n. Fun Stuff

My mom makes the best homemade oatmeal soap using real lye and raw ingredients. While I think this would be a cool hobby, frankly my small apartment might not facilitate this dangerous task! So, I became inventive, did some googling, and went to work. The result is a very pleasing, rough textured soap that Ryan and I both love. This method will help make your soap go farther and makes a fun bar of soap from very inexpensive ingredients.

1 large bar of soap – I used Ivory
3 to 4 tablespoons of ground up oatmeal
4 to 5 tablespoons water

Grind up the oatmeal in a food processer, hand chopper or blender until finely milled. You want the mixture to have some substance – don’t reduce it to flour – but chop enough to break up most of the individual oat flakes.

Grate the soap into small slivers in a large, microwavable bowl. Add a couple of tablespoons of water and microwave on high for 2 to 3 minutes. The time will vary according to your microwave; be careful the soap doesn’t bubble over the bowl. Stir mixture once or twice. If you use scented soap, your kitchen will smell fragrant for hours after you are done!

When the soap has dissolved, remove from the microwave and stir. Add the oatmeal gradually, mixing in with a spoon, until you happy with the consistency and the proportion of soap to oatmeal. Pour the soap into a mold and let cool to shape.

I placed my soap in an empty sour cream container to dry, then just put it in our shower for us to use.

For larger amounts, you could use a tin can with both ends removed as your mold, then slice into round bars.

Adapted from: Allfreecrafts.com