REBATCH Magic! Save Soap, Save Money, Save Planet

Rebatch can be magic, saving soap, saving you money and saving landfill and waste.  Learn more from the experience of Jaena Moynihan.

Trial and error. This has been the journey of creating a new formulation for a “Perfect Skin” luxury face bar. But, who wants to toss perfectly good ingredients away? Not me! Butter-heavy soap bars are too valuable to toss. Learning how to rebatch has been a huge discovery in this process.

My first go at the formula turned out pretty, except for the huge pockets of active lye!

The pockets resulted from pouring lye in oils that were too hot, then taking a few seconds to rinse my lye bowl out before immediately stirring it into oils. The lye caked to the bottom of my crock and some of it didn’t saponify. Trust me: this is a mistake I won’t ever make again.

I thought I’d have to throw it all out but a supportive group of soapers I’m in helped me through my first rebatch.

One of the cool things about soap is that you can almost always save it, even if you royally screw up!

Next day, I shredded the bars, coated them in a bit more distilled water to hit the leftover lye. I’ve heard to use water during the rebatch process as if you were dressing a salad… “just enough”

I cooked it on low for a little less than 2 hours, stirring every 20-30 minutes, until it became glossy. I then added a bit more of my superfat oil (avocado), molded it, popped it in the freezer for 4 hours, then cut it and was pleasantly surprised to end up with some really lovely charcoal face bars.

The moral of the story is “don’t toss a screwed up batch…REBATCH!”

Recipe:
22% babassu oil
11.5% olive oil
11.5% rice bran oil
5% castor oil
6% sweet almond oil
14% mango butter
13% shea butter
12% cocoa butter
sodium lactate added to lye water @ 1 tsp ppo
aloe vera juice as 75% of lye water

Post-cook additives:
5% avocado oil (as post-cook SuperFat)
agave nectar (1 tsp mixed with 1 TB DW ppo
soy yogurt
activated charcoal
rose clay

Jaena Moynihan lives in Phoenix, AZ and started her soaping “journey” (read: addiction) in 2014. Hooked from her first batch, she enjoyed the rewards of soap making as a hobby and is working to launch her small soaping business, Desert Mermaid Soap, in 2019. You can follow her adventures on Instagram @desertmermaidsoap.

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