Melting soap

[Lesley Susan Madigan]

Just before I started making my own soap I got some white soap from the shop- nothing special just cheap soap for washing hands etc. always left my skin feeling dry as most shop brought soaps do and since I started making my own soap it's just sitting there and I am wondering if I could use it as a base

I thought why not just try? So I tried to cut it that was bad enough I had to wet it to get it soft enough to cut. Then it wouldn't melt so I put it back in the microwave and got distracted and timed it for a minute on high power

I lifted the container out and the bottom of it fell off! I melted the base and the bottom of the container!

 

[earlene]

Lesley, if you want to use up the store bought soap by incorporating it into your homemade soap you can do so by grating it up and adding it like confetti soap.

You can also melt it in a crockpot with a good amount of water. What you end up with in the second scenario is 'soap' that has pretty much the same characteristics as the original, but not a pleasant to the skin as homemade soap. It will dry and crack more easily, too. There a lot of videos on youtube about how to recycle small end pieces of commercial soap in this way.

But if you find the soap is leaving your skin feeling dry anyway, why bother? Just make some really nice homemade soap instead. Do you make lye soap or only MP at this point? Lye soap tends to contain more of the attributes I prefer for my skin than many MP formulas seem to contain.

If you are interested in what might happen to Ivory Soap in the microwave oven (kids love this) see this: https://happyhooligans.ca/ivory-soap-microwave-experiment/

If you are interested in re-cycling your store-bought soaps, see this for one method (microwave):

Or this for another method (stove-top) (I'd turn down the sound as it's obnoxious):

If you are interested in making confetti soap with a new batch of homemade soap and adding grated or cut up pieces of old soap watch this:

If you are not making CP soap yet, and only MP soap, you can still make confetti soap, but your batter would be the MP and the confetti, your grated or chopped store-bought soap. This video might help:

 

[Alfa_Lazcares]

You just answered my question of “now what am i gonna do with those 4 bars of store bought soap that is acumulating dust? (And using space!)” i didnt want to just dump it since its not a horrible soap. I can still use it as is, but I dont really feel like it. So I just grated a bar and will make some confeti soap in the near future.

 

[Deniece]

I made a Soleseife soap,love the soft color but I left it in the mold to long and it broke of in large pieces when I tried to slice it. How can I melt it and add more moisture? I concidered milk but not sure what is best.

 

[earlene]

I made a Soleseife soap,love the soft color but I left it in the mold to long and it broke of in large pieces when I tried to slice it. How can I melt it and add more moisture? I concidered milk but not sure what is best.

Deniece, I'd use it as a confetti soap by grating it up, then adding it to new soap batter and cutting sooner than this time. It probably crumbled because you waited too long to cut it. If you want you can still use a soleseife recipe for the new soap, but be sure not to wait as long to cut it this time.

Salt soaps and high CO soaps both need to be cut earlier than many other kinds of soap, often while still fairly warm to prevent them from hardening too much and crumbling during the cut. Or if you want to avoid the crumbling while cutting issue altogether, use individual molds for salt soaps. It makes cutting a non-issue.

 

[amd]

I lifted the container out and the bottom of it fell off! I melted the base and the bottom of the container!

I did that once with melt and pour in a plastic measuring cup. After I cleaned up the mess I attempted to melt new m&p again... in a different plastic measuring cup. Imagine my surprise when the same thing happened! I now have a bright colored note on my m&p box that says "Don't be a dumb *** - use the glass cup for melting!" Saved my butt last night when I had a plastic cup set out and grabbed my m&p box. Proud to say that I was not dumb last night.

 

[Deniece]

Deniece, I'd use it as a confetti soap by grating it up, then adding it to new soap batter and cutting sooner than this time. It probably crumbled because you waited too long to cut it. If you want you can still use a soleseife recipe for the new soap, but be sure not to wait as long to cut it this time.

Salt soaps and high CO soaps both need to be cut earlier than many other kinds of soap, often while still fairly warm to prevent them from hardening too much and crumbling during the cut. Or if you want to avoid the crumbling while cutting issue altogether, use individual molds for salt soaps. It makes cutting

Deniece, I'd use it as a confetti soap by grating it up, then adding it to new soap batter and cutting sooner than this time. It probably crumbled because you waited too long to cut it. If you want you can still use a soleseife recipe for the new soap, but be sure not to wait as long to cut it this time.

Salt soaps and high CO soaps both need to be cut earlier than many other kinds of soap, often while still fairly warm to prevent them from hardening too much and crumbling during the cut. Or if you want to avoid the crumbling while cutting issue altogether, use individual molds for salt soaps. It makes cutting a non-issue.

Thks I wish I had just left it alone. Tried to melt and remold and it really looks flaky. I guess I can use it myself since it works great and I love the fragrance. I'll stay with it the next time and single mold for sure.