Mushy bars of soap: testing a countermeasure
We’ve mostly switched from body washes in pump bottles to old-timey bar soaps as part of an effort to reduce our exposure to certain likely harmful but incredibly ubiquitous ingredients of modern shampoos, conditioners, body washes, and other personal care products. Smooth sailing thus far. Except for the mushiness problem.
The plastic countertop soap dishes we’ve gotten have ridges intended to keep the soap bar a millimeter or so above the rest of the dish surface. Those ridges are a bit on the wide, long, and numerous side, however, and the result is that the parts of the bar that contact the ridges stay moist longer than the rest of the bar and those areas often feel mushy the next time one grabs the soap.
I wondered whether reducing the contact surface area might let the soap dry and firm back up faster. After some thought, I sent away for several sizes and form factors of silicone nubbins (sold as dust plugs, appliance feet, and for various and sundry other uses). Of the types that I purchased, the ones shown installed seemed like my best bet.
The nubbins aren’t situated precisely. After eyeballing and marking their locations with a Sharpie (the black dots above the highest line of installed silicone studs are not-yet-drilled locations for another layer of ’em), I used a “brad point” drill and some elbow grease to make the holes. Then, to tidy the holes a bit and make press-fitting the nubbins easier, I went over the holes (from above and below) with a chamfer chucked into another hand drill handle.