Yes, it is called rebatching, and I will avoid it if at all possible. It's time consuming and tedious. To let you know, I make cp soap by the 10 pound recipes. I presently have 2 buckets of soap scraps, I would guess about a 2 or 3 cubic foot container. Instead of rebatching it I will add it to a new recipe of soap. Unlike what you have, this is still virgin soap scraps, not previously used. I will make soap and give these away or use them ourselves. What I would do if I had these previous used scraps, I would just add it to a new bar as they are being used; they do stick fairly readily, and they rarely come off. If you are going to still rebatch, I would grate them, then lightly mist them (not dripping) the night before, then add them to a crockpot on low or medium heat. You will need to set aside about 4 hours or so, depending on how much soap you need to do. The trick is to add just enough water (by the tablespoon) to keep the soap pliable and not dry, while you are trying to mash it, until it is thoroughly melted. Be careful, this soap is very hot while in the crock! Any scent of the scraps will disappear in the final product, so if you want it scented, then let the soap cool down a bit and mix in scent just before pour/mashing it into any molds. hth

Sorry, already have 10 testers lined up, some people from across the country, a couple are my wholesale customers.....I usually just pick my scents by what I like, & by "instinct", but this time I decided to to some scent testing, just to see how close, or far off I REALLY am......then again, I may NOT want to know. I also thought it would be a good idea to let the wholesale folks preview upcoming things........ Depending on how this goes, I may just go back to the old way (me). It's been a borderline pain....I spent the weekend making tons of ½ size bars of soap, wrapping & labeling, now packing & getting ready to ship. I just hope these people get back to me with the results.....I've had to chase the soap base testers down, with the exception of Jill...she was the ONLY one who gave me detailed, scent by scent info, which I GREATLY appreciated! Anyway, off to pack the soap, & the ebay auctions....... Hazel

Jody, thank you for your comments; over the many years I�ve been coming here, not many that I have seen thank others for their help. I have looked into both hot press and cold press and thing CP is the way to go. CP is my favourite process to make soap, HP was too rustic for me, although some soapers can successfully make HP look like CP. I, like melissa have bought several fried herbs, oils, lye, etc and I am trying to find just the right recipe. I�m hoping that you meant "dried" vice "fried"? lol! (Sorry, I�m a bit of a kidder) Experimenting is a large part of this hobby; but the expense can get out of hand, especially with the scents. I would like to make soap with hemp seed oil. Do you happen to have a recipe you might share or recommend? I have stayed away from hemp oil; the shelf life is too short, if memory serves me, 6 months in the raw state? Used hemp like any other conditioning oil; like shea or coco butter. The herbs/colorants I am working with are things like lemongrass, chamomile, burdock, turmeric, spearmint leaves, dandelions, and a few more whose names escape me at the moment. Jody, what are you hoping to do with the above list? I have used turmeric for colouring a recipe, but none of the others in your list for colour. If you are hoping to use those herbs for scent, you�ll be disappointed. If these are EO (Essential Oils) or Fos (Fragrance Oils), then you�ll be ok. I have use parsley in some recipes, but after a year or so the parsley will fade into a pale yellow colour. I have successfully used clays for earth tones as well as Stevia for green. As for EO's I have several, and my favorites are lavender, lemongrass, mint, jasmine, etc Lavender EO or FO, I would use at 1 ounce per pound of oils. Lemongrass EO, is quite strong, I would consider around � ounce per pound of oils. Peppermint Eo is stronger then spearmint EO, peppermint I would use no more then � ounce per pound; spearmint slightly more, maybe .6 Jasmine (hint: remember white florals) can hurry trace, so make sure you have all equipment ready to pour before hand mixing the lye solution into the oils/fats and soap on the cooler side. I am looking for a reasonably small recipe for my first time, maybe 4-5 lbs. (even less) Jody, what are you asking here, if you can use the calculator, then what advice can I offer? About 2 pounds maybe a good start. I saw some soap in an organic store yesterday and couldn't believe how strong the fragrances were! I would love to make something that has a strong scent. These are all Eos: Peppermint, Spearmint, and Lemongrass would be good for strong scent. Some others would be; tea tree, Clove (not really recommended), Cinnamon, Rosemary and Patchouli.(You have to like the sent of these oils) Fos, will depend on who has manufactured them, not all are created equal. August is the beginning of my holidays, so I may not be available soon. My old stomping grounds used to be TheSoapDish (if it is still called that) lots of good info there. I understand the lye calculator and how to change measurements to % Hemp is a good conditioning oil, so you could use 5% or so of your recipe, although I have not personally used that one; but I do use Caster oil from time to time, depending on the other oils in the recipe. Good luck Jody, if I can be of more help, just let me know! (I hope the formatting is good here I had trouble with Word 2010)

Here's the M&P information from the link above. Melt and Pour Soap: Technically, all hand made soap is "Glycerin Soap." In many commercial soaps, all the extra glycerin (formed naturally by the cold process soapmaking method) is harvested out. Thus, all handmade soap is glycerin rich (since hand made soapmakers donÂt harvest out glycerin in their soap). In todayÂs market, the term "Glycerin Soap" is commonly used to refer to clear soap. Generally, the clear soap has extra glycerin added to it to produce a very nourishing, moisturizing bar. Glycerin is a "humectant." It draws moisture to itself; the theory is that if you wash with glycerin soap, a thin layer of glycerin will remain, drawing moisture to your skin. Clear soap can be purchased in large blocks to be melted down, colored and fragranced, and placed into molds (or used to make loaves of soap to be sliced). This type of soap is called "Melt and Pour" and the artistry of melt and pour is called "Soap Casting." Melt and Pour is gaining in popularity because of its ease of use. There are no significant safety measures (other than basic common sense  donÂt put your hand in the hot soap, donÂt cut your finger off with the knife etcÂ) needed for soapcasting. Children can do it. ItÂs a great outlet for creative types. You can also make clear soap from scratch. This method involves all the aspects of cold process soapmaking, but takes it a few steps further by adding alcohol for clarity and a glycerin and sugar mix to suspend and enhance the clarity. It is a dangerous process because of the alcohol vapors. If you wish to make clear soap (which will not melt down like melt and pour  itÂs one pour only soap), please read "Transparent Soapmaking" by Catherine Failor. This is an excellent resource for anyone wishing to make clear soap from scratch. So to answer your question, yes and no.... I refuse to make CP soap in my home, because I'd have to LOCK up the chemicals. I have very busy inquisitive boys. And once they learned that I had "cool" stuff..they'd wanna try it too. If I wanted to make my "own" soaps, I'd much prefer to buy M&P in blocks and enhance it, or buy soap to rebatch by taking CP soap someone else made, grating and adding more liquids and cooking it down to make a "new" soap. But I don't need to, because I have wonderful friends who make it and send it to me to "test". LOL