Melting a cold process soap?

[moonshine44]

Does this have any adverse consequences, re. the properties of the soap? I'm beginning to like having my soaps melted into small individual tubs; at the same time, I'm looking around for a sage soap that isn't "sage and this" or "sage and that". I've found a couple I want to try, and they aren't in any kind of a container, they come as just the puck. So I'm thinking that I'll get some, and melt it into a tub, and go from there, but I don't want to wreck the soap...

What say you, soap makers? Krissy? Anybody else? I also plan to contact the soap maker directly, but I wanted to get several opinions, if possible...

 

[Mama Bear]

You can rebatch a CP soap.. that entails grating it and placing in a crockpot with some fluid such as water. Problem is you may lose your fragrance along the way, especially with eo's that have low flashpoints and I am not sure what sage is off the top of my head. At that point you could always add more sage eo tho.

However the easiest thing to do is simply grate it and not melt it.. take the shavings and press them into your container. Jim did a wonderful post on milling soaps that I think is just what you are looking for. Working up a lather with grated soaps gives some resistance and it is a beautiful thing building lather from it.

You can not melt a CP/HP soap like you can a melt and pour unfortunately.

 

[moonshine44]

Thank you for your informative reply, ma'am. That is just the kind of information I was looking for...

 

[Suzuki]

As always, some great (or should I say grate!) advise from Mama Bear.

 

[soapbox]

Mama Bear is right. If you melt a cold-process, high-sodium-lye soap (versus a high potassium lye) without added water you get "apricot preserves" rather than a pourable liquid. You can certainly rebatch it in that condition, but grating and tamping / pressing is probably easier.

 

[Maher]

excuse my ignorance, how would you rebatch it? I make soap, not shaving soap but for hair and body out of olive oil, using lye but I really do not know what is rebatch? and I do apologize if this is a repeat question.

thank you for the information, as always, real valuable

 

[Mama Bear]

http://www.colebrothers.com/soap/rebatch.html

this is one method.. I use a crockpot myself.. and know others that use cooking bags in the oven. It's a great way to save a failed batch...

 

[Maher]

thank you Sue