Need some advise

[Jerry S]

Hi I’m new to this forum and thought I could get some advice. I’ve been making soap off and on for a few years. My mother (rest her soul) used to make soap for years and would send me some to use here around the ranch. There was nothing like it for getting your hand really clean especially if one had to work around machinery and such. Before she died she sent me all her recipes and every now and then I mix up a batch or 2 and use it for hand soap. Don’t sell it or anything, just use it around the spread…Anyway my question is this. I have a lot of small pieces of soap that I save and don’t throw away. Including left over bar soap that my niece gives me from an Inn she runs. She has a lot of this stuff because she can’t reuse it for new guests.
How can I use these left over pieces when I make my soap. Should I cut it up and put it in while mixing my soap before saponification and it starts to trace? I really want it to become a part of my soap bars and not have a bunch of funny looking chips in the soap…Thanks…and hope someone can enlighten me.

 

[kimberlynn]

I've read about remelting scraps but never done it myself. From what I understand you would want to grate down your pieces, put them into a double broiler and let them slowly melt down into a liquid form. You would need to add a little water to the soap. Once you have a smooth texture, place them into your mold. Once they are solid pop them out. Alternatively you can chunk or grate them and add to your traced soap. Again I haven't done this myself but maybe someone can chime in on this technique.

 

[IanT]

my reply from your Intro thread

As far as what to do with soap scraps, I believe you can melt them down and add them to your soaps at trace if you would like, but keep in mind if your soap scraps are scented, the scent may throw off the new batch you are making due to different scents (but if your throwing them in with something that smells the same... I dont see a problem with it).

Either that or make "soap balls" ... I like to call them Frankenstein balls... theyre a modge-podge of soap scraps, you dont really know the final scent until you mush them all together, but they are an excellent way to reuse scraps...

You could also rebatch .... collect enough of the scraps and then melt them all down, and then just pour them into a mold, no additives are needed, and the soaps will look wonderful

 

[djk17]

what I do is grate them down, wait until the shreds are bone dry, run them through the coffee grinder (time consuming but works) until you're left with soap powder. Then I make up a big batch of regular unscented soap and dump in the soap powder (about 2:1) and life is good.

 

[xyxoxy]

Since it's only for personal use you can simply shred the used bars into a new batch just as it is reaching trace. It will have a sort of confetti look.

I do this with colored batches that I'm not 100% happy with and the contrast against a plain white soap is very nice. Same thing if I have a batch where I'm testing FO's and the scent is too strong. Shredding it into an unscented batch tames it down.

I would not do this with used scraps if I was planning to sell or give it to others.

You can also donate your scraps to cleantheworld.org
There are a couple of threads on here about them.