VDH glycerin soap

[ThomasB98908]

How do you melt the VDH glycerin soap? I know you microwave it for 10 seconds at a time, but do I need to cut up the puck first or just plop the whole puck into the mug I'm going to form it into? Does the melting and resetting change any of the properties of the soap? Just full of questions tonight...

 

[Slash McCoy]

Just drop it in your (microwave-safe!) mug and let the micro do the work. About 20 to 25 seconds will do it, generally. Watch it carefully and STOP it at the first sign of foaming up. It makes a mess in the microwave if you let it boil over! Then set it out somewhere undisturbed for a couple of hours while it firms up. No need to chop it up first.

 

[ThomasB98908]

Thanks Slash, will give it a try. I have one of those heavy coffee cups you get in the military from one of the ships I was stationed on. Should be perfect for holding a puck of VDH.

 

[michiganlover]

I've always cut mine into small pieces as I believe if speeds the melting time, and thus gives it less chance of burning, or having the fragrance totally dissipate. The 10 second bursts are to ensure the melting process doesn't burn the soap.

 

[mharris127]

I've always cut mine into small pieces as I believe if speeds the melting time, and thus gives it less chance of burning, or having the fragrance totally dissipate. The 10 second bursts are to ensure the melting process doesn't burn the soap.

I cut mine into small pieces, place it in a ceramic mug, fill a larger container (medium-size tupperware containers work well) with boiling water from my pitcher-type water boiler, let the soap-filled mug sit in the hot water for about five minutes while I boil some more water, cut up whatever large chunks are left, change the water in my larger container, let it finish melting (probably another minute or so) then pour into my stick container if that is what I am doing with it (you could add any fragrance before pouring it into your desired container). If you want it in your mug just add very small amounts of any fragrance oil desired, stir a bit and remove mug from hot water when done to allow hardening and cooling to start. Microwaving will melt VDH faster but it would get too hot for some fragrant oils to retain their fragrance and theoretically you could ruin the soap by getting it too hot.

 

[PugslyCat]

I think I would cut or grate the soaps fairily small before melting them in the microwave. My experience with melting big blocks of anything (candle wax, chocolate, frozen chili, glycerine soap) anywhere, but especially in the microwave, is that it's easy to get a hot spot to form inside which can blow out causing a splatter all over the inside of the microwave.

If I were just trying to get a soap into a mug I would grate the whole thing into a mug, wet it and pack it down. You won't cook off any fragrances, burn the soap, or splatter it all over the inside of the microwave. It also works for soaps that won't melt.

An alternative would be to trim just enough from around the edges to get the puck to get it to fit into your mug, melt the trimmings, and gently place the remainder of the puck into the melted trimmings before they solidify. You still have a homogenous block of soap in the bottom of the mug when everything solidifies having had no big pieces melting unevenly in the microwave, thus minimizing the potential for splatter. The melted trimmings might not form enough liquid to completely fill in around the shaved down puck, but that doesn't really matter much.

If you are combining several soaps into a frankensoap, you really want to grate everything as finely as you can, mix them together, and then nuke the whole mess. You don't have to fully melt all of it, as long as you get to a point where there is some liquid component that will bind everything together when you pack it down. If you can melt it all, that's OK too.