Horse Chestnut Soap? Part One...

 The weekend was wet and windy, it finally cleared up on Sunday afternoon so I took the kids out to hunt for conkers and to blow off some steam. 

The tree in a field near us had none on them so we went to a friends to see what we could find.  

A few kilos later we had all we needed. Enough to pick out the best ones for traditional conkers (more on that another time) and some for making viking soap. 

I'd read about making soap with horse chestnuts a few years ago. Each time I wondered what it was like and if it worked - but there is only one way to find this out - to make it and use it. 

The kids were keen to help, so we chopped them up and ran them through the blender. Then put the broken up bits on sheets (with baking parchment we could throw away afterwards) into the dehydrator to dry out so they would store. 

That's as far as we have got with it so far. I'm hoping to use it this week when some essential oils to give it a nice smell. 

Anyone else made laundry soap from horse chestnuts before? Any tips in using them?