Why does soap lather less as it gets smaller?
even when you try to shove the smaller bar into a sponge to get the most out of it, the lather just fizzles out.
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It doesn’t. When the bar is big, it’s easy to hold and rub against a washcloth and it lathers easily. When small, it’s hard to hold and develop the same friction.
What my mother used to do was save these small slivers and after collecting a few, she would get them wet and mash them together and set aside to dry. The larger group was easier to use.
It’s probably a question of surface area, too. The surface is where the lather is generated, and a new bar would have something like triple the surface area of an end-stage bar.
i never noticed….i throw them out before they get little.
It’s all a function of surface area and how well you can hold onto that sucker as it shrinks. If you can’t hold it securely, then a lot of times you won’t be able to rub it against your skin, washcloth, or whatever. In that case, no lather is produced, even though you’re expending the same (or more) effort.
I use Ivory soap bars, and when they start to get that size I press them onto a new bar. I have months and months worth of soap bars layered together in this way. My soap could be a geology experiment someday.
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