FUN and AWESOME!

susiestar

Roll With It
You MUST try this with kids, or without!

I have seen several mentions of putting ivory soap in the microwave. It sounded ild and cool and not very messy, so I got some. Jess was having a rough night, so I thought it might distract her. She LOVES it even though she was only humoring me at first.

You unwrap a bar of Ivory soap, put it in a large dish (we used a pasta bowl) and then you put it in the nukulator on high.

I was glad we used half a bar at first because it blows up! Not as in explosion, as in whipped cream coming out of a can. I would actually use 1/4 of a bar at first, just to see how big it gets so you don't use too small a bowl.

It took about 20 seconds to start expanding and then it just kept going. 1/4 of a bar filled most of a pasta bowl, so it gives lots to play with. It is not wet or slimy, but dry and silky feeling. We watched ours expand and even leaving it after it kept getting bigger didn't burn it. It just got hot. If you stop it right away it isn't too hot to touch. I stuck a finger in the second batch right as it got out of the microwave and it didn't even feel very hot.

I have not figured out how to color it yet, but give me time. I can see making a melt and pour soap that looks like a cake or something and then using this to make whipped cream on it for gifts. Or maybe working super fast and pushing it into molds.

The big wonderful thing is that it isn't wasted or ruined by this. You can still use it to clean whatever. In fact, if you use it for laundry soap it might dissolve faster for liquid versions and it sure would be easy to make into powder for powdered versions.

I have not tried with other soaps, but from reading several websites, ivory is the brand that works for this, possibly because it is whipped with air during manufacturing (this is why it floats and others don't). If you try other soaps let me know. We don't really use bar soap, so I don't have others to try.

This is a cool rainy day kid project, and also something to do to get kids to use soap more for the bath resistant years.
 

Tiapet

Old Hand
oh wow! Sounds really cool. Unfortunately mr busy I could not use this with as we are currently having sever bath issues with him. He's flooded our tub 3 times and it's gone through the flooring of not only the bathroom but the 2 adjoining rooms and you can see the water marks in the ceilings of the rooms in the downstairs. At the time it floods we have even had water dripping from the beam that divides our rooms! I'm so mad! We thought he was just taking a shower.
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
Hey Susie... How about a drop or two of food coloring on top of the soap before heating? Would that color it? Maybe in a swirly effect?
 

Star*

call 911........call 911
I wonder if you can use candy molds????? Then made little bar soaps as gifts...???? Going to try candy molds with Christmas themes - Will look for my candy molds try and report back. This would be very cool for cheap Christmas gift especially if you get ivory with a coupon.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
I'll pass this along to my girls. I'm sure the grands will get a kick out of it and should be able to make some nice presents with it too. :)
 

susiestar

Roll With It
It wasn't hot when we took it out, but it only took about a minute when we did 1/4 of a bar. We did a small amt because we didn't know how big it would get. A bit of food color on the top is our next thing to try. I think if you used small amts and worked very fast you could maybe press it into candy or jello molds. I have a big box of them (file storage size box) because I have done various candies etc... in molds over the years. It can be an easy, impressive gift to melt some choc chips and put them into a mold with a bit of peanut butter, etc... in the center. Plus they are fun with playdough or with plaster of paris to make ornaments to paint. Or to make sidewalk chalk with plaster of paris colored with tempera paint or acrylic paint (the kind in the little bottles). So I have more than a few molds that I am going to try.

J and I left a bowl with the foamed ivory soap on the kitchen counter. I didn't get up iwth husband because my head hurt, so I didn't tell him what it was. Later that night I asked if he had seen it. He said he thought it was whipped cream or whipped cream cheese but didn't try it in case it had gone bad from sitting out. Boy was he glad he hadn't tried it once he learned what it was! I had to chuckle at him.
 
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