Tag Archives: how to make soap

General, Soapmaking

Make Your Own Soap Kits and SALE!

Posted on by Lisa Chouinard

I hope everyone is having a great Memorial Day. We are back from Maker Faire Bay Area where our Make Your Own Soap Booth snagged two awards – Editor’s Choice from Craft: Magazine and an Education Award! Thank you for making soap with us at our booth! If you didn’t make it to Maker Faire and want to make a bar of soap, we now offer Make Your Own Soap Kits! This kit contains everything you need to make one bar of glycerin soap with a toy, just like at our booth!

Kit includes:

Soap Mold
Soap Base
Toy
Fragrance
Colorant
Instruction Sheet

Not included but required: Pyrex cup, microwave or double boiler & spoon.

Here are some of the soaps people made at our Make Your Own Soap Booth at Maker Faire Bay Area 2011:

If there are any events you think Feto Soap would be a good fit for, please reply to this post and let us know!

Our Make Your Own Soap Booth is kid-friendly and would love to be at your event.

We are having a spring sale! Some of the soaps on sale are: Bay Rum, Dragon’s Blood, Pepperberry, Raspberry Lemonade, Yuzu, White Tea & Ginger, Blackberry Sage, Rubber Ducky Soap, Glycerin Soaps with Toys and Honey Glycerin Soap. Quantities are limited so snap them up now!

Soapmaking

How to Rebatch Soap in the Microwave!

Posted on by Lisa Chouinard

I recently attended the first Houston Soapmakers Meetup. One of the questions that came up was how to rebatch soap. There are many ways to rebatch soap. I’m going to share my favorite method with you.

Supplies
Handmade Soap (either in block form or shreds)
Cheese Grater or Knife (not electric one, leave electric cheese graters for cheese)
Water or Aloe Vera Juice (or liquid of choice)
Fragrance or Essential Oil (not required, but this is what adds the scent to the soap.)
Microwavable Rice Cooker
Microwave
Molds for your soap. I prefer log molds when I rebatch – more on that in a minute.
Large Spoon to scoop soap in the mold

Step 1. Shred or chop soap into tiny pieces. I use a cheese grater to get my soap into small pieces.

Step 2. Put shredded soap in a microwavable rice cooker. You don’t want to fill it all the way to the top – I wouldn’t fill it more than 3/4 of the way full. You don’t want it to overflow when it’s cooking.

Step 3. Add a small amount of water or aloe vera juice, just enough to wet the soap. (1 Tablespoon at a time) You don’t want to get it too wet or you will get warped / shrunken-head looking soap. You will need to experiment with the amount of liquid to use here.

Step 4. Microwave the soap in 3 to 4 minute bursts.  The soap will get really hot when you microwave it, so be sure to use a potholder when handling the rice cooker. Open the container slowly so the steam doesn’t burn you.  Check to see if the soap has become translucent after the first cook. If the soap looks dry and is starting to burn, you are going to need to add more water. If you add too much water, the resulting soap is going to have a sunken look too it when it dries out.  I’ve rebatched 2 lbs of soap in two 4 minute bursts on my last try. You want to cook the soap in the rice cooker until it looks semi-translucent and a homogeneous look.

Step 5. Start scooping the soap into your mold. I like using log molds with a lid because you can use the lid to smoosh it down flat into the mold.

Step 6. Unmold your soap the next day and cut into bars. Your soap is ready to use! Take a bath!