Do you rebatch?

Do you think rebatching is an "essential" soaping skill for CP soapers?

I had my first major mess-up this week, and I keep debating as to whether I want to go to the trouble to rebatch a 2lb batch of soap (it's actually less because I forgot 35% of the oils!). I have 2 young children, so the thought of shredding lye-heavy soap in our kitchen, melting it down, etc. seems really daunting.

Eventually (years down the road), I do hope to start my own business, so I'm wondering if I really should rebatch, just to get some practice. Does anyone do this regularly?

I think all soapers should rebatch at least once - so they know why the majority of us hate it! LOL.

Of course, it depends on if you are rebatch soap - meaning the soap firmed up and you cut it, etc. Or if you are rebatching a mold full of separated glop. If you want to save your separated glop, you do need to know how to rebatch - but it's really just a matter of putting all of ingredients (or almost all of them) into a pot or slow cooker, and cooking them through trace. Really, this version of rebatch is just hot process.

If you are talking about a solid soap, I don't know if any time that you need to rebatch (completely melt down) vs just make a confetti soap (shred the soap and mix it with new soap).

A lot of questions varying on the theme, so I'll answer it this way - rebatching is something which is good to know how to do in case you ever need/want to do so. It's seeing a different area of soaping which can in some ways increase your understanding in general even if you only do it once or very rarely

I only rebatch to rescue failures or unscented batches. I've tried many different methods for rebatching, but my favourite is confetti shredding the old batch and adding it to a new CP batch after it hits a stable emulsion. I usually make the new batch to the same recipe (with any fixes) and add up to 45% of the batch weight in shredded confetti.

I only do confetti soap.
I don't like the look of HP soap so rebatching with HP method would be a waste of time for me. If I have a complete failure or the colour is completely off I will throw it out.

I think I would only SUGGEST a rebatch if the fragrance of the soap was gaggingly awful and the soaper wanted to cook / burn off the FO and add a better fragrance. But even then...I'd suggest offering it as a freebie because EVERY fragrance is loved by somebody.

I have rebatched a time or two early on in my soaping misadventures. I don't like how rebatched soap looks, and I don't like how much the bars shrink, so the hassle of rebatching is not worth the end result for me. I also think as I've gotten more experience, I have less and less reason to rebatch, because I don't run into the problems I did as a newbie.

Although confetti soap is often seen as a way to use up scraps or to fix problem soap, it deserves recognition as a design technique in its own right. It's not just a rescue method. I don't consider it "rebatching" because the soap isn't actually melted and heated. I like the look of confetti soap -- it can have a unique, classy look if done with care and creativity. I'd much rather make a confetti batch that than rebatch, because I think the outcome is much prettier.

As far as selling rebatched soap as first quality stuff ... nope, won't do that. I'd rather sell the original soap at a discounted price or give it away and be done with it. As Dixie points out, someone, somewhere will love the soap. There's no guarantee a rebatch will make the soap look or smell any better.

I tried HP once, and didn't care for the process or the end result. So, no, I don't rebatch. I have been lucky that I have never had a total failure *knocking wood*. Ugly, yes - unusable, no. I don't make huge batches, so if/when I do have a batch fail, I don't think I'd feel too bad about dumping it. I donate rejects - ugly, FOs that disappear, etc to Clean the World.

I agree with DeeAnna that confetti soap is pretty. I will save some colored pieces of soap to grate up for that.

If you decide to do a true rebatch (meaning completely melt down a bunch of soap), if you have a mix of colors, the end color is probably going to be brown. Rebatching darkens - and maybe even burns a bit - the soap. So I suggest that you embrace this by adding ground spices (cinnamon, clove, all spice) and/or coffee grounds. BTW, I always use cheap Dollar Tree spices for my soap.

I've never done it. I have also never had a failure so bad that it truly needed a full rebatch to be safe. If I did have one, I'd be more likely to dump it because my leisure time is more valuable to me than the five or six dollars worth of ingredients. Ugly design failures or smells I don't like, I just give to my kids. With four of them, somebody is bound to like it.

I do it occasionally...mainly b/c I have an accumulation of scraps and I get a wild hair (or is it wild hare?) to rebatch. Then I get about half way through and remember why I don't like to rebatch, lol. I do it about once a year.

As far as the trimmings that come from beveling and planing new soap bars -- I don't save any trimmings unless I have a specific project in mind. I used to save them all and get depressed at what to do with a large bag of the stuff -- like I said, I don't like the look of rebatched soap nor the hassle of doing it.

I now smoosh the fresh soap trimmings from each batch into a little pancake and let it cure along with the "real" bars of soap. I can use the smooshed soap bar rather than a real bar to test the soap during cure. After curing, the smooshed soap is a nice handy size to keep by the sink or for travel use.

Irish Lass shared this idea awhile back and it's been really handy. She smooshes her trimmings into a pretty mold. I just make a rustic pancake.

If the trimmings need a little help to smoosh together firmly, I lightly spritz the trimmings with water or (even better) alcohol. Everclear, vodka or rubbing alcohol would work fine. Doesn't take much liquid to soften fresh trimmings, but it's helpful.

Thanks, everyone! Although I am interested in the HP method, I've been focusing my efforts on getting proficient with CP. Since this is such a massive failure, I think I'm going to trash the soap (by soap, I mean, lye block). I honestly don't have a lot of time for soaping as it is, and it sounds like trying to fix this batch might be more trouble than it's worth.

I appreciate everyone's feedback. I've definitely learned to double-check my recipes!

P.S. You are the nicest people I've ever encountered on a forum. Thanks again for all of your help!

Like DeeAnna said, I like to take my fresh trimmings and smoosh them up like clay into decorative MilkyWay molds, sprtitzing them with alcohol if needed as I am smooshing in order to get them to adhere together. Works great.

To get them out, I just pop the mold into the freezer overnight and they pop cleanly right out the next morning when I run the bottom of the mold under a little water.

For older, dried-out trimmings that have been sitting around for months and months and months that I don't want to use as confetti, instead of rebatching them in the traditional way, I do the same thing as above^^^, but since they are so dry, they need a little bit of extra help:

I lightly spritz them with a little water just to get them damp (i.e., not drowned), then I stick them in a pot in the oven @ 200F (covered) to warm them up only to the point that they soften and are as pliable as fresh trimmings once again.

Then I scoop handfuls out at a time (with gloved hands if too hot to handle) and smoosh them up like I do with my fresh trimmings into decorative MilkyWay molds. It works wonderfully for me even on scraps that are really old.

My favorite molds to smoosh them into are guest-size (2oz) Celtic oval molds by MilkyWay. My scraps provide an ongoing, seemingly endless supply of pretty guest-size soaps to use at the bathroom sink. As soon as one gets used up, there is always another one to take it's place.


IrishLass

Rebatched crumbly soap

Hi, I tried to rebatch my soap for the first time, and after it was ready to cut, it was too crumbly. I don't know what to do now:headbanging:

One of my very popular bars of soap is a rebatch into scrubby mud bars. My customers love them and I do not sell them at a reduced price just a larger bar. than my regular bars. My mud bars run an average of 7 oz versus my regular bars of an average of 5.5 oz.

Celia said:

Hi, I tried to rebatch my soap for the first time, and after it was ready to cut, it was too crumbly. I don't know what to do now:headbanging:

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Celia, perhaps if you start a new thread and share your process, all ingredients in the amounts, etc. we could help you problem solve. Also a bit of information about the original recipe and why you were re-batching it in the first place.

Crumbly soap can be caused by different things, so the above would really help narrow it down.

I love rebatching! Sometimes I just do it because I think it retains FOs better. I could be wrong.....

Did you take it out of the mold too soon? In my personal experience, when I rebatch, it takes longer than normal soap to take out of the mold.

IrishLass said:

Like DeeAnna said, I like to take my fresh trimmings and smoosh them up like clay into decorative MilkyWay molds, sprtitzing them with alcohol if needed as I am smooshing in order to get them to adhere together. Works great.


IrishLass

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errrr here I go again ..... pictures pretty please!!!!!

Dear Earlene, I think that it could've been by the fact that maybe I used too much Palm oil in my original recipe and I added two tablespoons of Sodium Lactate? I ended up rebatching it again and added more water, I took it out of the mold and it seems ok for now. Thank you for helping me out.

I do rebatch all my old soap. I love to do it just like hot process. But the downside is the look isn't pretty not like cp.