Can I re-melt my basic soap block?

by Nina
(Valley Township)

I made a basic soap, Olive oil, Coconut oil, Vegtable Shortening, Castor oil & of course Lye & bottled (drinking) water.

I inted(ed) to re-mill this batch in order to make a few different scented batches.

While stirring, the Cocoa Butter only melted to mini pea-sized circles. This is my first batch, so I did get a "little" trace, since there were trails in the mix as I stirred.

I poured the soap into a primary mold...48 hours later, there is a bit of oil on top. So now I'm not sure if this is okay, and need to air dry a few day's or if I need to trouble shoot to save this batch.

I feel I could cut the block into pieces and re-melt it, I did purchased a stick blender, to better incorporate the cocoa butter, while re-melting. I would then re pour into the primary mold, wrap and insulate for 48 hours again. Then if all looked better, I would rempve from mold, dry, grate, re-mill, etc.

I feel I can save this batch, since there is only about 1/8th or less of a cup of oil on top. Which I fell if the cocoa butter melted better,or if I had used the stick blender the oil would had blended better, and the soap would have been "perfect" Norma Coney's book suggest re-melt to start over, most other information say's toss it.

Answer:

It definitely would be best to melt the oils competely before mixing in the lye solution when you are using the regular cold process method.

You could try rebatching the soap but be aware that CP soap doesn't really melt down to a runny liquid like when you first made it. It will be thick like mashed potatoes so the stick blender likely won't be of use for this purpose. The stick blender will come in handy for the next batch though.

Make sure to use the extra oil that has seperated when you do the rebatch.

For full instructions on making cold process soap, visit my tutorial.

You can also check out my page on rebatching soap.

Cathy