Whoops.

[rainycityjen]

After the great success of my first batch of soap ever, I decided I was ready for my 2nd batch last night. I had almost nothing but olive oil so I made a 95% OO, 5% castor batch with sea clay in one half and TD in the other.

I collapsed my mold tonight and found an okay soap. But in my newbie mind it was not good enough. The randomized dribbling pattern and the super-light color of the sea clay half made it look kind of ... dirty? Moldy?

So, I decided I would try this rebatch thing. I diced up the very soft bar and threw it in the crockpot. While it cooked I made some hot oil infusions with paprika and basil/parsley. Decided not to use them, since I didn't need to add more oil.

Instead I had the "brilliant" idea of adding some more TD and whipping it with a hand blender to try a mashed potato-looking whipped soap. Reasons this was a terrible idea:

1. More TD looks awful, chalky, yuck.
2. As soon as I took the lid off the crockpot, the melted gelatinized soap got firm, like super dry mashed potatoes. I had to sort of pat-pat it into my mold.
3. Hot lavender smell. Ugh. I may be off lavender forever.

Before:

This was the best bar. Not terrible! Kind of like Mt. Rainier or a cloudy day.

After:

The top wouldn't do anything, so I just made it choppy. Maybe if the whipped thing works, I'll just cut the insides up with cookie cutters and make my nieces some bath floaties.

Luckily I did save 2 bars of the cloud soap for my Dexter-like library of soaps I've killed. Now I wish I'd saved 3 or 4 bars. Or, you know, all of them.

 

[seven]

I know what u mean by the lavender smell that got overheated. It became this yucky citrusy smell. It's hard to describe.

 

[ca_soap]

what you originally made was a bastile bar . Do some reading on bastile and castile soaps here on the forum. Had you allowed them time to cure you may have been pleasantly surprised.

 

[Obsidian]

In my experience, rebatching rarely improves the looks. If you rebatch again, add in a bit more water so your batter isn't crumbly. Personally, I liked the soft colors of your original bars but the new ones will look good too once they are cut.

 

[cmzaha]

You can rebatch it down again and add in more water or milk. Also I find rebatching in the oven gives a better smoother melt. With crock pots the soap dries around the edges and many times ends up as dry chunks in the rebatched soap. I rebatch at 200-220 degrees in the oven. Flat beers, milks or aloe also work well for the liquid when rebatching. Next time leave your high olive oil soap in the mold longer. As Obsidian stated, it would have hardened up and it did look nice. I never rush rebatching unless my soap has actually seperated in the mold, usually from overheating.

 

[rainycityjen]

Would it still look gloppy and rustic if I rebatched again, even if I added liquid and did oven process? I'm trying to decide the time cost of trying to improve what looks like a dirty white sponge.

 

[seven]

no matter how smooth a rebatch, it will never come close to the smooth look cp gives. you can try what Carolyn suggested, that is the oven process. rebatching in crock pot does gives you some dry soap around the edges of the pot, and sometimes there are still chunks in it too. rustic is one of the characteristics of rebatch. that is just it.

 

[newbie]

Well, I have to admit that I laughed, Jen. Personally, I love the muted colors and design of your first soap and high OO soaps are notorious for taking longer to firm up.

The rebatch cracks me up, because I would end up with about the same. I HATE rebatching. My 2 cents would be to leave it be and not spend more time on it because you might end up with about the same, but with an even top, which you can make yourself by trimming. You'll end up with a fair amount of trimmings, but you can use those in another soap, if they are soft enough you can squish them up and make soap balls, perhaps stick them in the end of a nylon and use it in the shower, or send it to Clean the World. Or you can leave it and use the rough side first in the shower as a scrubby, and it would be pretty scrubby because castille/bastilles end up very hard, but eventually it will even out.

Don't give up!

 

[rainycityjen]

Well, decided not to try rebatching again. What's done is done.

I cut the frankencrap loaf into "rustic" looking cubes and have several volunteers to take them off my hands. At least they smell ok (to those who haven't had a traumatic lavender experience). I love my friends and their grabbiness at even the most fugly of soaps. Heck that's one of my favorite reasons for soaping in the first place.

For what it's worth I just knocked out Bastile version 2 and it's looking STELLAR. Jasmine-lemon scented with a cool paprika orange layer.