Teach Soap

I'm beginning to use some oats in a few of my soaps and am wondering what size/texture seems to work best and how to get them in the right "state" to use. I usually only keep Old Fashioned Oats on hand and read that they should not be used whole in soap. So I've been putting them in a baggie and crushing them by hand or with a light mallet. Is there an easier way to get oat pieces to the right size???

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Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

I grind mine in a coffee grinder - short bursts until I get it the consistency I want to use.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

I have a mini blender attachment for my stick blender. Same as above - short bursts until I get the consistency I'm after.

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The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

I don't have a coffee grinder, but if I had one, is there any problem with using it for multiple different ingredients?
I do have the mini mixer from BB (not sure if that is what it is called) that A-M uses for mixing colorants. Would that work?

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Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

I have the mini mixer, too and I don't think that would work without it sending the oatmeal all over the place! You could try a small amount tho.
I have 2 grinders - one just for my coffee and the other for herbs, oatmeal, etc.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

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The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

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Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

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www.facebook.com/Semplice-Naturals

Not Oster, but Farberware (I think!)

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Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

I just use my food processor.

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Debbie

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Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

I have made several batches of soap with oatmeal in them and have used different consistencies. I think it really depends on what you want, or what your customers want. I like the exfoliating qualities of larger chunks of oatmeal in my soap, it kind of gives the skin a little massage when you use it. However, my finicky nephew, who needs oatmeal in his soap for the skin benefits and his skin condition, doesn't like the big chunks and prefers his oats to be finely ground into powder. Sometimes, I go in the middle, sometimes I put whole oats on the top of the bar for aesthetic reasons. There is no one set way to do it.

If you don't have a fancy electric chopper, you can always try using a nut chopper, or a pastry cutter to cut your oats. I think a pastry cutter would work better. Whenever I go to the Goodwill store, I can usually find a coffee grinder that's lightly used for half the price of new. It might be worth your $$ to invest in one if you plan on doing any more stuff to add to your soaps. They really aren't that expensive. Try your local craigslist too, if you have one, a lot of times people give them away for free.

-Kristen

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Kristen D. Vineyard
visit my blog http://washwithvegetables.blogspot.com

We have a Krups grinder. We use it for coffee virtually every day, and this one is close to 20 years old. I bought a second one just to be on the safe side if this older model dies on me in the middle of using it. I just wipe out the coffee and have at it. In fact, I need to be in there doing it right now instead of forum browsing

Thank you for all your responses! I have some new ideas to try---yeah!
The first batch I did with oats I left them whole and hubby hated it.....said it was too rough on his "sensitive" skin

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Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts