Prefer rebatching? Seeking new ideas

[cinnamaldehyde]

I've CP'd, HP'd, CPOP'd, and I really like making some nice CP soaps without scent or colour, curing them for a long time, and then grating them up and rebatching them.

Does anyone else prefer rebatching CP as their chosen method? I feel like the odd duck, but I love the rustic way rebatched soap looks. I don't do a lot of swirls so it suits me, that and I'm into ombres these days.

Ideas for getting creative with rebatching? Any additives/colours/liquids that work great in rebatch?

 

[Obsidian]

I quite dislike rebatching. Its too time consuming and I don't care for the rustic look of the tops. I have used beer in rebatch and liked it, didn't have to worry about letting it go flat or removing the bubbles, just open and add to the soap.

I've also added mica mixed with a light oil and swirled it through the soap, not mixing it in thoroughly. It looked a bit like colored rock veins but you have to be careful not to make a large oily area.

 

[hmlove1218]

I'm just curious, why do you cure you're base soap before rebatching it? It will need a cure after as well for the extra liquid to evaporate, so what is the purpose of the first cure?

 

[cmzaha]

I despise rebatching. You can get the same rustic look with hot process. ^^what Hmlove said

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

The only benefit that I can see if that you could make a lot of a very plain soap and add in colours and scents when you rebatch some of it.

 

[Susie]

I am in the "hate rebatching" club. If I have a batch go bad, I will make confetti or just toss it before rebatching. Sorry, I just don't like the appearance at all.

 

[shunt2011]

Another one who hates rebatching would rather shred and reuse or toss. I dislike the look of rebatched soap.

 

[Soapmaker145]

My suggestion is to add color when you make your CP soap so the color is more even in the rebatch. You could try using some of the solvents used for transparent soap making in small amounts to give you more fluidity in the rebatched soap and more time to play. I would be careful using foods like pureed fruits.

 

[cinnamaldehyde]

Well I'm definitely in the odd club then

I prefer long cures and I've found that curing before and after rebatching gives me a beautiful, hard, and silky smooth bar. Curing the first time finished the base soap, and curing the second time finishes the final product.

I'm definitely going to try adding beer in when rebatching, thanks! Adding at the beginning of CP, I find so much of the beer scent is lost to the lye.

 

[Obsidian]

You won't get any beer scent in rebatch either, at least not for very long. It does seem to add more bubbles to the lather then when using it in CP though. The best rebatch I ever made was with a double dark chocolate stout, it has lovely silky, thick lather and it leaves this skin very soft. It actually turned out nice looking too, with a discoloring FO it ended up looking like brownies.

This is straight out of the mold, they got much darker over the next week. I still haven't taken pictures. My mom has one of these on display in her bathroom.

 

[dixiedragon]

Not a fan of rebatching either. I think though you'd be better off to grate the soap when it's fresh - it's MUCH easier to grate then! When I rebatch, I use 1 can of coconut milk for a 60 oz loaf. 60 oz is the total volume of the mold. I use my TS mold from American Soap Supplies (*love*), so that if the top is rough looking, it's easy to trim it. If my regular non TS log mold has a rough top, the soap is a bit skinny if I trim that off, unless I've really filled the mold to the tippy-top.

I could probably use less coconut milk, but I don't like half a can hanging around. I do cook with coconut milk - but all of my recipes call for 1 can! Also since coconut milk separates, you'd need to warm it, mix it well, pour the amount, and then store the rest.

http://millersoap.com/re.html

Some good info here.

ETA: If you are planning to make rebatching your prefer soaping method, you may want to invest in some kind of high quality grinder. I love my little salad shooter, but it does take a while to shred a whole batch!

 

[dixiedragon]

Obsidian - nice soap! I tend to lean towards hot process for FOs that brown - but I think I might actually try a rebatch! That color variation takes it away from looking like mud (or poop).

 

[Wildcraft_Garden]

I have had some luck with rebatching. I had a lovely floral fo that turned to soap on a stick a few weeks ago and it turned out lovely (I think). I had gotten the white poured before it seized, so I cut it up for an embed. You can do some fun things, I wouldn't want all my soap to be HP, but I like a few with the rustic look.

 

[IrishLass]

When I first started soaping and the fear of working with lye was still a slight bit of an 'issue' with me, I made a 3 lb. batch of unscented/uncolored soap for the sole purpose of grating it up and rebatching so that I could make lots of different scented bars without having to make a whole batch with the same scent, or have to mix up a lye solution every time. The Miller Soap site was my guiding light for this task. This worked out great for me and pleasantly satisfied me for a bit, but my fear of working with lye was soon conquered (by the time my gratings ran out and I had to make another batch, actually), and from that point on I kissed my 'on-purpose' rebatching days goodbye..... and I've never looked back.

I still do rebatch on the rare occasion that I have to save a batch, but I'd much rather make a fresh batch each time via CP, no doubt about it. Having said that, though, the 'rebatching on purpose' method does have it's positive points, but for me, it no longer carries enough of them to outweigh the positives I experience when CPing from scratch each time.


IrishLass

 

[dixiedragon]

I am going to try a rebatch to see if coconut scent holds up better in a rebatch. IMO, it holds up better in HP than in CP. I'd be willing to rebatch to get a good coconut scent!

ETA: Can you give us a better idea of what types of new ideas you are seeking?

 

[cinnamaldehyde]

I never thought about the soap being easier to grate pre-cure. I do have a heavy duty meat grinder (that has never ground meat) that I use for grinding up my soap.

I was just looking for different ideas re: liquids, botanicals (I do love being able to use dried herbs and flowers and not have them discolour), or interesting mixes of ingredients people have used while rebatching. Nothing too specific, more of a curiosity and I just thought I'd put the question out there.

 

[LisaAnne]

I've done a lot of HP rebatched soap, the ones I found were my favorites were melting like colors down to a smooth thick like paste where the colors didn't all melt together but the look was subtle. Then I add other usually brighter or complimentary colors and let them get soft. Into the mold and then when it's all set I liked them best when cut into smooth bars. I cut all the soap to be rebatched in different sizes and never shredded it.

Obsidian - nice soap! I tend to lean towards hot process for FOs that brown - but I think I might actually try a rebatch! That color variation takes it away from looking like mud (or poop).

Yes! My early rebatched looked a lot like poop.

 

[Steve85569]

I tend to use more liquid than is absolutely needed so the soap looks less like a rebatch. I'm willing to wait the extra time to let the rebatch from the crock pot dry and cure.

I'll even use TD to keep the colour from going the wrong shade of mud.

 

[cmzaha]

Today I finished un-packing several crates of supplies I picked up from someone over the weekend. There was a book called Country Living Crafting soap at home. You might be interested in the book. It gives 5or 6 base recipes then there are recipes for additions to the base recipes during rebatching.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0688155626/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[SuzieOz]

I've made some beautiful rebatches lately. I only did them because I was unhappy with the look of the soaps.

A BB Black Raspberry & Vanilla Taiwan swirl went wrong so I rebatched that and it went a gorgeous pink colour. I used a bit more water than necessary so I got a rather smooth soap.

I also rebatched an ugly patchouli & orange EO soap and added some shredded loofah to make a scrubby bar.

I'll post some photos once I work out how to do that ... roblem:
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