First Hand Milled Soap Batch ...

  Made my very first hand milled soap the other day and it turned out surprisingly well.  The recipe I used seemed to use a lot of water compared to what I was reading online to use (1/4 C per#).  I read so many disappointments and failed attempts on re-batching / hand-milling soap that I was avoiding it like the plaque.... yes I don't like failure.

  However my little bucket of cutoffs and trimmings was overly full so I needed to find some extra nerve and give it a go.  I started taking all the extra soap bits and putting them in the food processor so they were fine enough for melting (most use the smallest part of a cheese grater). However my pieces were so varied most wouldn't be big enough to shred on one of those.

  Then I steeped some aromatic Chai Tea to add to the batch in my crock pot. This recipe called for 12 oz of water per pound (yes a bit too much in my opinion).  Also added about a teaspoon of honey to my 1.5 pound batch as it cooked down.  Now all the bits mixed together had varied scents and colors, but some how in the end when I was finished it smelled so nice...couldn't duplicate the scent if I tried.  It has a mellow spicy and somewhat warm sweetness; definitely unisex.

  Anyway I found myself putting off this hand milled soap for nothing...it wasn't difficult and turned out quite  lovely. Don't let the negative Nelly's scare your sudsy self away..go for it! Worse case scenario you re-batch it again... that's the beauty of soap making it CAN be forgiving.
~ Little tip, when stirring... do so ever so slowly and gently or your going to have a bubble party in your pot.

All my extra soap bits and trimmings.

Steeping the Chai tea.... ohh it did smell yummy!

Starting to melt down well... told ya lots of water in this one.

Right after un-molding... it was soggy wet. Had to put it in fridge to get hard enough to remove.

Here it is all finished, that's the color it turned out to be; I'm as happy as a soap bubble! 

Once this soap dries out well in a few weeks I'll have this lovely soap listed in my Etsy store for those that love gentle hand milled soaps.  I guess what to name it is the next question.

WHOHOO for Hand Milled Soap !!!!!  

Happy dance in progress.