How do you make your goat milk soap bar last longer?

It’s pretty simple, really.  You need to keep it as dry as possible. 

Eye roll… I know, soap is SUPPOSED to be wet, right?  I mean, isn’t that how you use it?

Yes, but hand-made soap is different.  It is possible to dramatically increase the life of your hand-made bar soap.  Here are a few ideas on how to do that!

  • Get a suction cup shelf in your shower for the soap and stand the soap up on edge for as long as it will cooperate. We have found that getting the soap to dry as much as possible in between uses really helps it last!  Standing the bar up allows it to dry on both sides.  It is also easier than trying to pry it up off the bottom every day, and it tends to break less. 
  • Never let your soap sit in water, especially not in that little depression in your shower intended for soap! Get a soap dish that drains!  Again, the dryer, the better. 
  • Keep your soap out of running water as much as possible. I put my hands in the water, reach over and use the soap, set it down, and then scrub and rinse my hands.  The bar never enters the water stream.  This allows me to get adequate soap on my hands without running additional soap down the drain without being used!
  • Use a Loofa with you soap bar! Rub the loofa on the soap bar, set the bar aside, and then use as you would with body wash or shower gel!  Replenish as needed, but I think you will be surprised how far it goes! 
  • Get a “soap net”. It’s a bag intended to keep the soap inside and use as an extra exfoliant.  Use the soap right through the net, scrubbing your body with the bag.  The foam comes right through the bag, and this allows you to use your soap right down to the last little shred!  Depending on the bag, this might not help as much for a full size bar, as the bag is wet when you use it, and that keep the soap wet longer, but it is fabulous for those little soap shreds at the end of the bar that are hard to hold and use!  Get the most out of every little soap piece!
  • Small kids? No problem!  Use a washrag and rub the soap into the rag.  Then use the foamy rag to clean the child!  Don’t let them float the soap around in the water…
  • Make foaming soap with shreds of your bar soap! Put a tiny amount of soap shreds in your foaming pump (1/4 t. per 2 oz of water as a start).  Fill with warm water and let the shreds dissolve.  Use by the sink for hands, or in the shower like you would body wash. 

The thing to remember is that this is a delicate soap.  It dissolves quickly in water, but also, it will stay “soft” for a while after use.  If allowed to dry out between uses, this is not a problem.  But if you are the second “shower-er”, you will notice that the soap is softer for you than for the first person.  This means that the “soft” part of the soap will likely foam up easier for you, and thus you will end up using more.  If we have our act together, my husband and I use separate bars of soap in our shower, each of us allowing the other person’s soap to dry and only have one use per day.  I feel like this gives us even more lasting power in each bar.  

I stalk other soap people on social media, just to see what they are doing.  I saw an ad recently for someone’s special soap deal.  The comment under the post said, “I love this soap!  But it’s too expensive to only last a week.” 

I felt so bad for that person.  A 4-oz soap usually lasts us 3 weeks, but again, we are aware of how to care for our soap bars.  They were going to quit using their favorite soap rather than realizing that they just needed to learn how to care for it!  

And now that never needs to be your situation!  You can enjoy your goat milk soap for a long time, just by implementing the ideas above that work for you! 

Have fun with your soap!

Shanna - Big Red Barn

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