Can I melt a bar soap and tea tree oil to it?

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qwertops

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I have a bar soap that I am not allergic to. I would like to add tea tree oil to it. Can I just grade the soap, melt it in a water submerged pan and add tea tree oil? More importantly would the tea tree oil get diluted?

Thanks.
 
There are instructions online for making a "liquid" soap from grated bar soap. Apparently the texture is like snot vs like a liquid soap. I've never done it, but you can look here for threads where people have posted their results. Can you post a link to the soap? It may not actually even BE soap, it may be a detergent bar!
 
I am going to add TTO to this soap.

Simple antibacterial soap
Aqua, Citrus Grandis Seed Extract, Etidronic Acid, Glycerin, Panthenol, Sodium Chloride, Sodium Cocoate, Sodium Palm Kernelate, Sodium Tallowate, Tetrasodium EDTA
 
It shouldn't take much to melt that soap from looking at the ingredient list. Cover the pot in the double boiler, add just a touch of water ( less is more you won't have to wait for it to evaporate) and the TTO. You can wait until everything is melted to add the TTO if you would rather. Should melt between 70 and 80 C so there's no need to boil the water in the bottom pan.
Once things have gotten partially melted take the cover off, stir and replace the cover. Repeat until you have something that you can get into a mold. It should feel similar to the bar you started with when you allow a drop of it to cool outside of the top pan.

To calculate the amount of dilution: weigh the bar of soap, weight the desired amount of TTO. For TTO to original soap divide the weight of TTO by the weigh of soap. For TTO to total soap divide the weight of the TTO by the (soap plus the TTO).

Clear as mud, right?
 
Is your tea tree 100% Tea Tree Essential Oil? If they are calling it "tea tree oil" it is probably a tiny amount of tea tree essential oil in a carrier oil such as sweet almond.

If you want a solid bar, I would recommend grating the soap very fine, then adding a small amount of water - say 1/2 - 1 teaspoon - stir it well, then let the shreds sit overnight. Since it is such a small quantity, I think rebatching in an oven bag or in a boiling bag might be best.
https://www.brambleberry.com/Rebatching-Techniques.aspx

Then after your soap is liquid-y, put it in a bowl, add your tea tree, stir well and put in a mold.
 
Is your tea tree 100% Tea Tree Essential Oil? If they are calling it "tea tree oil" it is probably a tiny amount of tea tree essential oil in a carrier oil such as sweet almond.

If you want a solid bar, I would recommend grating the soap very fine, then adding a small amount of water - say 1/2 - 1 teaspoon - stir it well, then let the shreds sit overnight. Since it is such a small quantity, I think rebatching in an oven bag or in a boiling bag might be best.
https://www.brambleberry.com/Rebatching-Techniques.aspx

Then after your soap is liquid-y, put it in a bowl, add your tea tree, stir well and put in a mold.

And then wait 4 to 6 weeks for the "new" bar to dry and harden. If you are trying to get a nice hard bar it will take some serious patience waiting.

Like a rebatch using coconut milk....
 
So the soap is not melting. It turning brown and squishy squashy like. I had to throw it away. What am I doing wrong?

The ingredients of this soap are:
Sodium Palmate, Sodium Palm Kernelate, Aqua, Melaleuca Alternifolia oil, Glycerin, Sodium Chloride, CI77891, Tetrasodium EDTA, Tetrasodium Etidronate.

It has TTO in it but I need to add more.
 
Yes I did to about 2mm pieces. I put it in a glass jar into water and heated it for about 30 min. The water was already boiling but the soap wasn't melting. I then put the soap directly into a steel pan and tried to melt it but it burned and got all weird.
 
Soap doesn't melt in the sense like ice/water does (unless it's MP soap and this is not). It pretty much just softens. This gives it a mashed potato like texture. If you put it directly in the pan, it will burn on high heat.

If you add it directly to the pan, you must keep the pan on low heat to "melt" the soap. However, I find the best way to rebatch (melt) soap is to add it to a slow cooker on low and let it do its thing for a few hours checking every 20-30 minutes. Keep it covered when you aren't checking it. Once I can stir it easily, it's ready to go and you can add additives. For a commercial bar, you're probably going to need to add a bit of water to get there. Try adding about 1 teaspoon first and then add more if needed.
 
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