Evening fellow shavers Some weeks ago, I decided to melt my Mühle Aloe vera soap into another can. First, I tried to melt it via boiling, like melting chokolate. 30 minutes in, still not mellow enough to pour it. So in came the microwave, and with not even 10 secs burst it boiled over, several times. An STILL not mellow enough to pour, only parts of it. Anyhow I managed to mash it into my can. Still smelled lovely. Tried to make a lather, all seemed well, felt normal between my fingers. But I didn't shave with it. (had just shaved with Arko, lovely) So today I decided to shave with it. Got a lather that seemed fine and went to town. Boy... what... a... nasty... shave...!! Not nearly the protection I remember from months ago and noway near the protection I've enjoyed since I started using my Haslinger Ewe Milk. Result: Sore skin and a nasty weeper + mood destroyed. Bugger. So... to cut a long story short *COUGH*too late*COUGH* .... can it be I have destroyed my soap from my melting?
Muhle soap is not a melt and pour glycerin soap, so unless you do it extremely slowly in a double boiler (and even then it doesn't always work) or use an industrial process set up you will not be able to melt it down. You'll have to grate it to fit it into a different container. You may have messed up its chemical properties or caused enough burning to create an unusable skin on top of the soap.
Hrm I thought it was a meltable one - looked for glycerine in the ingredients and thought I was good to go. One thing is for sure, I don't think I've done it slowly enough as I became quite impatient quickly
Many soaps which are not melt and pour soaps have glycerin among their ingredients. It's actually present in almost all soaps unless it is later removed. You just have to do a little online research before deciding if it is safe to attempt to melt a particular soap. Most of the folks on this forum will be able to tell you one way or the other if you ask.
I guess I have learnt that now. Funny thing is, I _did_ look the soap up beforehand and got the impression it was meltable. I learn everyday
Tuxx, don't feel badly. I can totally see how this happened based on the ingredients, which I'll post below for enquiring minds. You're right that seeing "glycerin" in the ingredients was a red herring. Saponification aka the reaction to form soap makes glycerin, but since it's a by-product & not an added ingredient, it would not need to be included in the ingredients list for soaps made by traditional methods (cold process or hot process methods). Melt & pour soap is made from a soap base with additional ingredients for stabilization & glycerin, which is why sometimes people will call it "glycerin soap," which is misleading (all soap has some glycerin). Another category of soap is "milled soap" that goes through large mills or rollers to press out most of the natural glycerin after saponification. This is done to produce a harder bar and also to sell the valuable glycerin for use in other products like lotion. This milled soap needs to have some glycerin added back, thus you see "glycerin" in the ingredients. (FYI: Soap that's run thru the rollers 3-times is called "triple milled". You will also sometimes see "French milled" used.) Milled soap required use of heavy machinery, so is not generally handmade. Caveat, you will sometimes see people calling rustic-looking handmade soap "milled soap". This is not accurate. What they are referring to is "re-batched" soap in which finished soap is cut up and slowly melted in a double boiler or crockpot, scented is added & then poured into molds. Rebatching soap takes time & is not considered "melt & pour". Rebatched soap may also contained added glycerin or other ingredients & is a way to "make soap" without dealing directly with caustic lye. I hate waste & sometimes rebatch soap from soap scraps and bits to make usuable bars. So, it's definitely not straightforward! Your Muhle soap was a milled soap that you've "rebatched" (melted down & remolded) without adding extra ingredients Three posiives: 1) Your Muhle soap is still ok to use as a bath soap since you did not burn the soap. 2) Sharing your experience helps the rest of us learn. And 3) Now you can get to your new Haslinger soaps that much sooner Potassium Palmate, Sodium Palmate, Potassium Stearate, Potassium Palm Kernelate, Sodium Stearate, Sodium Palm Kernelate, Glycerin, Aqua, Palm Kernel Acid, Capryl/Capramdopropyl Betain, Parfum, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Linalool, Benzyl Benzoate, Butylphenyl Methylpropional, Benzyl Alcohol, Citronellol, Limonene, Geraniol, Pentasodium Pentetate, Tetrasodium Etidronate
Had I known it was a milled soap, I would have grated it like I grate my Arko. Dammit. Pardon my french That's some serious good information there, ohpaos. thanks! I'll degrade it to bathsoap. I've actually never like the soap for shaving (but it was the first and only for a while since I started out DE), but having experienced Arko and Haslinger I realised it was a bad soap for me. It hasn't got any better from my killing :-D Only downside is I aquired it rather expensive as I shopped locally online for my first gear (could have saved quite a bit from venturing to ebay/Amazon etc.), but hey, better to avoid the soap than to use it and hate the shave, no matter initial purchase price.
Excellent outlook! I would have considered "killed" only had you burned the soap. It's simply been transferred to another department. It will be a very good bath soap, excellent for the skin
I know just how you feel tuxxdk. I have managed to destroyed several pucks of shave soaps basically the same way..I now "ALWAYS" ask whom ever I'm buying a soap from if its "melt and pour" unless I know whether or not it is for a fact...The one good thing (I guess) is I now have a small collection of "for me" fancy smelling hand and bath soap...
"Funny" thing is.. I have a grater and bowl for the job, but I thought it would be interesting to just melt it... baaah, that's the most of an hour of my life I'll never get back From now on, I grate every soap, no matter whether it's meltable or not
