I’ve really been putting forward an effort to reduce and
reuse.
Now, I’m a biiiiiig soap addict. People give me scented
soaps as gifts and when I see a lux bar glistening on a shelf, it’s all mine
baby! Tickles my fancy, it does. I’ve found that a lovely way to scent my lingerie
is to scatter the spent soap bars amongst my drawer of lacy lovelies.
As I was cleaning out my delicates drawer, I found I had a
crazy hot ton of soapy scrap and I decided to find a way to reuse them: soft
soap!
You will need: ½ cup grated soap, 2 cups water, old
saucepan, clean jelly jar, essential oil (optional)
I piled up what soap bars I had. I wanted to make about a half cup of grated soap, and I wasn’t sure if it would make enough, so I kept a new bar of soap
nearby.
Then I grated them with a cheese grater. The older pieces
make soap powder while the newer ones will be slick slivers. Needless to say,
put down a plate or towel. Of course surface cleanup is easy with a little
water!
Threw them in a sauce pan.
Added 2 cups water. Yuck… looks like used bath water lol. I
scraped in about a tablespoon more of
soap. It felt like it needed it.
Brought it to boil over low heat. Stir often. I used a
heat-proof plastic spoon. I didn’t want to use a wooden one and risk it always
tasting soapy haha!
Stir and simmer for 15 minutes.
Add perfumed or essential oil. About 5 drops should do. I
added an oak moss blend. Keep stirring.
Pour into clean jelly or pasta sauce jars. Let it cool to a
gel. It’s a good idea to give it a good stir with a fork for ease of use.
Once it cools (I’m mega impatient, so I popped them in the
fridge), you can use this for anything you would use regular soap for. A good
hand soap, shampoo (rinse with a good cleanser like lemon or scented vinegar), bubble
bath gel, countertop cleansing gel, hosiery soap on laundry day, etc…Just needs a good shake before use.
This is such an easy way to use up old soap and save
money. Instead of spending a couple of
bucks on one plastic bottle of liquid hand soap, you just use what you have and
create a lot of a versatile product. You can substitute tea for water (try mint
or chamomile), add sugar once cooled to create a foaming hand scrub, or kosher
salt to create a pan scrub and degreaser.
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