Adding older soaps (shaved or powdered) to fresh batch at trace?

[RogueRose]

I got this idea when looking through my supply of previously made batches. some are too oily, some too drying so I was wondering if it would be possible to make a batch that would balance out the old soaps and add the old soaps (shredded and or powdered) to the new batch at trace. Just mix it in and allow it to cure.

I'm guessing that it may make pouring the soap kind of hard, but I can't see it effecting the properties of the old soap but I'm curious as to how it may effect the curing of the new batch.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Susie]

We call adding shredded older soap to new soap batter confetti soap. It is how I use up not great soap. Use no more than one part old soap to two parts new soap. If you know the older batch is too drying, you may want to up the superfat of the new soap to compensate. Same thing for too oily. I would just not do that for lye heavy soap. That would need a rebatch.

 

[RogueRose]

We call adding shredded older soap to new soap batter confetti soap. It is how I use up not great soap. Use no more than one part old soap to two parts new soap. If you know the older batch is too drying, you may want to up the superfat of the new soap to compensate. Same thing for too oily. I would just not do that for lye heavy soap. That would need a rebatch.

Thanks for replying! As far as the 1:2 (old to new) is this a strict rule and if so why? My reason for asking is b/c if I wanted 2 color soap, "confetti" style, but of the same recipe just different colors, would a 1:1 be alright or is there something in the curing process that needs to have a higher amount of fresh batch for it to cure correctly?

 

[kchaystack]

Thanks for replying! As far as the 1:2 (old to new) is this a strict rule and if so why? My reason for asking is b/c if I wanted 2 color soap, "confetti" style, but of the same recipe just different colors, would a 1:1 be alright or is there something in the curing process that needs to have a higher amount of fresh batch for it to cure correctly?

You need enough of the new soap to bind everything together. From what I have read about this process is that less than a 2:1 newld has a good chance of falling apart.

 

[Obsidian]

I've done 1:1 before and the soap didn't look that great. The top was like lumpy oatmeal and it was really thick, hard to get in the mold.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

If you use too much of the confetti, there might not be enough of the new soap to hold it all together. If you are planning on actually melting it all together (rebatch) that is something else, of course, but if you're just putting it in with new batter, keeping the ratio of 1:2 would be best.

If you want to use two lots of older soap, you can make up the "1" from the 1:2 ratio with a mix of the two older soaps, as long as the total weight of old soap is half that of the new batter.

 

[dixiedragon]

It depends on how fresh the old soap is. If it is new soap, you can use a lot more of it, b/c it is still soft and moist and will bond well with the new batter. If it is older, it is dry and your new soap batter will be like glue holding the dry soap bits together, so you need a greater proportion of new soap so your soap doesn't crumble.

Use full water - the dry old soap will absorb some of it. Also, I strongly encourage you to gel. The heat from gel will melt the old soap a bit so it will be more melded with the new soap.

 

[Susie]

^What they said!

 

[Seawolfe]

I use chunks rather than shavings, but in any case you want plenty of new soap to bind it. Dunking the old soap chunks in water very quickly and allowing them to drain helps to bind the old to new. I don't think you need to do that for confetti though.

 

[dixiedragon]

Here's a pic. Same batch - the rectangle gelled and the circle did not.

 

[DeeAnna]

The 2 to 1 ratio isn't a law, by no means, but I agree with the others that it's a sensible rule of thumb to follow, even though it seems like it will take forever to use up those shredded scraps at a 2:1 ratio.

I did a batch that was more like 1:1 once, and my molded soap had places where the shreds didn't get mixed into the soap batter properly so they fell out of the bar and made unsightly holes in the soap bar. I would have been better off to have used fewer shreds and ended up with a better result.

What didn't seem obvious (until I learned it the hard way) is the shreds thicken the soap batter a lot. With too many shreds in the batter, the mixture gets really thick and hard to mix at the exact moment when you need to MOVE and get that soap in the mold NOW! It all gets very messy, frazzling, difficult, and busy all at once.

 

[FlybyStardancer]

I recently made a confetti soap and I did the 2:1 ratio. That ended up perfect, with the shreds taking up a LOT more visual space than I expected them to at that ratio.