WHO sent the farries....how many times can you rebatch soap?

[NMAriel]

YEP YEP YEP, had internet this morning (very slow and spotty) but I was on, then I started to gather my soap recipes and equipment and POOF........farries everywhere. Couldn't get online. Had connection, but no page would come up. How could I make a new recipe if I couldn't get online a soap calculator? So I decided to rebatch soaps from last week that needed rebatching. I started that process and without the internet to make sure I was doing it right I just winged it. BAD idea, I had to rebatch a log three times. I had to rebatch a poured log, then rebatch that rebatch. Then I set that one aside and started another rebatch for another log. I was doing it for about 4hrs....sigh..

Tried different ways, microwave and stove and now crockpot. I made two logs (one microwave rebatch, the other stove rebatch). We'll see how they turn out, but I do NOT like using the stove. That's the one that I had to redo over and over and over and over again. The water boils, but the soap is still hard and cold. SB just makes bubbly slurry that you can't see through the bubbles (so I had no idea knowing how thick/thin it was, etc....and the nighmare goes on and one. I think I cooked it so long that either the glycerin was separating, or it was becoming liquid soap becuase there was definately a separated light CLEAR carmel liquid in the . What do you think that was??

I like using the microwave. It heats and soften the soap AND heats the water. Much better. Then with the SB I can mix it until a cake batter and pour it into the mold. Or with the SB I can mix it until it's very thick frosting and spoon it in the mold and texture the top.

I still have some of that lye heavy white soap I made last week that needs to be rebatched, but I'm done stirring for today. So I put it in the crock pot with water. THIS too will be an experiment of whether I like this technique. I'm going to try what Lindy told me about making shampoo out of my soap.

So...question...how many times can you rebatch soap? I mean the stove rebatch today is probally been redone 3-4 times. Can you say COOKED soap. lol. I hope it turns out, becuase if not then I need to redo it, or do something with it. Maybe shred it and use it as confetti.

 

[Lindy]

You can rebatch it as many times as you need and it will still be soap. When you turn your soap into shampoo buy some liquid pectin as this will help to keep it from separating...

As for the separation - I've had that happen and I finally decide to throw it in the oven and cook the daylights out of at 170 F. It eventually re-mixed into a cohesive batch and turned into some nice soap.

Don't give up...even though it annoys me when I have to do a rebatch I am so glad to now be able to do so with confidence....you'll get there too.

Cheers
Lindy

 

[NMAriel]

Thanks Lindy, the farries are still here and it's been quite a hetic day. I went to feed the horses and came back and my soap in the crock pot boiled over and 70% was on the counter. What a mess. I scoobed it up, cleaned up and everything is back in the crock pot on low. Now I'm scared to go to bed. I think I'll put the crock pot on 'warm' when I do go to bed.

 

[Lindy]

What about scooping it all into a large stainless pot and put it in the oven overnight at 170 F? Then you could sleep without worrying about it?

We're going to have to find something to distract fairies from creating such havoc.......hmmmmm.....maybe sugar plums hanging out in the trees?

 

[NMAriel]

Puting it in the oven means turning the gas oven on, and leaving it on for a long time. That kinda spooks me. The crock pot has high, low, and warm. It boiled over when it was on high and I went outside. Since then I've had it on low, and it's been ok. So I'm thinking warm for tonight.

But bad luck is just surrounding us this weekend. Yesterday one son cracked his head and I called 911, and just now the other one just broke a tooth during diner. AND those open head sores are back, and it's not summer. But the junipers are pollinating early, maybe that has something to do with it.

 

[Lindy]

OMG!!!!!!! What an awful weekend - HUGS.

Have you tried straight shea on the sores? Shea is an anti-inflammatory and is a very healing product.....

 

[NMAriel]

No not shea, but this week I was putting rubbing alcohol and they were healing the disappearing. Then yesterday I looked again and he had picked them so bad that he was down into the meat....gross. So I misted with coloidal silver to disinfect and then I put coloidal bentonite clay on it and dried it with the hairdryer. It made a nice little 'cast' on the open wound. Then he wanted a bandage taped to his head, and I did that and he slept with a ski cap on so the bandage wouldn't come off. Tonight did the same thing. Poor thing, and tonight he broke one of his permentant teeth..... :cry:

Then yesterday his little brother got hit in the head with a 3lb large rock and his head was gushing blood. I called the paramedics asap. When they got here they checked him out and said there were no bones were broken. Thank god. That rock was huge, it could have killed him if it hit him harder. God was watching over him, that's for sure.

So me stressing over my soap is so stupid compared to what both of them have gone through in last two days.

So far soap is ok on warm.

Thanks Lindy, it's sweet of you to talk to me.

 

[Lindy]

Sometimes we need something "else" to fuss over so we don't go crazy over something that is more important. You're doing the best you can for your boys and that's all that counts..... Here's some information on Shea that I found really interesting:

"It is also a known anti-inflammatory agent.[1] Shea butter is marketed as being effective at treating the following conditions: fading scars, eczema, burns, rashes, acne, severely dry skin, blemishes, dark spots, skin discolorations, chapped lips, stretchmarks, wrinkles, and in lessening the irritation of psoriasis.[citation needed]" - this is from Wikipedia. I have a customer whose hands were red and sore looking so I encourage her to use my personal stash of shea body butter everyday for the 3 days we saw each other in class - on the 4th day she told me the stuff was magic and she had to have some because for the first time in her adult life her hands weren't sore anymore.

So when you mentioned the sores were back I thought this might be worth a try for you.....

 

[NMAriel]

Remember my thread about my gm/sb soap curing his skin problems. The worst was his hands they were so chapped they always looked like he had redddish/brrown dried mud/dirt on them. Well that's why I'm crock potting a mxture of the white soap and pieces of my gm/sb plain and gm/sb chocolate soaps into a shampoo. No formula, I just threw in pieces of what was left over from rebatching the logs. (for duplication purposes, not a good idea but I basically know how I did it ). I'm trying your suggestion about making him shampoo out of the same soaps that cured his hands and skin.

Isn't it wierd how you know something (facts on sb) but it takes someone else to remind you to use it for 'this or that' conditon. I'll try that, maybe at night while he sleeps and the clay bandage during the day to help stop him from scratching. Maybe that combination will work.


Oh, the soap in the crock is doing good. It has a floating skin ontop which is sticky and you can tell it had bubbles that shrunk because of the bubbles marks all throughout it. Yesterday I kept sb'g it back into the shampoo, and each time it reforms. Do you think I should scoop it off, or sb back in again. Not sure what's in it. Good stuff or waste byproduct. Any thoughts?