Welcome to SMF,
@Pastalioni !
I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I have some cautious remarks about it. First off,
rebatching is usually an “emergency” technique to salvage a batch when the soapmaker has forgotten something important. The resulting soap will most probably be not as “nice” (homogeneity, smooth texture, hardness, longevity, surface look&feel) as freshly made cold or hot process soap. Rebatching works best only within a few days after making the soap (contrary,
castile soap is usually aged for months at least). Deliberate rebatching is possible, but it's what I'd consider an advanced technique, that needs some understanding of soapmaking in general to yield satisfying results.
Castile soap will not
“melt”, like wax melts into a runny, workable liquid. It
is possible to get something liquidy out of castile soap, but you will need a huge amount of water for that, and the result will (like
@Tara_H mentioned) be a (terrible) liquid-ish soap, and never harden again into anything that you would recognise as bar soap.
Be aware that any type of
vanilla fragrance tends (unless
proper precautions are taken) to discolour to a dark brown colour. This can be (ab)used for
colouration purposes, but more often than not, it is just unsightly.
You'll find many recipes with
specialty fats like shea. But they are usually lye-based: free fats (when added in noticeable quantities) ruin lather, eat up “cleansing” power of the soap, and they feel, well, greasy on the skin. Unless they are converted into soaps by lye.
I see the following options for you: You're most flexible when you obtain lye. If you don't want this, melt&pour soap is a good way to be creative with soap in other ways. It is fine as well when you want to give rebatching a chance – yet I discourage castile for it! Get some other hard (syndet free) soap, grate it finely, optionally add 3% of its weight in sugar (or glycerol if available), and
melt it in the oven. Try out a small batch first, without additives. If you are pleased with the results, you won't be able to keep back your creative vigour anyway
.
