pour

Melt & Pour FAQs

These are some of our most common questions we receive about our Melt & Pour products. If there is something else you’d like to know, please contact us and a member of the Stephenson team would be more than happy to assist.

Send us a message Contact Stephenson

The majority of our bases are gluten-free - if you require further information please contact us here.

We use palm and palm kernel oils, and ingredients derived from both oils. Wherever possible, we use oil and ingredients from certified sustainable sources. All products that are made using certified sustainable palm and palm ingredients have the letters SG or MB at the end of their name referring to RSPO Segregated (SG) and RSPO Mass Balance (MB). It isn’t possible to source everything we use from certified sustainable sources, but we are always researching and discussing with our suppliers to find new options.

Lye (also known as Sodium Hydroxide or Potassium Hydroxide) is the material that is used in making all of our soaps. Solid soaps (Crystal Melt and Pour range or Extruded soap bases) use Lye from Sodium Hydroxide, while Stephenson Liquid soaps use Lye from Potassium Hydroxide. We use Lye to saponify oils and/or fatty acids to produce soap. Once the soap is produced, all the lye is used up during the saponification reaction and so there is none left in the final product.

No, we are a speciality base supplier, we manufacture and ship soap bases and other product bases that are converted by our customers into finished products. Typically our bases make up around 80-99% of a finished product.

No, we are strictly against animal testing and our ingredients are not tested on animals.

GMP applies to companies manufacturing finished products. As a supplier of ingredients and bases, this does not apply. Stephenson holds ISO 9001 Quality Certification and supplies companies that have GMP certification.

We've been making soap here at Stephenson’s since 1856, originally for the textile industry.

Yes, all the glycerine used in our soap bases is derived from vegetable sources.

Most of our product are vegan friendly. Only small amount of our products contain animal-derived milk and honey. These include Crystal Goat’s Milk, Crystal Donkey Milk and Crystal Honey.

No - Melt & Pour is different to 'cold process' and thus does not need to cure. Our Melt & Pour base is already reacted and cured. Once melted you simply pour, and leave to set. The term 'cure' is used to describe saponification, when the product is still reacting and neutralising fatty acid content whilst setting. This is not the case with Melt & Pour.

This depends on the size of your mould or loaf. The larger the surface area the longer it will take to set. A normal loaf will take roughly 6 hours to fully set. This can also change depending on the ambient temperatures you let the base set in.

There is no limit on how many times you can re-melt. Be aware of any moisture you may lose during this process as this can alter the balance of the formulation. Always cover the soap base when you melt it.

If you are slicing Melt & Pour soap base (Any Crystal bases) we would recommend using a large knife or a soap cutter, or a soap mould slicing tool/machine. If you're cutting from an 11.5kg box we recommend cutting top to bottom.

If you are slicing Melt & Pour syndet base (Syndopour 200-MB) we would recommend using cheese wire.

This is quite a common problem described as 'bleeding'. Most Melt & Pour crafters use water-based food colourings, these are water-soluble and Melt and Pour is a water-based product, thus when these colours are inside a soap they often bleed as it runs through to the entire body of the product. There are alternatives to this, such as pigments or non-bleeding colourants available but they might not be as simple to use.

The white pigment (titanium dioxide) can settle at the bottom within the soap base as it cools when we run large volumes or in the summer months as it takes longer to set. Don’t panic, simply cut the block of soap base from top to bottom in an even cross-section, then re-melt, mix, and you will see that the white (titanium dioxide) will be even throughout the finished soap bar/product.

This is due to the bars being un-wrapped. Almost all of our Melt & Pour products contain Glycerin (a moisturizing agent) and because Glycerin is a humectant, it pulls moisture in from the air which is great when you apply it to your skin, but not so great when displaying unwrapped bars.

When the bars are left out in higher dry ambient temperatures they will begin to lose some of the water/moisture. This results in a loss in size, weight and shape.

Cut the base down to manageable pieces, chunks or slices. You can then add to a heated vessel, pot, or melt in the microwave - make sure you watch the temperature, as it is possible to lose moisture and water content from the base overheating.

Overheating can also cause the base to boil over so make sure you remove and stir intermittently.

Normally we would recommend silicone moulds, as metal moulds can often stick to the product, but moulds for chocolate often work well too.

The temperature for each Melt & Pour base can differ. You can find the product-specific temperature on the product INCI document, which can be found here.

It's very important to wrap the soap/syndet as soon as you have released it from the mould. The fewer surfaces in contact with the air the better so wrap in a cling film/cello film type product. This is important to prevent sweating and also moisture loss.

We offer 2 types of packaging for our Melt and Pour soap bases - 1kg trays and our ‘patent pending’ 11.5kg / 25lb soap box.

Want to know more?

To speak to a member of the Stephenson team, please complete the form opposite and we’ll get in touch.

Alternatively you can speak to our sales team using the details below:

Telephone:

+44 113 205 0900
Mon-Thurs:

8am - 4:30pm

Fri:

8am - 4pm

Sat-Sun:

Closed