Immediate expert soaper assistance required!!

[ladyj]

Help! The fact that I spilled a bottle of patchoulli oil over my marble counter was an indication to save soaping for another day. Ever have that feeling?
OK I've got 2013 grams of olive oil, coco oil, almond oil, honey and ginger and patchoulli eos. The guy disigning my label came over and I completely forgot about my pvc molds in the freezer. OK so I now have 'soap ice'. Thought I could wait for some sort of thaw, but the soap is just wrong and impossible to cut correctly. So I chopped it up into big chunks for a rebatch tomorrow.
Questions: What liquid to soap ratio should I use? Can I use more additives? Can someone walk me through this process?
I don't think I can use my pvc pipe molds as I imagine the finished product will be quite thick (air bubbles)
It's midnight in Portugal.
Let me rest my tired little head.
Thanks!

 

[CPSoaper]

The amount of liquid you will need to add depends on your recipe and the amount of liquid you originally used. The fresher the soap, the less water that has had time to evaporate out, so the less water you will need to rebatch.

You can add extra goodies in when rebatching. Be careful when adding more oils and butters. Too much and you can decrease the lather. If your soap is lye heavy, those extra oils and butters will get used up.

If you can get the rebatch into your mold, there is no reason you can't use it.

I rebatch in an old crockpot and will add just a few tablespoons of liquid. Some people use boilable bags in boiling water; others use double boilers. Whatever works best for you. Make sure that you cut the soap up pretty fine or grate it. This will make it easier to melt back down and the more liquid it is, the easier it is to get in a mold. I rebatch al ot and use my PVC pipe mold with no problems. Just make sure to really slam your mold down to get the soap to pack down and get rid of the air bubbles and air pockets.

 

[ladyj]

Thanks...

for your advice! Got up early this morning to get started.
Don't have a microwave and have a little over 2K of grated soap.
Can I do this stove top in my st. steel pan? Really low heat (I have a gas stove).
If I'm picturing this right, my 'gratings' are never going to make a 'beautiful' soap. There will be flecks throughout. Can I use my stick blender?
So whats all the hub bub about 'french milled soap/hand milled soap' Isn't that what I am doing?

 

[ladyj]

Thanks for all of your advise. Unfortunately while I'm just getting up at 8am you all are still all asleep (unless you're up making soap) We're 5/6 hrs. ahead.

So without a microwave or large enough crok pot and with my oven on the blink I decided to do
2K of grated soap in a double boiler. Soap pot actually in the water to the level of the soap in the stainless steel soap pot. Kept heat at medium for 2 hrs. stirring every so often. Added a total of 6 tbsp water in intervals. Clumped it into the mold quite nicely. (Switched to my wooden mold). After 4 hrs. it cut like cold butter. It is beautiful!!

I wouldn't want to do this all the time - way too much work and gas cost for my stove, however, I know what to do if I screw up again.

I learned alot with this batch of soap:
1. Never leave open bottles of anything (especially expensive 100 ml bottles of eo's on the counter after they have been used. (that's what caused my spill-I made my family smell the marble counter today-Patchoulliiiiiiiii they laughed)
2. How to rebatch a bunch of fresh soap
3. Set a timer if I think I am going to be distracted (as I was when I left my pvc soap molds in the freezer for waaaay too long)

I feel good that sometimes when soaping instinct takes over. What I've read and learned. How I can apply it to what I'm doing with my restrictions and really what just makes sense. You may attribute this to luck-however I feel when you start to click at something (I'm a former chef) you begin to do it by instinct vs. pure theory and following the rules. But isn't that what life's all about?

:wink: :wink:

 

[leansoapqueen]

Ouchie- on your patch oil!