Teach Soap

i made too much to fit my mold, so I rebatched it the next day when the mold became available. it was 25% sunflower, 25% olive 15% cocoa butter and 10% sweet almond oil, plus i added dissolved salt to firm it up, which is my first salt cake:) The next morning when I take it out to look at it it's pretty soft. I'm hoping in four or five days it will be soft enough to at least take out of the mold, if not cut. I added a lot of water rebatching 1 day old soap just into a pot not a double boiler or anything. I believe temp reached 150-160.

Can I add some more water to melt down the old stuff with some more oils and lye water in order to saponify the whole mess into a new loaf? Say, w/ some of my old shower bars too i can throw into the pot w/ this iffy batch, melt it down w/ water to desired consistency, then add new oils and lye as specified by lye calculator, until trace? Pour into loaf. Will that work?

I think I'm missing something in your post - why exactly do you want to rebatch again? Is it just because of the softness, or is there another reason I missed?

Rebatched soap tends to be softer at first, because of the added water. Plus, your recipe has a lot of soft oils to it. If softness is the problem, I'd just let it sit for a little while. My first rebatch wasn't hard enough to cut or get out of the mold for around five days, and it still only came out of the mold after freezing it for a while.

thanks that's a great idea, freezing it. I may have to try that. It IS much softer than the original batch. I should have added some salt to the 2nd rebatch. Yes, I need to rebatch mostly bc it's too soft. Also an earlier batch of bars i have are too lye heavy, bc I used a recipe from a book without running it thru a lye calculator myself first. The soap isn't too bad, it's still usable, but I would like to rebatch w/ a lower oil:lye ratio to try to lower pH in the new loaf.

I wouldn't rebatch only because of softness, since your bars will eventually harden up , and I find the more I mess with a batch of soap the more chance there is to make a mistake with it. Although I like the idea of combining it and a little extra oil with a previous lye-heavy batch as a rescue mission, but I'll defer to more experienced/knowledgeable members instead of trying to give you advice on that

Thanks. Ok i will just leave it for awhile until it hardens up. I read somebody else in the gelled soap/overheated soap thread said to "scooped it all into a pot, added a can of coconut milk, melted it down, and re-poured it." That's an interesting idea to lower pH to but i don't know how to do milk soaps. I think the milk should be involved in the saponification, yes, not added afterwards? Otherwise the milk fats & sugars just mix with and neutralize the soap, yes?

You won't lower the pH by adding any milk unless the soap is lye heavy. Unless you know exactly how much more oil or butter to add to make the soap superfatted, I would leave it be and use it for cleaning around the house (but not hand or body washing).

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

When I rebatch day old soap I add no more than 1 tablespoon of water per pound of soap. Otherwise there is too much liquid and it takes forever to harden! Yours will eventually harden, after a good portion of the extra water evaporates out.

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

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

i threw it out out after a few days. The top was hardening up nicely but the inside was still mush. I have learned it is best to avoid rebatching, if possible. For the time being anyway. I've heard you can use less essential oils by adding them at the rebatch, or smthng like that... Thanks for answers