While washing my hands recently, I was struck with the general unpleasantness of hand soap - it's slimy, murky, and smells ridiculous, not unlike a great deal of the VOCs it is intended to dilute and wash away.
Given that the prescribed process for hand washing necessarily includes adding water, why bother with ooblek at all? Just pick a tidy little cube of soap, perhaps 3 or 4 cubic millimeters, and add water, scrub, and wash the whole bit away with no mess, no silly pumps, and no missed expressions of pricey non-Newtonian fluids into a sink basin.-- absterge, Nov 28 2016 Or hand soap could come as a powder, like laundry soap does-- hippo, Nov 28 2016 These tidy little cubes of soap are going to sit around in some kind of tub. Some people will start washing their hands before they pick up the soap cube, and then pick it up with wet fingers, thereby wetting the other cubes in the tub. Pretty soon you've got a mess.
Also, someone will drop a little cube from their wet, slippery hands, and it will land on the floor, where it will act as a surrogate banana skin. Later that morning, someone will walk in, slip on the wet soap cube, and fracture their wrist, meaning that they need to go to hospital, as a consequence of which they will miss a lecture on orbital mechanics. Years later, they will decide against a career in near-Earth object (NEO) monitoring, as a result of missing that fascinating lecture. Without them, the NEO program will be subtly deficient, meaning that a 5km asteroid is not detected until collision with Earth is inevitable, and most of humanity will be wiped out. I hope you're pleased with yourself, [Absterge].-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 28 2016 destruction of life on earth [+]-- Voice, Nov 28 2016 Baked - people make beautiful hobbyist soaps, dice them into chunks, and make them available at point of use. I'll see my dentist this afternoon, and one of her patients does this for her.-- normzone, Nov 28 2016 What's the point of making it beautiful if it's bound straight-away for the butcher's block?-- Voice, Nov 28 2016 [MaxwellBuchanan], they would need a one-cube-at-a-time dispenser. Actually, I'm amazed that this isn't already a Thing, as it would be much less messy than liquid soap dispensers.-- neutrinos_shadow, Nov 28 2016 " What's the point of making it beautiful if it's bound straight-away for the butcher's block? — Voice, Nov 28 2016 "
What is the point of making soap as a hobby? What is the point of making posts on the Halfbakery? What is the point of anything? (waiting for some Buddhist support here ...)-- normzone, Nov 28 2016 Dispenser could cut a piece from a continuous soap rod.-- tatterdemalion, Nov 28 2016 //a continuous soap rod// A truly continuous soap rod would have to be either ring-shaped or infinitely long. Either would be problematic.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 28 2016 //Dispenser could cut a piece from a continuous soap rod// Oooh, now that I like!-- neutrinos_shadow, Nov 28 2016 So, primordial soap?-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 28 2016 Option A a bar of soap in a mesh bag hanging near the basin, Option B is a tap that's kind of upside down ie the handle (?) you twist to get water out is under the water-outflow pipe, ergo when you wash your hands, you wash the tap surface at the same time. Seen both around here.-- not_morrison_rm, Nov 28 2016 +1 for Max, and yes I'm quite pleased with myself, thank you very much.
The soap rod is a great idea. Press on a plate and a hidden blade slices through a rod then retracts to dispense one well formed cube at a time. Rods could be loaded from a cartridge as consumed, meaning that the entire volume of space inside the dispenser is useful, instead of the wasted glob at the end of the near empty bag which no amount of pounding can release. Efficient, and no messes anywhere!-- absterge, Nov 29 2016 Grated would work well.-- FlyingToaster, Nov 29 2016 Hey [absterge], how the hell are you??? I was going to go on and on about essential oils, mixed with a little Castile Soap, and then dispensed from a pump, but then I saw you think pumps are "silly" so I decided agin it. Due to how much I respect you and all. Ta-da.-- blissmiss, Nov 29 2016 Bun for Ian's primordial soap.-- RayfordSteele, Nov 29 2016 random, halfbakery