Does Your Soap Get Smushy?

Since I became a homemade "soaper" I've begun to notice soaps and their condition more closely.

Too much soap gets wasted and thrown away for ONE SIMPLE reason!
The reason is that people allow the soap they have just used to sit on wet counters or on a wet tub rim!

When homemade soaps ....and most commercial soaps too, sit in water too long, they absorb that water and get SMUSHY and useless...and the owners usually throw them out because they just don't know what to do.

So, as I love to putter around like a pioneer woman, I grabbed some scrap pieces of wood and  a couple plain rubber bands and Voila! I invented a rustic "soap saver" to rest my homemade soaps on after using.

Now, when I use my homemade soaps they dry up quickly after using and last MUCH MUCH LONGER!

Would you like to try to make your own "soap saver"?

All you need is:

1/ four pieces of scrap wood that are free of splinters and are close to the same size. If you can't find four pieces to make a square "soap saver" then just use two equal pieces and then another two matching longer pieces to make a rectangular shaped "soap saver".

2/Hammer the pieces together, but don't let the nail heads touch the bottom surface. You don't want the possibility of the metal nails to touch a wet counter top or tub rim and cause rust.

3/ Use some sand paper to sand down any rough edges that remain. You want your "soap saver" to be safe to touch even with wet hands.

3/ Take a couple of plain ole rubber bands, the kind that come from around the local newspaper that is delivered to your door and wrap them around the wooden frame. Criss cross the design until the grid is small enough that a bar of small soap won't fall through the holes made between the rubber bands.

That's it you're done!

D.I.Y. heaven :)

Peaceful productivity,
Carla.

Wow, My EASY Homemade SOAP Actually LATHERS!

My First Experiment in Making Homemade Soap from Scratch!I was delighted to see that it actually lathers! Nice and bubbly!


So, why did I choose to make my own soap? Well, because I like reducing things down to their absolute lowest and simplest common denominator.

Everything, it seems can usually be reduced down to it's most simple form.
I had been watching tons of Youtube videos about soap making. So, I set about to figure out how to make it myself.
But one of the obstacles, was that most of the soap makers wanted me to go out and buy a bunch of expensive doo-dads such as a digital food weighing scale, as well as a handle held electric stick blender .
But I didn't really want to spend money on those gadgets so, I was  patient and persistent to keep searching the net until I found a recipe and instructions that were NOT based on weight, but rather on simple kitchen volume measurements and simple ingredients.

My biggest obstacle then was to overcome my fear of  dealing with REAL lye.
To be truthful ...LYE is a VERY dangerous substance, and it is unfortunate that you can't let your kids help you when you work with REAL lye. Lye is so caustic that it is commonly used as one of the ingredients in many very powerful drain cleaners. It literally can burn right through a clog in your pipes. Always deal with lye according to proper safety measures. 

Well, after stirring up my courage and a phone call to our local hardware store, I located and purchased a bottle of lye for $7.99 canadian at Home Hardware. The other items I purchased were:
rubber gloves, large hard plastic pail with handle, and three bottles of oil including : olive oil, sunflower oil and coconut oil. The only other ingredient is water. I also added some of my own dried dill weed spice just for an added visual appeal.
The other items I already had at home.....the measuring cups and wooden spoon and plastic container to let the soap cure in.
The only mistake I made was to use newsprint to line my plastic container, because as the soap cured and dried, the newsprint stuck right in with the soap and I literally had to carve it off of my soap after it was done curing.
So, rather that yak on about how I made this small batch of homemade hand soap...... I am simply going to send you to the instructions I found on another website 
which is can be found at this link:  MAKING HOMEMADE SOAP WITHOUT A SCALE.

Their home base for their website is simply diynatural.com


I would encourage you to visit their website. It is honestly the only simple and straightforward           "small batch" homemade soap making recipe that didn't force me to have to buy a scale.

I didn't even have to buy a stick blender. I simply used wooden spoons and let my soap cure for at least 3 weeks before attempting to use it.

I would encourage you, for those who like "Pioneer-ish" types of activities to give it a try. But do be sure to follow ALL of the safety precautions including wearing long pants, long sleeve shirts, rubber gloves and safety goggles and making it in a well ventilated area. 
All the wooden spoons and bowls or pails that you use for soap making can NEVER be used again for food or kitchen use. Keep your soap making stuff  entirely SEPARATE from everything else and label it  well and keep it away from children.

It's kinda cool to realize that if some strange cataclysmic event happened that prevented me from buying soap, that I could literally make my own as long as I could find some lye. Does that make me sound like a prepper?? Hmmmm.

No I haven't learned how to make my own lye yet, which I have heard and seen can be made in a pioneer style from cold wood ashes.  I have absolutely NO ambition to learn how to make my own lye. This city girl has gone far enough for now. Woohoo! I am now officially a soap maker !