How to produce M & P soap bases ? Can I use those made from cold process ?

by Faith
(Olympia, WA)

I know that we can simply acquire M & P soap bases from any soap suppliers but I would like to find out how to make it by myself ?

Can I use cold process soaps which has been cured as a replacement ?

My understanding is that it should be fine as a cold process soap has already glycerin in it, so after it's cured, it can be treated like any basic glycerin soap bases for M & P purpose. Is this correct ?

The reason I ask here is that, i want to make soaps starting from scratch by following the cold process approach, but I also want to make it to be more creative way like M & P soaps often do - layers, embedded,....etc.. Hence I just assume I can combine the cold process and Melt and Pour process together as long as the cold process soaps are cured (or even not cured yet but merely harden - this means the final M & P soaps have to get through curing period too before ready, correct ??)

Thanks in advance for your answers,
Faith

Answer:

Sorry...I'm having a bit of a hard time following your question but I'll do my best to answer.

Unfortunately you can't make a melt and soap base from scratch yet...at least not that I am aware.

Cold process soap will not melt down to a thin liquid like melt and pour soap bases do. The process of melting down cold process soap is called rebatching and yields a very different product than melt and pour soap.

As for layering and using embeds...you can do that with cold process soap as well.

You can combine both melt and pour and cold process soaps to make wonderfully creative soaps. Make cold process embeds and add them to melt and pour or make melt and pour embeds and add them to cold process. Both ways will work....and yes the cold process soap will have to be cured so you will either have to use cured cold process embeds or cure the final soaps. Be sure to spray the embeds that go into melt and pour soap with alcohol first so that the melt and pour will stick to them.

I hope this helps answer your questions.

Cathy