How to Rebatch Soap

By David Fisher, About.com Guide

In a nutshell, rebatching is taking soap that has already been made and re-batching it by grating it, melting it, and then adding any additional colors, fragrances or additives you want. Think of it as a soap "do-over." Though some will call it such, it's not really "milled" soap as we've come to know in the stores. It's grated and reprocessed, yes, but not really ground and reprocessed (milled) like the hard, milled bars are.

There are two main reasons to rebatch:

1. To fix a batch of soap that you've made a mistake on...
2. To use delicate or temperamental ingredients (like some natural exfoliants) that don't survive, react badly, or otherwise have problems with the lye solution.

Those are really the two main reasons to rebatch.

There are two sides of the soap making fence when it comes to rebatching:

1. The Kathy Miller's Soap Site side of the fence that basically says “Don’t do it unless you absolutely have to.” (I fall onto this side of the fence.) I have used rebatching process several times to fix batches of soap I’ve made mistakes on, and the soap comes out just fine. But I don’t usually ever set out to use rebatching intentionally.
2. The Norma Coney's Complete Soapmaker and Susan Hamblen's Making Scented Soap side. In their books, they use, practically celebrate, the rebatching process right along side their other recipes and processes – as a completely useful and valid technique.

Like I said, I tend to fall on the former side, but I'll present you with both the pros and cons of rebatching.