soap balls - that easy?

[Tyche]

Hi, new member here. I will be back to read and learn, but right now I have a really stupid question.

I'm a gardening teacher working with elementary age kids. We've been making useful things from the garden this week, including glycerine melt and pour soaps (we've dried lavendar, calendula, etc and added to the soap). They've turned out great.

We've dried alot of rosemary, and we'd like to make soap balls using grated vegetable oil soap.

I bought some good (unscented, French, I think) olive oil soap from the local health food market. How do we proceed?

I have read alot of recipes, ranging from
1)"heat in double boiler until the stringy stage, add herbs, let cool, mold with hands" to
2)"grate soap, pour boiling water over herbs, steep, return to boiling, pour over soap gratings, mix and mold with hands" to
3)"grate soap, sprinkle with hot water, add herbs, mix and mold with hands".

I of course, with my many little helping hands, prefer option 3, but is it really that easy? don't care so much about the end result (it don't need to be purty), as long as we have something soap-like and useful they can take home. The Zen approach to soap making, I guess....it's not the product, it's the process.

Thanks for any help, and I'm sure I'll be around, as my students and I seem to have caught the soap making bug.

 

[MikeInPdx]

Hi and welcome!

Option 3 will work just fine and make some lovely soap balls.

 

[Tyche]

Oh, thank you Mike, exactly the answer I had hoped for. We will do this tomorrow, and I will let you know how it turns out.

 

[digit]

Wonderful!! Please post pictures, too!

Digit

 

[jettibo]

OHHHH, I might want to do this with my munchkins! How much hot water and how much soap to do process #3 there? Or just a link would be helpful.

 

[MikeInPdx]

OHHHH, I might want to do this with my munchkins! How much hot water and how much soap to do process #3 there? Or just a link would be helpful.

Just a few sprinkles will usually do. Just add enough so the soap will hold together and you should be fine.....this one is the only soaping I do where I "eyeball it"

 

[Tyche]

Hi! Reporting back......

It was such fun! Bigger kids grated 2 bars of olive oil soap in a big bowl while the littler ones crumpled the dried rosemary. I used water from the tap (as hot as I thought safe) and some kids sprinkled, some kids mushed the soap, and of course some had a water fight.

When the soap looked like it was holding a shape and just starting to suds we added the rosemary and our fragrance, cucumber melon. Lots more mushing and squishing. We let it rest over recess. Then I eyeballed equal smaller-than-golf-ball sized lumps and we all pressed and rolled and got them as hard and smooth as we could. They're beautiful, and the kids are so proud and our room smells wonderful. We also learned a new word - invigorating!

I'll get my hubby to post pics hopefully this weekend, but this method is definately a winner with the little ones. Thanks for the help, and it's nice to meet you all!

 

[MikeInPdx]

I'm so glad it worked out for you. Definitely do post some pics....I for one would love to see them.