FIRST BATCH!! - looking for feedback!

[NewbiSoaper]

Candora is in my city, when you order today tomorrow it will be shipped) awesome products, wonderful customer service and fast shipping) I also order all my packaging and surfacants from Voyager, and Xen, Windy Point is fantastic too, when you spend $125 before taxes the shipping is free, the only supplier who carry EDTA

Good to know! I think I am going to order a few fragrance oils from them now and then once I start to run out of the current oils I have on hand, I'll try ordering some oil from them! The fast shipping sounds great!

 

[dixiedragon]

I would not shred or rebatch this soap. With the low superfat, high coconut and the coffee grounds, it will make a very nice scrubby kitchen soap! IMO, rebatching is a fast way to get frustrated.

 

[navigator9]

If you find yourself in a situation where you absolutely must rebatch, this is a method I ran across years ago, and it gives the best results that I've found.

"Lets say your regular recipe calls for 30 oz. of oils...with this method, measure out 20 oz. of new oils and collect 10 oz. of shredded soap. Melt down the oils and add the shreds to this. Stickblend the shreds into the fresh oils. Please note that at this point, it will get thick!
Have your lye solution ready (enough to saponify the 20 oz. of new oils) and add that to your soap mixture.
Color, scent and mold as desired!

You dont have to use the 2/3 - 1/3 ratio....you can also do a 3/4 - 1/4 if you dont have as many shreds.
Just make sure your lye solution is made up to saponify however many ozs. of fresh oils you use. "

 

[Scooter]

If you find yourself in a situation where you absolutely must rebatch, this is a method I ran across years ago, and it gives the best results that I've found.

"Lets say your regular recipe calls for 30 oz. of oils...with this method, measure out 20 oz. of new oils and collect 10 oz. of shredded soap. Melt down the oils and add the shreds to this."

Do you salt out the shreds first or are you making the same recipe with the new oils? Thanks!
--Scooter

 

[kchaystack]

Do you salt out the shreds first or are you making the same recipe with the new oils? Thanks!
--Scooter

No, you do not need to salt out unless you have reason to believe the soap is lye heavy, or you want to remove fragrance or colorants.

 

[NewbiSoaper]

I would not shred or rebatch this soap. With the low superfat, high coconut and the coffee grounds, it will make a very nice scrubby kitchen soap! IMO, rebatching is a fast way to get frustrated.

Hmm .. I didn't even think about using it as a scrubby soap! I'll have to try it for that!

I honestly can't stand the natural smell of the oils so I think I am going to do something with it. I probably will shred it and add it try adding it to other batches? Maybe french vanilla scented? Maybe something with some cinnamon? Not sure yet ..

 

[NewbiSoaper]

If you find yourself in a situation where you absolutely must rebatch, this is a method I ran across years ago, and it gives the best results that I've found.

"Lets say your regular recipe calls for 30 oz. of oils...with this method, measure out 20 oz. of new oils and collect 10 oz. of shredded soap. Melt down the oils and add the shreds to this. Stickblend the shreds into the fresh oils. Please note that at this point, it will get thick!
Have your lye solution ready (enough to saponify the 20 oz. of new oils) and add that to your soap mixture.
Color, scent and mold as desired!

You dont have to use the 2/3 - 1/3 ratio....you can also do a 3/4 - 1/4 if you dont have as many shreds.
Just make sure your lye solution is made up to saponify however many ozs. of fresh oils you use. "

Thanks! I may end up doing this! I really don't like the smell of the soap and honestly probably won't want to use it. I'll use a bar to see what it's like and keep another ro see how it ages but Im sure I will end up rebatching this in one way or another ... stay tuned!

 

[mx5inpenn]

The scent of the oils will change as it cures. I use high lard in most of my soaps and you can definitely smell it for a long time. After a 3 month cure tho, the piggy smell is gone, even without any added scent. Maybe keep a couple bars back to see how it changes over time.

 

[Scooter]

No, you do not need to salt out unless you have reason to believe the soap is lye heavy, or you want to remove fragrance or colorants.

OK this is great. I have made 7 or 8 batches of soap since July but most were olive-oil heavy and one of those (my attempt at a Marseilles-type formula) I think I overheated. It has been curing 4 weeks and is still very greasy to the touch so I think maybe there was some separation.

Here's the thing. I have 40 ounces of this Marseilles-esque soap that needs to be rebatched. I have a loaf mold that makes about 5 lbs of finished soap, and which usually requires about 3.5 lbs of oils (56 ounces or 1600 grams is what I have been using.) According to the method above, I can melt my 16 ounces of oils in the soap bucket, add 40 ounces of shredded rebatch soap, add my lye water, do some SBing, and then pour it all into my 5 lb mold. I have two questions about this:

1) Will the shredded soap not make it too thick?
2) How will I know when I have hit trace on the unsaponified oils?

Thanks!

Scooter

 

[navigator9]

1) Will the shredded soap not make it too thick?
2) How will I know when I have hit trace on the unsaponified oils?

Thanks!

Scooter

1)By too thick, do you mean when you add the shreds to the new oils and stick blend them? Yes, it will be thick, but that's to be expected.
2) This part is a little tricky, it's been a long time since I used this method, but if I remember correctly, I was still able to detect trace. I do remember that this method resulted in a soap that was almost as smooth as if it hadn't been rebatched, when other methods I'd tried did not.

If you're worried about being able to tell if it has traced or not, you could always shred your soap and add the shreds to the traced soap, stir them in and pour. There's always a way to save a batch!

 

[NewbiSoaper]

I have many times substituted rice bran oil for olive oil with good results. Run any recipe through a lye calculator such as SoapCalc, before making. I use 5% Castor oil in most all of my recipes. You can find Castor oil in small bottles at your local drug store. It is much more cost effective to order it in larger size, Online. I don't use canola oil because it can cause DOS.
You might revise your recipe to include:
5% Castor oil
25% Coconut Oil
15% Avocado Oil
45% Rice Bran oil
10% Shea Butter

This recipe will give you a fairly hard bar with bubbly and creamy lather.

I am going to give this recipe a try right now! I dont have castor oil though. I am guessing it is used for bubbles - I have a few other oils, going to do some quick research and see what else will aid in making bubbles but also for longevity of bubbles. Any other suggestions are appreciated!!

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Don't add any more bubble "making" oils yet. This has 25% coconut and almost all oils that make bubbles are drying in soap, so adding them in could make this soap too drying.