Greetings all..... I re batched my first soap disaster... Although I did figure out what went wrong....I melted the soap down added the fragrance poured into mold and waited 3 days to unmold... However my rebatch is still very soft.... Any ideas what's going on? Thanks
Rebaching soap
- Thread starter Malvar62
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Did you add more liquid to your soap when you rebatched? If so that could very well be part of the problem. You may just need to wait longer to unmold them.
MorpheusPA
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I'm currently having this problem and you can add me to the "did you add water" contingent.
In my case, I added water AND 10% glycerin. Lesson learned, I won't do that again!
A bad-actor FO riced and separated on me, so into the pot it went. I had to add water to be able to stir it as it stiffened, and it took days (and time in the freezer) to unmold without sticking. I finally cut it yesterday after the first bar cut off felt like Play Doh and stuck to my miter box and my hands.
It's currently a spongy, eight day old soap that's sticky and clearly has a ton of water in it. I parked it on a towel and put it atop my bookcase near the ceiling wash light for some extra warmth during the evening.
The initial cut bar has lost the sticky, but is still spongy and damp, just less so than a week ago.
I expect a two month cure on these. At least.
Yep, you want to add just enough liquid to make the soap easier to handle, but only just enough. If you pour in a bunch of liquid right away -- and I confess that's easy to do because it looks like it needs it -- it's probably going to be too much.
Here's a reference that I've found to be helpful: http://www.pvsoap.com/instructions_for_rebatch.htm She uses powdered milk as her "secret ingredient" for a smoother rebatched soap. The only thing I'd add is the powdered milk can be a bit tricky to use -- don't pour the whole amount over the soap and try to get it mixed in properly. Either dissolve the powdered milk in a small amount of liquid or sprinkle a light amount of powder over the soap, mix it in, sprinkle a bit more, mix, etc.
As an alternative to the powdered milk, some people add sodium lactate solution to the rebatch to get a more fluid product without a lot of extra liquid. I've done that too and it works. Try adding about 2-3% by weight of soap. I add it when the soap is at a mashed-potato texture.
Here's a reference that I've found to be helpful: http://www.pvsoap.com/instructions_for_rebatch.htm She uses powdered milk as her "secret ingredient" for a smoother rebatched soap. The only thing I'd add is the powdered milk can be a bit tricky to use -- don't pour the whole amount over the soap and try to get it mixed in properly. Either dissolve the powdered milk in a small amount of liquid or sprinkle a light amount of powder over the soap, mix it in, sprinkle a bit more, mix, etc.
As an alternative to the powdered milk, some people add sodium lactate solution to the rebatch to get a more fluid product without a lot of extra liquid. I've done that too and it works. Try adding about 2-3% by weight of soap. I add it when the soap is at a mashed-potato texture.
MorpheusPA
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Mine, two weeks later, is still a bit spongy but no longer tacky or sticky. The spongy is taking forever to go away. Perhaps by July...
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