In this season of cold and flu I have renewed my emphasis on personal hygiene with my children. My 3 year old, however, has a major aversion to soap. He will willingly wash his hands and take baths etc, but fights any type of soap or shampoo. I can sneak soap into the bath which takes care of hair and body, but I needed a solution for his unwillingness to use soap to clean his hands before meals and after using the washroom. Treat soap” (or in our bathroom “car soap”) has been just the ticket at our place.
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Materials Needed to Make your Toy Soap:
- Small toy that will be of interest to your child
- Small piece of plastic wrap
- Glycerin (available at the craft store… I got mine for 50% off using a commonly occurring coupon)
- Soap mold or small plastic reusable snack container, silicone muffin cup, plastic baby food container, plastic container from snack sized yogurt or applesauce etc…
- Colour (Optional): can use liquid food colouring or the stuff specific to soap making
- Essential oils or soap scent. Also available at a craft store.
The most important, and trickiest part of this process is coming up with a toy that will fit into the container you have chosen to use as a mold, but neat enough to motivate the unwilling hand-washer. I used some tiny cars, but a slightly bigger mold could hold a regular sized matchbox car. A dollar store would offer a variety of novelty rings and toys that could be used. I also noticed that some of the littlest pet shop accessories and animals would also have been small enough if I was working with a girl who liked those things.
Once you have chosen your toy the soap can be assembled in 15 min and ready to use within the hour!!
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How to Create Play Soap:
- Wrap toy tightly in a small piece of plastic wrap. It is best to choose a toy that wont be ruined if it gets damp, but the plastic wrap can be used to protect toys that can’t sustain being soggy for extended periods or are at risk of being clogged by soap.
- Following the instructions on the glycerin package melt a small amount in the microwave or using a double boiler. (took about 2 min for 1 bar’s worth to melt)
- Add essential oils/color if desired.
- Pour glycerin into the mold so it is 1/3 full (or 1/3 the depth of your bar of soap if using a container that is deeper than you want your soap to be)
- Wait 5-10 min until glycerin has begun to set
- Place toy upside down onto partially set glycerin.
- Pour (re-melted) glycerin on top of toy until it is covered and to the depth you want your bar of soap to be.
- Wait 30-40 min for soap to set and then pop out of mould. You are ready to wash!!
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Uses for leftover glycerin/soap mix:
We had extras maybe you will too, here are some great ideas on ways to use it!
- making treat soap as gifts for nieces and nephews (think Christmas presents, stocking stuffer etc)
- Make an adult version with some exfoliating material to use as hostess gifts (think poppy seeds, flower petals etc)
- Using a mesh “puff” make a shower scrubbie. Compress puff into a cup with string handle sticking out. Pour scented soap around the puff. You now have a colourful soapy scrubby that can hang in your shower. Look for the puffs with decorative tops when using as a gift.
Awesome!!! Thankfully, my children adore washing their hands. Sometimes to a fault I think. But this sounds like a wonderful activity to do just for fun!! My boys will love it. Thanks for the super ideas always.
What a great idea!
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Love this. What toys do you recommend to go inside these? Any that def. don’t work?
So far I’ve only done it with cars. My other ideas were lego people, littlest pet shop, miniature characters from your child’s favorite show (I saw a buzz lightyear when I was looking for my prize). My son also has a novelty spider ring that I thought would work. Basically anything that can sustain the possibility of getting wet. It has to be good enough for them to work for it though because it takes some time to get out. YOu could even just put money inside. Even paper money can withstand being wet!! Love to hear everyone else’s ideas too!!
That sounds like a lot of fun! I might have to try this one.
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That is too cool! Totally going to do it!!
My sons don’t usually give me any trouble washing their hands but this is really a very neat idea!
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What a cool and creative idea! My son is too old, but my nephew would love this!
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I like that idea of putting an object inside! The girls will have fun finding things to put in their soap…definitely will have to try this.
We experimented with soap molds, ice trays and cookie cutters. Here is our page with pictures of our Soap Creations