Thursday, August 2, 2012

Ivory Soap Experiment- A Total Wash Out

Em here. So we got this awesome entry from Trina, maybe you have seen it, turning Ivory Soap bars into moon sand. What the awesome, yes please!!! However it, as many crafts and DIY projects are, is a finicky mistress and cannot always be trusted. Check it out!

The Original

The blog explains that this is supposed to be a fun experiment with your kids. They call it a "Soap Cloud", you can play with it, smoosh it to a billion pieces, or smoosh it and then make it into tiny soap bars (complete with fun colors). This stuff really does rock! Anyway, Trina and her kids did this and had some disappointing results.

The Pinstrosity

Trina tells her tale of everything going according to plan, they microwaved it for the appropriate time (see the original blog for full detailed instructions), took it out to play with and mold into shapes, and that is when everything literally fell apart. They pulled it out and smooshed it, but it didn't do anything but fall apart. Her kids played with it for maybe 2 minutes and had had their fill she said. Bummer city. The directions say to smoosh it, then put it into a food processor which makes it fine enough to be made into tiny bath soaps, seen here:

Trina missed that line, and ended up with lots of crumbly soap, a house that smelled oh so fresh, (and not necessarily in a good way, she said the smell lingered and was STRONG, headache STRONG).
However if done properly, these would make great tub crayons! With the simple adjustment of making sure that after it is microwaved it is put in the food processor, you can add color (food coloring), and then place them in cookie cutters and let them sit and dry in order to harden for just a few days, and voila!! Tub magic!!

Let us know how this one pans out. Did your kids like it? Was the smell worth the adventure? We love your feedback so tell us your tales! Happy Thursday!!

                                               -Emilee

40 comments:

  1. This is a pin that I've actually done and had a pin win. Well, kind of. I changed things a bit. I microwaved the soap and since I don't have a food processor I mushed it up with my hands. And then I added water, a little bit at a time, until it was play-dough-ish. Then I could mold it. I let it dry for a day or two and it worked perfectly.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I made this, too, and it worked pretty well. It expanded in the microwave in a very satisfying way (at least to a 5 yr. old!) and we took it outside in a big bowl to play with. That didn't last long (it is crumbly), but after adding a little water (this is the missing piece) and a few drops of food coloring, it molded well into a cookie cutter. Scrub the microwave, put a load in the dishwasher and we've entertained ourselves for most of an hour. Not bad at all!

    ReplyDelete
  3. It worked for us too. My younger kids LOVED it. The older one pretended it was no big deal. Then I caught them trying it too. We didn't make it work into more soap though. But that's fine. The smell wasn't bad at all.

    ReplyDelete
  4. we did it, my boys loved it, the teen girls were unmoved. just keep in mind that it will disintigrate into a kajillion soapflakes if you so much as look at it funny, so we sent the boys to the tub with theirs. the natural next step for us is food coloring, but we want to add a few drops before we nuke it to see how the clouds look!

    ReplyDelete
  5. We made it. My 4 and 7 year olds loved it! But then again, they're California kids and decided it was snow and had a snowball fight in the backyard, which with our mild winters they've never been able to do before. We didn't try to shape it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. You can make it into a sort of fluffy playdough by adding ripped up toilet paper, water, and food coloring. It cannot be reformed into soap at that point, but is a great sensory experience for children!

    ReplyDelete
  7. We did this and had the identical experience, with the exception of the kid's reactions. They LOVED it. Mom hated the entire experience. Here's my own blog post about it! http://semperfried.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  8. I attempted this with Ivory soap, except that the soap I had was OLD, very VERY old and had some orange staining on it and was also beginning to crack. When I was packing some things when we left our last place, somehow we ended up with Ivory soap in our boxes (I only use Dove)so instead of tossing it I thought I'd try this out. UM, well I put the soap in a bowl and then microwaved it... I'm an idiot and the bowl completely melted and the soap did NOTHING, guess it was too old. My house smelled nauseatingly Ivory fresh for hours. UGH. Maybe I'll try again in a few years...

    ReplyDelete
  9. my soap must have been old - it actually caught on fire and the house and microwave smelled horrible for a while.

    ReplyDelete
  10. YES!! we tried it with old soup.. it started to burn and smoke (scary!!) so we bought BRAND NEW SOAP. voila! worked like magic! we're using them as cloud center pieces for my sons 2nd birthday party which is airplane themed :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. I did this with my daughter! She lOved it and we ended up making soap for her and for me! I added olive oil and lavender to mine! Gave some to co workers too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How much Olive oil did you add? I am making gifts, too and love your idea!

      Delete
  12. I tried the Ivory soap too. The kids loved watching it blow up in the microwave. However, when I told them we could use it to mold into shapes it just broke up all over my kitchen. I had to vacuume really fast because our dog thought it was food. Urgh...

    ReplyDelete
  13. We don't have Ivory soap in Australia, so just used plain ol'regular soap. Didn't work so great, and even a month or so after, every time I use the microwave I get a stinky soap smell.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello. You can get this in Australia now at Chalk Drop. It's the only soap that it works with so try again. Also, try cutting a bar into quarters so it doesn't cover the microwave!

      Delete
  14. We did it once. Correctly, ON THE DECK! LOL It made cute little soap shapes (small cookie cutters) and it stunk to high heaven. It was a fun hour that we will never ever repeat! :0) I LOVE this blog!!!

    ReplyDelete
  15. We did it with brand new Ivory on a paper plate - it worked just like the pic, but totally stuck to the plate! We did not carry on the Pin to make our own new soap - just let them take it straight to the bathtub, where it disintegrated very quickly. It was a cool 5 minutes for all :-)

    ReplyDelete
  16. We did this and my 6 and 8 year old girls loved it. However I agree that the house smelled way too much like ivory soap afterward! I also decided to cook in the microwave very shortly after making this and my corn tasted like soap as well! Whoops!It didn't keep them entertained for too long but it was well worth the dollar I spent and the memories that were made!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Try it again with a fresh bar.

    ReplyDelete
  18. To get smell out of microwave. Heat whit vinager in it for a couple minute and use to wipe down microwave after. Worked for me

    ReplyDelete
  19. My almost 3 year old love it. I added some red food coloring and oil to reform it. Added too much oil and got a sludge. Kid loved his pink bath though since he wanted to take one right after we finished. I used a fresh bar.

    ReplyDelete
  20. We did this....well, the first part. We made our "soap clouds" and the kids (2 and 5) thought it was amazing (I'll admit, I was pretty excited as well). I then brought the clouds and kids outside and let them smash it until their hearts were content in a plastic tub. At this point, my 5 year old decided to throw it up in the air and pretend it was "snowing". No problem, or so I thought! My 2 year old looked up at the "snow" and got it in his eye. Other than that, they loved it and it made the following bath a VERY sudsy experience :)

    ReplyDelete
  21. I tried this, but I used an old bar of soap from the storage room so no one would miss it...big mistake. The smell was not only strong but it was nauseating; it smelled half like soap and half like mold. My sister and I were frantically cracking windows throughout the house.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Maybe it would work better if you took the microwave out of the equation and started with Ivory Snow?

    ReplyDelete
  23. I understand that this is a good way to "flake" soap if you're making your own laundry detergent

    ReplyDelete
  24. This worked fine for us. We put the soap on a paper plate and took it out before it touched the microwave. To make the soap, we added some water to help it stay together. It did smell strong but each child wanted to get a front row seat while it was fluffing up so we had to do a bunch.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Did this with my daughter (4) and she loved it! I put most in a plastic zip-lock baggie and took a "chunk" and crumbled it over her in the tub. She plays and washes up with it until all the snow "melts". When she's done and all rinsed off she is a super clean and happy and mommy is super happy she's clean!

    ReplyDelete
  26. We tried this too, however because I wasn't 100% sold on it, I cut the soap bar into thirds and only microwaved a third of the bar.. This was plenty for my single 5yr old child to play with.. None of the soap touched the microwave either. It did have a strong soap smell however I anticipated this and had the oven vent running the whole time, it lasted for about an hour but wasn't all that bad.
    We also added a little water to it shortly after taking it out of the microwave and it made a paste/dough which my daughter used like play dough to make shapes and things.. We didn't have much of a mess other than cleaning the tray she was using it in and taking a bath.. So for us this was a pin win..

    ReplyDelete
  27. I tried this with Fels Naptha - pinstrosity indeed! It stunk so bad, and was too hot to crumble for almost an hour, in which I was panicky that one of my kids was going to have an asthma attack from the fumes lol

    ReplyDelete
  28. I admit I tried both the ivory and the fels naptha. They both worked for me! I have had great results with the soap and the kids, they really loved it. And it made my house smell good...I mean, it's Ivory soap! As for the Fels Naptha, well, I admit it is hot initally and I left it in 2minutes and 45 seconds....and then i let it cool...before handling. If you make homemade laundry soap, you know how annoying it is to grate, this makes it ten times easier, its like the crumbliest bestest styrofoam easy to sprinkle in. If at first you don't succeed, try again....It really does work.

    ReplyDelete
  29. I tried this with Ivory and it was a crumbly mess. My kids were bored with it by the time it was actually cool enough to handle. And whoa, that lingering smell! My son has asthma, so I had to open all the windows to air it out. I also had to scrub the inside of my microwave out afterwards because the odor was so strong I was afraid it might impart flavor into the food.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Oneofakindjem in ohioDecember 6, 2012 at 7:56 AM

    All the kids in my life had a blast with this project!! The moms where a little conserned when I said we were going to "Blow up soap in the microwave", but over all if you read and try yourself first, the out come was great. and the kids thought it was cool to watch it expand in the microwae. I loved it!!! Oneofakindjem in Ohio

    ReplyDelete
  31. what a great post! EH talked about castor oil bath and the soap nut powder before the led class on saturday awhile back. I feel so connected with you being there in Mysore, you having EH as a teacher too and reading this and me practicing with her now. small world! keep these posts coming!

    ReplyDelete
  32. I did this and mine actually lit on fire!!!! I posted my own little pinterest fail about it! http://bustedbutton.com/2013/01/11/pinterest-fail-a-k-a-fun-with-chemical-fires/

    ReplyDelete
  33. I used another kind of soap and it stunk very badly and was a little blob of wax and hardened gunk. Gross

    ReplyDelete
  34. We did it. Was a win for us!! The boy was quite amused by the whole thing.

    ReplyDelete
  35. We did this for Winter camp this year and the smell was very strong for a very long time in the microwave but not in the rest of the house. We put the soap in plastic bags so the kids could take it home to show their parents. My son's turned to powder which is still good for bathing but little else. Not epic fail because the reaction to watching it expand was wonderful but the clean up after was very time consuming.

    ReplyDelete
  36. this reminds me of the finger-paints i made, that came out real weird and didn't manage to paint much... to bad i didn't take a picture...

    ReplyDelete
  37. I did this when I taught school last year! this experiment was a winner!! My students loved it! We did cut the soap into quarters so the microwave wouldn't fill up! And we squished the puffed up soap into soap molds and used soap coloring for scent and color. NO problems with odor either--made my moldy classroom smell absolutely great.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.