My First Seize!

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This weekend I had my most harrowing experience soapmaking thus far.

I didn't think much when I added my fragrance to my pot of oils (Olive EO/FO blend from WSP). I pay VERY careful attention to reviews and soap notes when I buy my fragrances so I don't know how the "severe acceleration" warning got past me.

It traced fairly quickly, but nothing out of the ordinary, so I plopped in my salt (these were 50% salt bars with 15% shea and 85% coconut). This is where all hell breaks loose. Of course I'm stirring fairly quickly to get the salt incorporated so that I can have a fluid pour....but it thickened so fast. I poured into my loaf mold and was worried that there would be air pockets....

Anyway, it was heating up very fast so I went to check on it 5 min later and it had started to mini volcano. At first I tried to push it back in (this is where I should have stopped). Thinking I could maybe do an in the pot emergency "hot process" I scooped everything back into my mixing container. There were chunks as hard as rocks and the top had started to dry out but I thought if I could let it all gel maybe I could get a smoother bar with less air pockets. I saw it was mostly gelled a few min later so I started to scoop back in the mold....but it was too late. This soap had gone through and finished gelling in under 5 min. I ended up with a crumbly mess that I have in a tupperware at the moment because I don't know what to do with it...it's basically powder with a few big chunks in it.

So. Is there any way to save this? Can you rebatch salt soap? My forum search seems to indicate no...but wondering nonetheless.


Also: that powdery mess is literally everywhere in my soap room! SEND HELP! 😂
 
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I never had luck trying to rebatch salt soap but other have using the oven technique.

What you can do is powder all your soap and add that to a new batch just like its salt. You can also put it in a shaker jar and just use it like that.
I repurposed a grated parmesan container for a shaker, worked great.
 
I figured I could just portion out enough powder to use each time... but how disappointing though!

I suppose I should open the tupperware and let it breathe/cure?
 
Oh I have the Olive EO/FO—I didn’t notice the flag about acceleration. I think I bought it for kitchen candles and the throw sucked so I shelved it to soap with. I’m so glad I saw this. Sorry about the seize.
 
Oh I have the Olive EO/FO—I didn’t notice the flag about acceleration. I think I bought it for kitchen candles and the throw sucked so I shelved it to soap with. I’m so glad I saw this. Sorry about the seize.
If I hadn't added salt I would have been able to work with it. I think a single color pour would be fine. It smells great in the soap (so far)
 
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