Good Clean Fun

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I'm a liquid pump soap kind of girl. I can never seem to wrangle wet bars which often end up on the floor, or sliding around my counter. In the shower I will inevitably find the slippery buggers under foot, often while I have soap in my eyes, leading to some acrobatics that my body was not made for. However,  I do have a nice collection of bars of soap that I was given as presents that I want to use, I plan to use, because they just smell so good.
I received such gift a month ago. I loved the smell so much I would often stop in my bathroom to just smell the little bar wrapped up in its cute packaging. So when I saw the following tutorial on Pintrest I knew it would be the perfect thing to try next. I was going to turn my beautiful bar of soap into a gallon of liquid soap! I just looked so quick and easy.

Source: thefarmersnest.com via Tanya on Pinterest

Or so I thought.

I gathered everything I need. It actually took a few tried to find glycerin as I was looking in grocery store pharmacies (I was already there after all) but had no problem locating it in the first-aid section of a large pharmacy. The actual process was straight forward it only took a few minutes to prepare. I grated the soap, threw it in a pot with water and glycerin and let it dissolve. Since my bar of soap was 5oz instead of the 8oz in the original post on The Farmer's Nest I adjusted the other measurements accordingly (I knew all that math I learned in school would come in handy some day).

So after following all of the instructions, letting it cool overnight, giving it a stir, I ended up with.....soapy water.



Liquid soap looking a little too watery

It looked nothing like what the tutorial had promised. But since I knew the process was pretty basic I was certain that I should be able to get liquid soap out of this. To save my precious bar of soap I decided to concentrate the soapy water. I ended up letting it simmer for around an hour. After letting it cool and set it looked more like what I was expecting.


Waiting for second attempt at liquid soap to set

Of course I had let it concentrate a little too much so had to add a little more water back in and mix. But in the end I did end up with liquid soap. And after two days of heating the mixture the house smelled wonderful!

Conclusion:
I did not end up with a gallon of soap as in the tutorial. As was suggested this is likely since the soap I used was softer and required less water. I did manage to fill 2 soap bottles and refill a slightly larger one in my kitchen.

The soap does not seem to lather as much as commercial liquid soap, but this may be due to the original soap rather than the process of turning it into liquid. I was also not able to get the right consistency. It comes out a little snotty (sorry for the descriptive, it is the best I can think of). I will admit I did skip mixing it with an electric mixer in the end, and instead whisked it by hand. I also may not have added enough water back in.




Finished Product

Since it is a very quick and easy process, and I have more bars of soap in the house, I will try it again. Next time I will start will half as much water as it is easier to add more water in the end than it is to concentrate it back down. I will also mix with an electric as instructed.