Rebatch Soapmaking

Rebatching soap has a somewhat undeserved reputation for being difficult, messy, and resulting in ugly soaps. Not at all! Rebatching can be fun and easy, and while it can be messy, I have to admit that I've made some grand messes with cold process too!

Rebatching basically means to take finished cold- or hot-processed soap, shred or chop it into tiny bits, and then melt it down into a liquid form that you can then color, scent, and mold. In that, it's similar to melt and pour soapmaking, except that it's usually done with soap you made yourself instead of a pre-made base. (Although several manufacturers do sell pre-shredded soap for this purpose.) Rebatching lets you save an ugly batch, or re-scent soap that lost its scent in the process of curing, or add herbs or delicate EOs that otherwise would have faded to oblivion in the harsh alkaline conditions of raw soap.