Teach Soap

Okay, I started soaping in October and I think I have now made my first ugly, possibly failed batch! Luckily, a small one! I didn't get my oils melted enough. As I was using my lye mixed with frozen goat's milk, I didn't want my oils too hot because I didn't want to wait so long for them to cool. Previously when I used frozen goat's milk with lye the temp didn't exceed 80 degrees. I was just getting my oils to the melting point and stirred them together before mixing the lye. I think I didn't melt my lard enough or it cooled a bit and recoagulated. I didn't notice until I was mixing in my lye/milk mixture and saw little white clumps which I think was the lard. I used Lilac FO from BB and Ultramarine Violet for color. I couldn't seem to get the white clumps to mix in. I tried putting the whole thing in the microwave at 20 second intervals trying to remelt that lard, after two tries I gave up because I was nervous microwaving the whole mixture with lye in it. I put it in my mold. The next day I could still see those white clumps ( and the color was getting some brown in it!? why was this?) so I thought I could melt the whole thing down and put it back in the mold as I've read other people do rebatching ( I thought this is what rebatching is, correct?) I've never tried this before so I put it in my stainless steel pot on low temp and stirred it occasionally but by the time the whole thing was melted it was a horrible brown color and a bad smell! Perhaps the remelting burned it? Was the smell due to the GM? I put it back in a mold, cut it the next day and am waiting to see if the smell works out. It might still be usable but ugly!! What do you think? Is it a total failure and should be tossed or just a usable ugly soap! Will the fragrance come back? Anyone else with similar experiences?
Thanks for your input!

From what I understand the fragrance will be lost. The icky smell was probably the goats milk and it should fade, I find that smell horrid!!!

_________________
~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

Please don't put any mixture with lye in the microwave. You can gently rewarm it by placing your container in a pot of hot water, but you risk causing a volcano effect if you heat it directly.

I think this batch may need to be trashed. I've rebatched lots of times, but have never had one turn brown and smell awful. I think the milk may have burned. You can wait a few days to see if the smell will go away, but if it's burnt, the smell will stick.

_________________
Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!