Saponification Sunday...Rebatch Match

Just FYI...I'll be posting about Mrs. Dalloway soon. In the meantime, lets talk soap.


Mostly I make Cold Process soap. Lye water plus oils, mix, mold, let sit, unmold, cut and cure.
Occasionally I make Hot Process Soap. Lye water plus oils, mix, cooked in the crock pot, slammed into a mold, Let sit, unmold, cut and use right away if you choose.

And on days I am feeling the need to recycle soap bits, or fix a batch that is safe recipe wise but just plain ugly, I will rebatch.

I personally love the way my rebatched soap turns out but one reader told me last year, it looked like cat puke. So I crawled in the corner to lick my wounds and decided I would NEVER post about rebatched soap again.

But I have a terrible memory.

So here I am, back again to talk about rebatched soap. And if you think it resembles cat puke than I would recommend you spend less time following your cat around after its' eaten Chinese and more time making the soap the way you chose to do it.

These instructions are for 7 bars of soap weighing approximately 5.5  each

Step 1.
     Gather up the soap you want to rebatch. Approximately 8 bars worth . Each bar weighing about 5 oz each. Or to make more sense, you'll need 40 oz of dry soap. Fresh soap (less than two weeks old) works best. This time I choose some red and white bars that smelled wonderful but looked like someone had spilled a thick layer of concealed blood over the top of white bricks. I also added in a pink bar of soap just for fun. Cut them into chunks of various sizes. Perfection not needed.

Rebatched soap requires a rebatched photo. This is from a batch I did last year

 

Step 2
     Throw all the pieces into an OLD crock pot. Put the crock pot on high if you are going to be in the house. Add 1/2 cup water. Put it on low if you are someone who forgets about the soap and goes to a birthday party in ANOTHER STATE.

Step 3.
     If on high heat, stir every 30 minutes or so. You do not need to mix well . Just get under the soap pieces and turn over two-three times. It may take 3 hours to get the soap well melted (on high) 6 hours on low.


Step 4
     Prepare your mold. I use an old diaper wipe container and line it with freezer paper. The shiny side goes up against the soap. When the soap is very soft and gelatinous, with some hunks not completely melted, I will then stir in the essential oil of my choice. 1-2 oz for this size batch. I chose Geranium Rose. No need to worry about the batch seizing as this EO is known for since the soap is already...soap. Stir in the EO well

The results after approximately an hour of cooking in the crock pot on high.

Step 5.
     Now glop the soap into your mold. After filled slam it hard on the counter to get rid of all air bubbles. You do have your safety glasses on, right? Hot soap in your eyes is dangerous! Set it aside to cool

A good cheese and potato casserole? Not quite

Your rebatched soap should be hard enough by morning to unmold and cut. It is at this point safe to use but may be a bit soft. Will of course be even better to use in one week. The pics above were from last year and the soaps I used were browns and tans with a few black pieces.

This time, my colors were red , made from madder root powder and white made from the addition of titanium dioxide  and the final result was this:

Sorry, took these pics in the kitchen in late evening.
Bad lighting  photo excuse #99

The soap is not stunning but it is in my cat-puke tolerant opinion, attractive enough. Adding the EO at the very end of the cook keeps its scent from burning off. But again make sure you mix it in well. The soap will be much too thick to use any kind of a hand mixer so you will need to use a good solid spoon. I like wood best.

Some other alternative methods...instead of or along with adding water to the chopped up old soap pieces prior to melting, you can also add good quality oil. I have in the past used Castor oil, organic sunflower oil, avocado oil to name a few. I will only use 2 oz of additional oil. Because the lye is already tied up in the old soap bars this oil does not have any lye to bind with thus your soap may not lather as well, may feel a little greasier but frankly I have not experienced either of those problems when I rebatched using additional oil instead of water

So, have fun!