Teach Soap

Well, we have been at the melt and pour/ rebatching business for about a month now. They first time we made some oatmeal and honey, lavender oatmeal... all turned out perfectly, ready to use asap. Our oven started giving us problems with temp being too high. We turned to the microwave (AAHH!!, that's a whole other story). Then finally we found a method that works, boil in bags on the stove like a double broiler. Much easier to control the soap melting... Anyway, my question is... our soaps that we made all turned out so differently. The Herb (nothing but ground herbs) and Coffee (nothing but coffee) turned out fine. They hardened up and look great. We melted the base down w/ 1/2 cup of 2% milk or of coffee respectively, BTW.

The Rocky Road (used 1/2 c vanilla extract to 2 lbs base for our "liquid" when we started melting the base), Lemon (used lemon juice 1/2 c to 2 lbs again) and the other two we made with 1/2 cup of 2% milk each with just fragrance oils at the end (about 1 TBSP for a 2 lb loaf) -- turned out all of them sort of "soft". They lather ok, but I don't want a customer to get "burned" by the soap if it's not cured. It's been sitting for 3 weeks drying... still soft in the middles. The base was fairly fresh when we got it (goat milk soap base w/ soybean and coconut oil/water/goat milk/shea butter only.)

Any ideas??? Did we do something wrong or is it just gonna have to cure? Thanks!!!

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Ok so if you got a M&P base then you shouldn't have to worry about your customer getting burned at all if you got the base from a reliable seller. I don't believe your supposed to be putting in added milk or anything like that except for fragrance oils. This will make your soap softer if you put alot in and it can also make the soap rot. I'm not sure if I'm right but I hope someone comes to straighten this out because I'm not too sure... (ok so the shocked face was just for fun! isn't it cute?!)

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Whether this is MP or CP, lemon juice will neutralize some of your lye making the soap soft.
For MP do not add any liquid. It will make the MP base soft.

For MP you can add up to 1 tsp. TOTAL of oil or butter per lb. of soap base. Any more than that and you will loose bubbles.

If you want a goat's milk soap base, try the MP base that already has goat's milk in it.

If this is a CP rebatch, depending how old the soap shreds are, new rebatch wouuld only need about a tablespoon of liquid per lb.

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

Thank you so much for help! I'l not put lemon juice in or RB anymore. ha I wondered about that. It's still kinda spongy, but it bubbles up well. We'll cut back to little to no water when we melt down our RB. It is a goat milk RB.

You ladies were SO helpful! This is a wonderful forum. So much experience has to be a blessing.

Hey, any thoughts on extracts? Can you use vanilla extract or lemon extract in a MP/ Rebatch? Just by the TBSP maybe? Probably a better idea to use vanilla or lemon fragrance oil huh? I thought so!

THANKS AGAIN!!!

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http://NeeNeesSoapShop.etsy.com

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

We are going to do some more MP soaps tonight. I made an herbal soap the other day w/ 1/2 cup milk to the 2 lbs of goat milk RB. It turned out so neat! Ginger, Basil and Sage. Has hardly any odor really, but looks cool! Also made some coffee soap w/ grounds. And an interesting bar of rocky road.

Thank you for all the help. We are newbies, but learning fast! I'll stay away from the extracts and stick w/ FO's. I had a feeling the extract was maybe a bad idea. haha We just love goat milk soap, it is so soft and nourishing. We've thrown out all our other bars!!

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Be careful with adding that much milk to your MP bars. It could either make them soft or not last as long in the shower.

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

what is rebatching?

I practiced with my last pound of clycerine and olive oil MP base, heated up some calendula flowers in olive oil and got a nice yellow oil to add to the base, but put a bit too much, the oil settled on the top, so I just wiped it off, after the soap was set.
the second batch I added some purple eye shadow (mineral make up) to some olive oil, gave it a nice light purple hue, and I embedded some fresh lavender herb clippings, but they floated to the top, I wanted them on the bottom.
I guess thats how you learn, I was pretty happy with my results, but I'll be glad when my molds and my Goatsmilk MP get here, I'm really liking this soap making.

Empress,
Rebatching is using cold process soaps, shredding it and melting it again. It will not be pourable like M&P.
MP can be remelted easily, CP not so easily.

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

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http://www.NeeNeesSoapShop.com
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You're welcome. Glad it worked out for you.

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