The Potting Shed

Aqui · Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 10:10 am Post subject: crumbly soap

So I made my second batch of soap on Saturday. On Sunday I tried to cut it, but it was still quite soft, so I put it back. Monday and Tuesday - I forgot about it. Yesterday morning I finally remembered and cut it.

It cracked and crumbled, leaving me with some fairly chunky, but mishapen random pieces.

Ms Coss says it could be due to not enough water, so I should rebatch. Or could it be because I left it too long before cutting?

Rebatching sounds complicating as I don't have a double boiler and I haven't got a heatproof bowl big enough to put inside a pot (that would also not be big enough!)

Leonie2 · Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 10:16 am Post subject:

well I'm not sure of the answer there but I'd guess it's not enough water. I cut some soap recently that I made a few months ago. It was cut into large bars but I wanted smaller "sample" sized bars so I cut each bar in half, it didn't crumble and cut nice and smoothly.

You could rebatch. Or, as Penny did and I notice when I visited at the weekend, she grated the soap (it didn't look grated though, more like breadcrumbs) and put it into a little dish in the bathroom with a scoop. Instead of having a bar of soap to wash your hands with you scoop a little bit of the crumbled soap onto your hands and then wash. It looked pretty and a nice change to having a bar of soap sitting on the hand basin. And if you want a little wooden scoop I'm sure I have some spare ones lurking in the shed somewhere.