By Tiffany Provost
Soap making, is fast catching on, as a hobby. You can throw together a batch of soap that is personalized for your taste and preference. If you make a mistake, you don't need to toss your soap-making efforts and start from scratch. Use this guide on how to rebatch soap and rescue your homemade soap creations.
Break down the soap. Breaking soap into the smallest pieces possible is the first step in remaking soap. Employ a manual scraper or an electric blender if it is devoid of moisture and too hard. Cut the soap into small pieces if it is fresh and not fully dry.
When to ‘fix' your soap. It is imperative to know at what stage to fix your soap if there was a problem with how you made it. You will need to remember to add the right ‘fix' to your soap during the right stage. When you liquefy it the soap, for example, you must add oil or water at this stage and fragrance should be added after the soap is heated.
Return your soap to a liquid form. To repair an error in your homemade soap, start by melting it. To help liquefy your soap bits you can use plain water. Some prefer to use milk (whichever you use does not matter at all – but mild does seem to leave the soap smoother after melting). Put enough liquid in your soap so that it is wet but not too liquid. Make sure each piece of soap is wet enough to help it return to a smooth texture. The smooth texture is what you need when remaking it, and will determine how smooth your final soap product is.
Melting the soap. When you have diluted your soap and let it absorb adequately, (several hours at least), the next stage is to get your crock pot or slow cooker to melt the soap. Once the soap is softened and grated, place it in a crock pot with a secure lid. Make sure the lid is on good and tight and then put your crock pot on low for about an hour. After an hour, stir and mash the mixture using a potato masher. It will probably look like applesauce at this point. Keep heating in the crock pot for another hour. Keep checking back every hour or so until the soap is all the same consistency, mostly see-through, and complete liquid. A completely softened consistency is okay. All together it should take about 4 hours for your soap to reach the point where it can be poured.
Make sure to create your soap as soon as possible. Now that the mixture is able to be poured, you can pour it into a mold. Spoon it out of your crock pot and pour it into a mold. While the soap sets into all parts of the mold, keep tapping the mold; to avoid the formation of air bubbles. Soap that is re- made, should be left in the mold for 24 hours. It should then be easy to pop out of the mold. That is the final thing you'll need to do in order to rebatch soap. It's now ready to use.
Tiffany Provost writes about soap and hobbies tips for HowToDoThings.com.
Source:www.isnare.com |
