Melting Castile Soap?

[mkelle11]

Hello!

I'm not sure if this is where I should post this- I'm really not into soap-making, but rather riding. There's a recipe for Saddle soap where you melt Castile soap and then stir in some whole milk or something similar, and although I've tried it I just can't get the Castile soap to melt! I've tried putting it in the microwave for one, then two minutes in a glass container- I suppose you can do it over the stove too, but I'm just hesitant to damage the pans. (I just used a glass jar minus the metal top for the microwave) It just kinda....expands. It turns into a foam, almost, and bubbles up. That's what happened at the 1 minute. At two it did the same thing, only it started to turn hard and a dark brown. It never turned vaguely liquid like.

So, while looking up how to melt Castile soap, I found out it's widely used for soap-making projects, and after the instructions I found failed I figured I'd try to talk to people who know what they are doing! Am I doing something wrong, or could I have the wrong type of Castile soap? (I don't know what type I have seeing as it's older and I don't remember the wrapper, but it was a hard, white bar and pretty durable.)

Thanks! If this is in the wrong board, please tell me and I'll repost it elsewhere or whatever.

 

[carebear]

well, it's not really in the right place but that's ok.

it's hard to melt soap. you can grate it and add a touch of liquid (milk works) and heat slowly.

commercial soap is very very dry and hard, so it doesn't work so well. some soapers will "rebatch" fresher hand made soap which works better - it's got more liquid in it, and glycerine too (which is a byproduct of soaping and commercial soaps remove it and sell it)