Teach Soap

Just curious to see if anyone else enjoys the challenge of rebatching their plain CP soap into wonderful hand-milled bars? I'm glad I've learned how to make CP soap because now I can make hand milled soaps using my own soap base. I was doing this using purchased bases, but it was hard to control. This morning I made a nice clove and oatmeal soap from a batch of CP soap I made a couple of weeks ago and it melted much more easily than the purchased bases and I only needed to add about 1 Tbsp. of water. I've also made the same base into Milk & Honey and Ginger & Chamomile soaps.

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

I rebatch only as an absolute necessity. I find my rebatched soaps esthetically challenged.
I add everything to my CP soap right in the beginning. That way they are nice and smooth.

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

That's what I find challenging about rebatch soaps - getting them to look more like CP soap! I'm having much more success with my own CP base, probably because it's fresher than purchased base. I also discovered that if my base doesn't gel, it gives a smoother finished rebatch.

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

Why not just make it as CP and add everything up front? Soap does not need to be hand milled (rebatched) in order for it to be good soap.

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

Why, indeed... Maybe because I had done rebatching before learning CP? Beats me! Maybe when I start learning how to do more with CP I won't rebatch as much.

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

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

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

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

I did my first rebatch this week. It is questionable if it will be useable (and I don't think anyone will want to see a photo of it)! I used scraps of soap from the past year... so very dry. Darned if I could get it to melt well. And it took forever... read the entire USA today paper. If I did not already have a name for it I would call it the 'news soap'. I'm not going to make a habit of this. Will try to add the little bits to other soaps instead.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

I am with you soapbuddy, I rebatch only as a last resort and usually end up with darker, lumpy ugly soaps that smell funny. CP is much more fun