Saturday, July 7, 2012

Soft Soap Tutorial



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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