Question about saving soap

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wbocrafter

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I've seen the pictures of the soap that has riced, or volcanoed or is dry and crackly. Is there any saving any of these soaps or do you just have to throw the whole mess away? It hasn't happened to me yet but I want to be prepared if it does. The oils are so expensive it would be a shame to throw them away. Thanks for any help you can offer.
 
Ricing is "soap gone wild" in that it is saponifying really fast. Sometimes you can stick blend or stir it enough so it is soft enough to plop into your mold and let it finish saponifying in the mold. If it gets away from you enough that getting it into a mold is not going to happen, you can switch to a hot process method -- let the soap cook (saponify) in the soap pot first and then spoon the saponified soap into a mold.

Dry and/or brittle soap ... depends on the problem. It's hard to anticipate what is the right thing to do until it happens. Sometimes the soap is basically okay; it just has a texture problem. That's happened to me a time or two. If the issue is excess lye, you might be able to do a rebatch and add oil to react with the excess lye.
 
I have a little different method for ricing soap, but DeeAnna's answer is also a good solution. I have a fragrance that is a horrific ricer here is what I do, I SB for awhile, it will seperate, I put a lid on my container and walk away for 10 min, go back and try to stick blend again, if it still does not come together which it usually does not, I repeat the process until it comes together, then pour very quickly. What you are getting is basically a hp soap at this point but do not have to wash a crock pot! Do pour quickly it will set-up quickly

In 8 yrs of soaping I have only tossed one batch that I could not save no matter what I did. It was not my recipe but from a well known soaper/teacher/newsletter publisher. No matter what I did it it stayed horrific, but almost all soap can be saved, so keep a crockpot designated for soap around. First and last time I ever used someone's recipe and I even ran it through soap calc
 
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Soap can almost always be saved.

1) Riced - keep stick blending. If the stick blending doesn't work, put it on gentle heat on the stove and basically hot process it.

2) Volcanos happen when the soap gets too hot and the heat is trapped in the soap. If you see your soap in the mold start to rise and cracks appear in the surface, get a spoon and gently stir. See if the soap settles down and behaves. If not, stir again.

3) Separation - put as much as you can in the pot or crockpot and heat.

4) Dry and crackly - for that it really depends WHY it's dry and crackly.

Other options are rebatching and confetti soap.

Confetti soap is the easiest and best of these two, IMO. Cut your soap into small bits, mix it roughly 50/50 with new soap, and put it in the mold. Confetti soap really benefits from heat because that gets the old soap soft and melty so it bonds better with the new soap. I made a batch of soap where some of my lye hadn't dissolved, and instead made a hard cake at the bottom of the lye pitcher. I mixed a bit more lye with water and added it, but the soap was soft and greasy feeling. I shredded it and mixed it with new soap with a lower superfat - 3% I think.

Rebatch - this is a PITA. You shred the soap, add just enough liquid to moisten - start with a few tablespoons - then gently heat in your crockpot until it melts. If you have a bunch of different colors, you will probably get brown soap. Also, the fragrance may cook off. When I rebatch, I add coffee grounds so the soap is more interesting and not just flat muddy brown.
 
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