Breakfast on his face!

I have been really loving learning more about soap making and making more soap with the knowlege I have been gaining. It is something I could see myself doing as a small cottage industry in the future. Sadly, my salty, sea faring husband, has thus far refused to use said soap.
He is no metro sexual type and will not wash with anything he says,  "that can be picked to be put in a vase or eaten out of a bowl" - He said  "he was taught not to play with his food and now I want him to wash with his breakfast"  Why do I feel the need to roll my eyes at this ... So there is no oatmeal, milk and honey.  No honey and cinnamon. No goats milk, No orange, no Calendula, no lavender, because all these wonderful things = husband not using my soap.
 However, I do know he likes Sandalwood and I know he likes Patchoulli ( both plants ha ha) so I made a batch of soap with both these in it. It passed the husband smell test, so I am waiting for it to cure so he can use it.
Now, I like Sandalwood and I like Lavender, but don't want to make a full batch, so I decided to re-batch a few blocks of the Sandalwood and a few of Lavender..

This is done by grating up the soap...there is more Sandalwood then Lavender.. smells nice in here in the kitchen though. I have one large pot sat inside another like a double boiler, but the water comes up the sides of the pot containing the soap.

Now you melt it all slowly. this can take as little as 15 minutes or as long as an hour depending on how old the soap is, mine is just a week old so still has a bit of water in it, I did add about 50 mils of water to the bottom of the pot. You can use milk if you like.

It melts down quiet well, I try not to stir to much, but squish it more with a fork blending it all together..

When it is the consistency of mashed potato you can put it in a mould. It wont be as smooth as normal soap. I let it cool for about 5 minutes, and then with gloves on, slightly wet, I make the soap into balls.

After about a day I get a nylon pot scourger and smooth of all the lumps and bumps and the "polish" it with a damp sponge.. Yes,  I did say the dreaded  nylon word, it is not something I like to use in the house, but a metal one wouldn't work, and until I find an alternative, then my old nylon one with have to suffice. These soap balls can be used straight away, but will last a whole lot longer if you let them dry for about 4 weeks.

And this soap makes lots of bubbles, the bubbles had started to dissipate by the time I thought to take a photo of them. It smells sooooooooo nice and I can't wait to use this one.