Tutorial Tuesday: Homemade Jelly Soap

Greetings and welcome to this week's Tutorial Tuesday! This time I took my inspiration from a certain high end soap and bath bomb company that charges an arm and a leg for stuff. I figured I could easily make 90% of it at home for a ton cheaper (I was so right), so I sprinted off to Pinterest and starting searching for copycat recipes. I came across one for a copycat jelly soap and I thought that would be a fun project to make for my son, who is three. I simplified the recipe down a bit (ick, glitter in my soap? No thank you) and used ingredients that cost pennies on the dollar. So without further ado, here's how I made my jelly soaps.

My supplies, minus the whisk and measuring cups

To make these you will need:

• 1/2 liquid soap. Because I made these for my son I used his tears free shampoo which I get at the Dollar Store, but any liquid soap will do.
• 2 packages of plain gelatin. I bought a giant box last year so I could make homemade gummies (so not worth the trouble), so I already had these, but I think the giant box cost like $13.
• A silicone mold of some sort. Again I'm using my cupcake pan, but you can use anything really. I suppose you could even use a plastic container if you didn't have a silicone pan.
• Measuring cup, large measuring cup, whisk, spatula. 

First you need to heat 3/4 of a cup of water to boiling. I used my large plastic mixing cup and microwaved it till it was boiling because I was feeling lazy. Once the water is boiling you want to dump your gelatin into it and whisk it up so there are no lumps. Be careful not to splash since it is very hot.

Water and gelatin all mixed up

Now you want to mix in your 1/2 cup of soap, using the spatula to make sure you get every drop.

Just dump it in

Now mix it up, making sure there are no lumps but do not whisk it till it foams, otherwise your finished product will have a sponge like texture. 

I let my son whisk it up for me

Once everything is mixed together pour it into your molds. I ended up filling five of the slots up almost full, which worked out pretty well I thought. You can fill them however you want, I wanted them bigger so I could cut them in half but still be thick enough to easily hold in tiny three year old hands.

The color looks weird here, but they were actually a light pink once removed from molds

Now the next step is optional though I highly recommend it if there are other people in your house. Since I know my husband, I made a large sign that said "Do NOT eat, soap NOT Jello." If It was just me in the house I wouldn't worry about it, but I'm of the better safe than sorry mentality.

No eating the soap please

You'll want to put the whole mold/container into the fridge to both set up and keep them a little firmer. I've heard of people storing them in the freezer and I may try that at some point but the fridge worked perfectly. Once they are fully set up you are free to text them out. 

All done and ready for the fridge

I have never seen my son scramble that fast to get into the bath tub as when I told him he could use a jelly soap. As a shampoo bar these worked great, they do dissolve faster in water than I originally thought they would but they were so cheap to make I'm not overly concerned. He loved washing himself with it and that's really all that mattered. On a side note, I've heard gelatin is really good for your hair and nails, so I'll keep an eyeball on his hair and I'll report back to you if I see a difference. If you want to see the recipe that inspired this post, you can do so here. I'll probably be replicated more recipes from that fancy soap store (starts with an L if you haven't guessed yet) in the future, what would you like a copycat recipe of?