Tuesday September 2, 2014
As this post holiday Tuesday begins, both Alison and I are suffering from "can't get our motors running - itis." It's been a busy couple of weeks for us and it's nice to just do nothing for a few hours!
Last week we didn't do much on the blog, but we were very busy wrapping and labeling soap. We re-batched the hot process Amazingly Grace, and that is what we are going to show you today as printing labels isn't such a hot topic.
This is what we start with, a loaf of over processed soap that is crumbling and dry.
We chop and cut it up into manageable pieces sized to fit through the tube of my Cuisinart.
We grate, and grate, and grate, then we grate some more!
This is the complete batch of soap, grated and ready for re-batching. It's in a heatproof turkey roasting bag; you will see why below.
To re-batch this batch we use distilled water, safflower oil, and a big pot half filled with boiling water.
We securely close the bag then insert it into the pot of boiling water so the grated soap will begin to melt.
We add the distilled water and oil, a little at a time.
There is a consistency that we are looking for, and we think we will know it when we see it - at least we hope so.
At this point we are pulling the bag out of the water and, because the soap is really hot, we are using oven mitts to mash and mix it up in the bag.
It takes a while for the soap to feel "wet" enough. We add about 2-3 tablespoons of distilled water and oil at a time off and on for about an hour, mixing it in the bag as we go along.
At last the soap "feels" right. We hope we've added enough liquid, but this has been a real guessing game.
We cut a hole in the corner of the bag and squeeze the soap into the mold. It looks kind of strange, but we will tamp it down and smooth it out. To give it a little pizazz, we have decided to sprinkle in a bit of blue and green mica colorant.
This is what the soap looked like after we sprinkled the mica onto the soap and then swirled it through. We tamped down the mold several times - we don't want air pockets in the finished soap.
Our fingers are crossed that we added enough liquid.
If after a week the soap is still too dry, we will re-batch it a second time and add more water. Here's hoping that won't be necessary!
The dividers we place into the mold will give us 18 bars of soap from this batch.
Using a small piece of the soap we get a nice, creamy lather as we wash our hands.
The next day we took the bars out of the mold. We must say, we did hold our breath as we took it out because we were afraid that we might see soap that was still too dry and crumbly.
What the soap looked like right out of the mold.
Nice sized bars, and they smell terrific! We will wait a few days to see how they perform.
The top looks a bit rough, but that is ok; it's what most of our HP soaps look like.
So far the body of the bar is solid and holding together. Here the blue and green micas we swirled in are visible.
Another view of the soap.
The rebatched Amazingly Grace soap
So far so good!
We will give it a week and see how it looks and feels.
If it's too dry, then you will see a new blog post of us re-batching the re-batch!
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