Can I use melt and pour to make handmilling soap?

Answer 1

Technically that is what you do with M&P. Hand milling is a process of taking cured soap, grating it, and re-melting it. I prefer to mill hand crafted cold processed soaps. If you CP just leave your batch uncolored and unscented. Once cured, grate it up then add your scents and colors. There are many advantages to hand-milled soaps. Besides being extremely gentle, they have a more pleasing texture than soaps that haven’t been milled. They last longer than other hand made soaps typically do. Because they do not go through saponification after the scent is added, milled soaps have an advantage in keeping scents and herbs in their purest forms. But M&P is a great place to start your soaping hobby. Have fun!

Answer 2

Are you thinking about making a few bars of M&P, then remelting and remaking?

Or are you thinking about adding things to M&P?

It's hard to tell by your question.

For the first one, no, sorry. It would be like melting and resetting Jell-o over and over again. Eventually the solvents would boil out and you'd have goo ;-) Goo with lots of bubbles and it would feel very rubbery.

For the second question, sure, if you have a decent soap base to begin with. If the base ingredients include glycerin and a collection of oils, you'll be okay to add roughly 5% of other oils/butters or 10% additives like oatmeal.

If the base ingredients start with sodium (or potassium) laureth sulfate or similar, just about anything you add will make it better ;-) That is detergent based M&P, and isn't always kind to your skin.

The kind of soap mentioned by the posters above is "old fashioned", hand crafted soap. It's now called Cold Process soap (CP for short). Unlike the soap they made in the 1800s, these are usually made with superior ingredients and are very gentile.

Once it's made and "cured" to evaporate some of the water used in making it, you can grind/shred/chunk it up and process it again. That's usually what is meant by hand milled.

HTH

Answer 3

I personally have problems with melt and pour soap due to the chemicals that are used, and alcohol to clarify the soap. You may find success in grating down your cold process soap, melting it down with a little water in your oven at about 200, and then when it's into gel, adding a touch of jojoba and your fragrance and essential oil. If you need soap noodles, contact me and I can find a good cold process soap maker to get them for you.

Lillian
Soapmakingessentialoils.com

Answer 4

i dont really kno try it out