Soap

Homemade Oatmeal Soap and Soap-on-a-Rope

By Jane Lake

This is a perfect easy-to-make homemade beauty bar.

It is quick to put together, using the microwave, and you could even use it to make unique soap-on-a-rope for father’s day! All you need to make these two soaps is one large beauty bar (preferably Dove) and four or five tablespoons of ground oatmeal.

Oatmeal Soap Supplies:

• 1 large bar of soap – I used Dove beauty bar which is a great product to use in hard water areas and very mild on your skin.
• 3 to 4 tablespoons of ground up oatmeal.
• 4 to 5 tablespoons water
• Decorative rope (if you want to make soap-on-a- rope)

Craft Instructions:

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 Dove bar 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 used a bowl-shaped cup for the two bars shown. The mixture was solidifying, but still slightly warm, when I removed it and sliced it into the two bars shown.

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

Soap on a Rope:

To make soap on a rope, follow all directions as above, until you are ready to pour in the mold. Fold your rope in two and knot it at the end. Pour half the soap into the mold ( a bowl-shaped cup would work well). Insert the knotted end of the rope and pour the remainder of the soap around it, to position the rope in the center of your new soap bar.

Allow to cool slightly, then remove from cup and shape with your hands into a ball or elongated egg shape keeping the rope centered. Allow to cool totally; you could even put the soap in the fridge to harden.

Present as a gift with a shower puff or washcloth and a hand towel.

Notes: The oatmeal soap recipe outlined above isn’t a true ‘hand made’ soap – but the help of the microwave and other shortcuts make it a simple homemade soap to make for Father’s Day or Mother’s Day.