Rebatching Help...

[JumpinKaren]

Well.. my first attempt at rebatching isn't going so hot.

I started with my pound of salt bars (dead sea salt) that were crumbly and didn't suds. I shredded this whole batch up.

Then I made a one pound batch of a regular ol' recipe and mixed it to a light trace. At that point I added everything to the crockpot.

I've been cooking this for about 4-5 hours in the crockpot on high. I expected to see the same texture when I make a regular recipe to know that things are done (the gloppy factor). But the whole batch is runny.

I added 2 oz. of extra water but I think that must have evaporated hours ago.

Any thoughts what could have happened? Could it still just be the extra water? Cook longer?

-Karen

 

[soap_lady]

can you post the exact recipe you used and the amounts of each ingredient.

 

[JumpinKaren]

Well here was the Gardenia recipe (10% superfat per information on here that salt bars can be drying). No zapping on the tongue test when added this morning (after a month of curing). Did not suds at all, left an oily feeling on the hands after washing.

• 16 oz coconut oil
• 12.8 oz sea salt
• 1.5 oz Gardenia
• 2.5 oz lye
• 5.3 oz water


So this morning I mixed up a batch of this (since it has produced a great, sudsy result for me before):

4 oz coconut oil
4 oz palm oil
4 oz olive oil
5 oz water
1.7 oz lye

I mixed that to a light trace, added that, the soap shreds, and 2 oz of extra water to the crockpot on high. After so long cooking, I decided to pour it into some molds and wait and see.

The salt is still visible in the soap and it looks grainy.

Hmm.. any thoughts? Did I miss a crucial step somewhere?

-Karen

 

[soap_lady]

when did you add the salt?

 

[soap_lady]

Another thought is to not use 100% coconut oil....... how about 70% coconut and the remainder other various oils of choice?

salt bars don't suds, it's more of a lotion type lather....... very creamy

 

[soap_lady]

ok going back and re-reading...... I'm not sure if salt bars can be rebatched...... they are different than regular CP soap because of the added salt, and so much of it......

 

[Deda]

I make salt bars almost every other batch. Never ever had a successful rebatch.

If you are able to rebatch please please please let me know you got it to go?

Good luck!

 

[JumpinKaren]

For the original recipe, I had added the salt when the mixture got to a light trace.

I wasn't sure if rebatching would work.. but I couldn't come up with a good reason as to why it would not work.

Well.. we'll see in a few hours what happens.



Deda: What happens to your salt bars when you rebatch? What methods have you used?

 

[Deda]

Grating/grinding then crockpot, boiling ziplocks, cursing, throwing them against the wall and finally stomping.

Once they are grated or actually ground they don't incorporate. Just float around in/on. Not unusable, just not a complete melt like regular rebatch.

Edited to say that my Salt recipe is 90% coconut, 10% castor and 20% superfat. I use 66% of my oil weight in salt. Lovely lather and hard a rock.

 

[pepperi27]

I posted a rebatch tutorial in the photo gallery if you'd like to look.

 

[JumpinKaren]

Thanks, I looked at that before. I have a batch of chardonnay soap that turned out to have a barely discernible fragrance that I am going to use this method on.

Since I was trying to rebatch the salt bars, increase the lather, and improve the texture while using a hot process type rebatch method, I just made things up as I went along.

Guess that will show me! The soap is hardening slowly, but is greasy to the touch. It doesn't zap you though, so I suppose that is a good sign (?).

-Karen

 

[JumpinKaren]

Soap is still pretty soft...

Any thoughts on what to do with this mess?

Chuck it?

 

[pepperi27]

If you added too much water then it may take up to two-three weeks to dry. I specifically purchase water discounted cp soaps to rebatch so I know how much liquid to add so that it dries quicker. If you made the cp from scratch and did not discount water and then added more liquids then it will take longer to harden. I had one batch way in the beginning that refused to set up and took almost a month and had a ton of shrinkage!

 

[JumpinKaren]

Sheesh! A month and a half! I think I'm just gonna throw this stuff out. I don't think the lack of lather and oily-ness is acceptable even if the bar was harder.

Lesson learned.... Water discount next time... maybe no more salt bars for me. At least not with 80% salt.


-Karen