Old pump style lotion bottle, rinsed out
Bars of soap, shaved with cheese grater
Homemade hand scrub
Lotion
So. Grate the soap. Seriously. Your cheese grater will look like this when you're finished:
I grated my soap over a saucepan. I used three travel bars. Seriously. From a hotel we stayed at on our last vacation. Mandarin orange. Then I filled the pan with water and set the heat to Medium. It will be lumpy at first and will need constant stirring. Then it will get a little foamy, like this:
I'm using a slotted spoon so I can tell when all the flakes are melted. Now that they are I've removed the pan from the heat source, turned the burner off and will let it sit for about twenty minutes. While that's resting I'm going to go clean the bathroom. Be back in a few!
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So. I cleaned the bathroom and dusted. The mixture isn't completely cooled, but I didn't expect it to be. There was a light film starting to develop on the top but I scraped it off. (Update: research and different methods show that if you add more water during the melting process this film won't develop). Now it looks like this :
Time to take this over to my other supplies:
I'm going to pour the mixture into the lotion bottle. Wish me luck!!
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That wasn't so bad. Only a minor spill. If you have a funnel I recommend using it. :)
Now to decide whether or not to add hings. It's a grey soap/body wash as it is but I like to feel great and silly smooth. So I'm going to add one tablespoon of my favorite moisturizing lotion. (The mixture is still hot so this will combine well. I put the pump top back onto the bottle and shook it (over the sink--it will leak slightly) until I felt it was blended. It was after all only one tablespoon into hot liquid. Now to add my homemade body scrub. (Available for purchase at www.facebook.com/creativecuties). I'm adding one tablespoon of it, because it has oil in it and I don't want to slip in the tubby!! Again, I repeated the step of putting the pump on and shaking. Now it's ready to use! You guys hang out here, and I'm going to go try it out!
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Ta-da!!!!!! Out of the tubby and feeling so fresh and clean! A few notes: bar soaps tend to make my skin feel a little drier than body wash so the reaction I felt after the shower was what I expected it to be. I will use my fave soap next time. (It doesn't make me feel super dry). Most importantly, you know your skin. Go with what you love and remember, it's all an experiment anyway! Bar soaps are cheaper than body wash so if you're not happy with the result you're not likely to be out very much financially. I leave you with this: don't write on your lotion bottle with sharpie then place said bottle into tubby. The market will run and you'll end up washing these weird streak away instead of enjoying your tubby!!!
