Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Rebatching soap


Ever wonder what to do with all those little scraps of soap? Rebatch them!
My very very favorite type of soap is a wonderful little handmade goat's milk soap. It's difficult to use once it's just a sliver, but too precious to throw away, so I saved them up along with other bar soap scraps to make whole new bars.

Only use REAL soap! "Beauty bars" like Dove are not real soap and won't work for this process.

Grate your soap scraps and put into a crock pot. Pour in 1/8th to 1/4 cup of milk (the cream from raw milk works beautifully!) and a teaspoon of olive or coconut oil. Let the mixture melt over about an hour. Add essential oils and any ingredients you like:

green tea
oatmeal thats been run through the food processor
dried rose petals
lavender
dried rosemary
cinnamon
...the possibilities are endless and the experimentation is fun!

Then pour into molds and leave overnight. Don't do like I did with my first batch and not spray the molds with a quick release spray (Pam also works!). Allow the soaps to cure once out of the mold for about a week. The longer they cure the better they lather!

I'm really loving my vanilla bean hand soaps!
Plus, the boys are a little more eager to wash up with something we've made ourselves, and anything that leads to more handwashing is a good thing!


Here's the green tea and spearmint soap I made for the boy's bathroom...
I just hope they don't try to eat it!

3 comments:

  1. In what way is Dove not real soap? I ask because I've seen a lot of soap rebatching recipes that seem to use Dove beauty bars successfully.

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  2. Dove is chemically a detergent and that's why they call their product a "beauty bar" and not soap. It's also loaded with preservatives. If I'm going to the trouble of rebatching my own soap then I'd like it to be of a purer nature (like using natural oils or milks).
    If the product is a real soap, it will say "soap" on the packaging. If it has "beauty bar", "cleansing bar", or any "bar" then it is NOT soap, it's detergent.
    I'm sure that you can rebatch Dove successfully, I just prefer not to, I'd like to keep the detergents in the laundry room!

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