Remolding Soap -The Experience

When I first began to blog, I blogged about this project I saw which involved remolding those little hotel soaps. Since I've seen it, I've been wanting to give it a try. Finally, I gave it a try. Unfortunately, I decided to try it at a time with no access to a microwave, as our microwave just died on us. :-(

Anyway, here's the link to the original post as well as the link of where I first found out about the idea. A little more improvising and I have myself some oatmeal soap. :-) Here's how I did it:


Materials:
- hotel soap bars (doesn't matter whether its facial or body)
- a bit of water
- oats (for exfoliation. I used about 1/8 a cup but I don't think there's much of a rule on this)
- grater


1. Unwrap all of the soap bars and grate them. I started by using the long slit on the side of the grater, but realized that using the large holes made the grating go much easier. Be careful when grating these -- especially when it gets close to the end of the bar. I managed to only scrape my knuckle once but it still hurt.

2. Mix with some quick oats. I don't know if using the other kind of oats makes any difference, I just happen to have the quick oats handy.



3. Here, I stirred a little away from the plans that the farmer's wife posted. She had sprinkled with water and put the mixture in the microwave. Since I was lacking the microwave, I decided to try a double boiler to see if I can melt the soap that way. Didn't work -- or at least it didn't look like it was working to me. So, I decided to use the boiling water from the bottom pan of my double boiler and pour a little at a time to the soap/oats mixture.

4. Mix the soap thoroughly, add more boiling water if it seems to be too dry to mix. The soap began to mix together nicely, even though I didn't actually get the mixture to boil which maybe would have given me smoother results.

5. Oil a muffin pan and scoop up the soap/oats mixture into the pan



6. Let it sit in there for a day. Remove from muffin pan and let soap sit for a couple more days to dry completely.

7. Use or package for gifts.

Simple project that can be used for gifts, or just to have when you don't know what to do with those little soaps. Keep the soap away from the dog's reach. I don't know if Radar was just being weird, but he kept trying to steal the soap to eat it. Maybe he was craving oatmeal cookies. I dunno.

If you're looking to do other things with these little soaps, I suggest just giving them to the homeless shelters and the likes. I'm sure they'll be grateful to have them. I plan to give the rest of mine away.