Rebatch before and after shots

[Boudicea Farm]

rebatched goat milk soap

I am clueless on soap making and have so far made 3 batches, I did'nt even know to insulate, so thats telling you something had my second batch set up, but had cracks through it. So I scraped it back into a pan and heated it on the stove in a double boiler on low heat and added a small bar of sandalwood soap I had that was grated mixed in small amounts of water until I got the consistancy of mashed potatos and molded, Lucky for me it turned out or at least I hope it did very firm bars that held the mold shape perfectly letting cure now. The batch was scented with jasmine, was worried about the smell but actualy it smells great. So was this a happy mistake or did I finally get something right also how long does rebatched soap have to cure? And last is there any such thing as lye going bad mine doesn't seem to want to heat up, I have 100 percent lye and use frozen goats milk it will only get up to 85 degrees so I have been adding my oils in at the same temp all the recipies say 100 for both, any suggestions?

 

[JackiK]

My lye solution is never less than 150 degrees right after putting it in the water. Not sure if using cooled liquid makes that big of a discrepancy. Look forward to hearing from our veterans on this.

 

[busymakinsoap!]

When I use frozen gm it doesnt heat up much either especially if Im doing a hight superfat with full liquid.
Doesnt seem to effect the final product.

I have had Lye that had gone bad, the issue was it didnt really want to disolve, kinda just sat there in the water with no obvious reaction.