What do you do when your bar turns into a thin, slippery piece of soap? There are a few tricks to reuse them.
The simplest is to soak all your scraps in lukewarm water until they become soft. Create a compact ball. Leave to dry until you have a ready-to-use soap ball.
Now here’s a recipe for melting your leftover soap in a double boiler. This method allows you to be more creative by adding an essential oil, exfoliant, milk or oil of your choice.
1- Cut all your leftover soap into small pieces with a knife, or use a grater.
2- Place your soap scraps in a bowl. Place in a pot of boiling water to create a bain-marie.
3- Add a small amount of water, about 1 to 2 tablespoons of water for every 500ml of soap pieces (you just need to be able to mix well, you’ll see depending on the consistency).
4- Stir every two minutes until smooth and creamy.
5- Reduce the temperature of your mixture to around 50C. At this stage, you can add the fragrance, exfoliant or oil of your choice.
For exfoliants, you can use coffee powder, cocoa powder, poppy seeds…in short, use your imagination and rummage through your kitchen cupboards, experiment!
You can also add almond oil or other vegetable oil. Just add one tablespoon.
6- If you have them, use silicone soap molds. If you don’t, use a small plastic container you have on hand. You can even use an empty tissue box to create a cardboard mold!
7- Stir your mixture into your mold and wait 2 days.
8- Unmold and let your soap dry to the right consistency, i.e. 2 to 4 weeks, and…..let’s soap!
