I Am The (Soap) Re-Animator!

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Okay, I'm a little over dramatic, but you should be used to that by now. One of my favorite horror flicks is Re-Animator. It's one of the sickest, grossest movies I've ever seen, and I LOVE IT! The premise of the movie is this med student tries to bring his dead professor back to life, and he does, but not without all hell, literally, breaking loose. I encourage you to check it out if you love blood, guts, gore, and humor. So WTF does this have to do with soap you may ask. Well, very simply, I brought these dead-ass bars back to life by re-batching them. It's the same premise...

Cinnamon Buns after un-molding. Beautiful, aint it?

For the record, I am SO DONE with sodium lactate. I followed the rules to the letter, and my bars turn out so hard that they're brittle and crumbly as evidenced by these sapsuckers! I used about 2 tsp of sodium lactate and added it to my water before I added the lye. I don't know what went wrong, but never fear...

Cut and crumbled...

'Scuse the bad pic

I grated these biyotches up so nicely. It was actually very cathartic. I was tempted to make soap balls with them, but I decided to stick with the original plan. There's not a whole lot more to say, so I'll let the pics speak for themselves. So, while writing this post, I've decided that I'm the Re-Batchinator. It looks more like hot processed soap than re-batched. Either way, it works...

Sliced and revived...I'm thinking of "glazing" them with some white M&P soap.

Rebatched Soap Revealed

Happy Monday (or not)!

I cut the rebatched strawberry shortcake soap, and I don't think I let it set long enough because it crumbled in some areas. Here's the finished product from what I could salvage. It's like a slice of square meatloaf, but it smells so good! I had to dig in my notes to remember what I made this out of: olive, palm, and coconut oils. I'm actually liking this soap. This will be in the shop in a few weeks. I'm working on my packaging for this baby.

Whaddaya think?

Rebatching Revisited

Rebatching soap has been the bain of my existence since I've started making cold processed soap. There are several methods available including the stove top boil-in-the-bag (to which I've had disastrous results) and the oven method. I've been scouring soap blogs to find tutorials on rebatching, and I came across this one on Soapaholics Anonymous. It looked easy-breezy, so I decided to give it a try. I had some strawberry soap that I made months ago that just looked awful, but I didn't want to throw it out. I'm glad I saved it. Here's how it looked before I shredded it.

All of my kitchen utensils have now become my soapmaking supplies. I took my grater and proceeded to shred about 3 pounds worth of strawberry-scented soap. It took me about 2 hours and about 3 scrapes and cuts to finish it all. Here's how it looked once it was all shredded.

According to Soapaholic's tutorial, you add about 1/4 cup of liquid for every 2 pounds of soap. She used milk. I used a combo of milk and water, but I ended up using 3/4 cup of liquid and here's how it turned out after about an 1 1/2 hours in the oven at 250 degrees (I did stir the contents about every 20 minutes because it does start to pucker as it heats up.)

At this point, I added about 2 TBSP of Strawberry Shortcake FO and stirred well. The soap was still fragrant, but it was very strong, so I added a little more. Your soap won't be completely liquified, but a thick, mash potato-y consistency. At this point, I lined my mold and spread the mixture evenly.

I've covered it and will let it set for a bout 3 days to harden. For complete instructions, visit Soapaholics Anonymous. Wish me luck. I can't wait to see how it turns out!

It Kinda Looks Like Ground Beef To Me

I've always wanted to try rebatching soap, and I never wanted to be bothered with the hassle, but I've been doing some reading, as I'm constantly in search of knowledge and perfection (I've begrudgingly accepted the fact that I'll never perfect the art of soapmaking.) Rebatching soap is simply melting down CP soap that's already cured or nearly cured, adding more stuff to it (oils, scent, herbs, etc.) and re-molding it. Sounds simple right? Well, not quite. Cold processed soap does not instantly become melt and pour soap once it cures. It's actually a gooey, gloppy mess, but it can be worth it-if it turns out okay.

Well here's a pic of my first attempt at rebatching, and let's just say I don't know whether to fry it up or take a shower with it! It looks like a beef patty to me, so I'm rebatching the rebatch and starting all over. I'll keep you posted on my efforts!