Last week, TL acquainted you with the perils of remilling homemade soap. In that article, she mentions that ‘tallow’ soap is easier to rebatch. Well guess what’s the first ingredient in Ivory Soap? Sodium Tallowate. Which mean saponified (soapified, tee-hee) TALLOW!
So, this is for all ya’ll who thought my soap wrapping post betrayed a secret knowledge of store-bought rebatching.
Ivory soap
Water
Additives (~1 tsp oil/8 oz soap)
Microwave
1. Grate soap into a microwave safe bowl. Dampen soap with water. Microwave for three minutes, or until it starts to foam up.
2. Scrape bowl and press it back down to the bottom of the bowl. (Stirring induces more bubbling over. Scoop and smoosh is MUCH better.) Dampen again. And nuke for another minute, or until it starts to foam.
3. Repeat step two until it goes ‘clear gel’ on you and looks a lot like that vaseline intensive lip stuff that came in the squishy tubes from the drug store. Thinner than vaseline, but nothing anyone would accuse of being an actual ‘liquid.’ (BTW, you can’t really over cook this. I did step 2 for about 20 minutes, trying to get it to go liquidy for me.)
4. Stir in your additives and “pour” (read: SPOON in clear stringy blobs) into your mold. I used the bottom and top thirds of a quart soy milk container. Bang and squish it a bunch to get out the air bubbles.
5. Unmold, slice, and let it dry out for a few WEEKS. Early it has that ‘gummy eraser’ spring to it that hot process has. But after a while, it should harden up.
BTW, that’s lavender bits on the right.
Awesome! Im totally going to try this out!
Tell me how it goes!
I think I’ll have a go at this as well as your liquid soap and stick deoderant! Sometimes Ivory soap is available at a very low price for several bars packaged together. This method sounds great because you can vary the additives for custom made soap without the long process of making soap from scratch.
Arg. I just spent over 20 minutes trying to get my soap to go liquidy. It looked nothing like vaseline, it was still stiff. Our microwave is usually stronger than the average too, cooks things really quick. And no matter what I did it kept foaming, so I was popping the microwave open every 45 seconds. Ah well, I spooned it into a pringles can and I’ll see how it turns out.
Maybe more water?
I think that may be it. I did a second batch, and it melted much better, although it still has some chunks. And since I added cocoa powder, it makes it look a bit like head cheese. Smells good though. Thanks for the ideas!
i’ve been making several of your soap recipes for christmas gifts. my mom said she would like some, but is allergic to lye soaps (she gets really bad contact dermatits, and wears rubber dishwashing gloves in the shower when she washes her hair). dove soap is just about the only thing she can use, so i grated up 6 bars of the unscented kind to try this recipe. then i couldn’t find a bowl big enough to hold all the shavings, so i plopped them in a pot and stuck it on the stove. it never foamed – whether that was from the style of cooking or the type of soap, i don’t know – and it didn’t turn clear. this i’m almost positive is from the added moisturizers in the bars. anyway, i added 1/2 oz lavender essential oil, and 3 1/2 tsp dried lavender flowers. i did call mom first and make sure she wasn’t allergic to lavender! anyway, it’s been curing for awhile now, but isn’t quite done. seems to be doing fine, though. thanks for the idea!!!
Why Ivory soap? What is so great about it? What is in it? And why would you want to remill it? I am looking for homemade soaps and I am curious about this recipe. Thanks
I love this! Remilling soap is a great way to use up all those little leftover scraps of soap that always end up littering the edges of my bathtub. Just cook em up and mush them all together into one unified chunk o’ soap! No more wasting the leftover bits, horray!
I am brand new to remilling soap. I did my very first batch yesterday. When my Ivory soap turned my microwave into a carwash, I decided to go with the double boiler instead. After playing around with it a bit, I think I have come up with a good recipe. 10 bars of Ivory (plain), 1/2 cup of buttermilk and 1/2 cup of olive oil. It may take a little longer for the product to cure, but it lathers really good, it smells really good (essence oils), and it looks kind of cool. Most of all, it’s pretty cheap to make.
I too am new at rebatching/hand-milling and love it! I first ordered goats milk already shredded and added lavender to half and the other half marigold leaves. Turned out great and gave as Christmas gifts. I am now hooked on Ivory Soap, because it is so inexpensive. Used a little milk and marigold leaves….turned out nice too. I am excited to see someone used buttermilk with Ivory. What about half and half? I will use 1/2 cup of melted coconut oil instead of olive oil though for the lathering. What do others use for lathering properties in medium hard water? Oh and and as far as grating goes….if you happen to come across an old type of grater that has 3 legs with a handle and round blades that slide in….buy it!!! It is the fastest way to grate up soap. I can do 10 bars in probably 5-10 minutes. Easy! Best part….no sliced knuckles.
Zorak, your mom’s situation is a bit confusing because if she has contact dermatitis to soap, commercial shampoo (not soap but detergent (Sodium Laureth/Laurel Sulphate, usually) shouldn’t give her a reaction. If it does, real soap (sodium tallowate, or palmoate or “sodium ‘something’oate) shouldn’t give her a reaction (because it’s not at all the same base formulation). Dove “soap” is not soap (and clearly says so as part of its marketing). Soap must have lye in the ingredients, but will not have any lye once it is finished soap, so it’s not the lye she’s reacting to. Maybe it’s the other chemicals in the bars, or the scent (or if she means bars of cleansers, the detergents (SLS or other). It doesn’t matter since she’s found she can use Dove, but knowing what is actually the problem would make finding other options easier.
you can rebatch in a slow cooker as well, I think (I make soap, but don’t rebatch, so I’m not 100% sure)
My last two batches of rebatched Ivory looked great, but I added too much marigold leaves to one batch and too much steel cut oats to another. I still use them though even though they don’t lather well. Holly mentioned she used 1/2 cup buttermilk and 1/2 cup olive oil to 10 Ivory bars. Could coconut oil be used instead of olive oil? Any thoughts on what to use in moderate hard water for lather?
Can this be used as a way to stretch the soap? Do the additions uield more bars at finish than those started with?
Thanks!
I tried melting the ivory, I did adding a little water and pressing it down. But it just turned to hard curds ;-;