Froth is an indication that one is using enough soap to properly clean as well as keep soils/hard water minerals and muck suspended. This is why most every soap product from laundry to bath advertises or advertised "mounds of rich creamy suds". Pure soaps by design will create suds, quite allot of them, while detergents can be either low or high sudsing. Anyone brought up to do laundry with soap will tell you that if one does not see suds, then more soap was needed. When Ivory Snow was powdered soap, directions on the box recommended a 1 to 2 inch layer of creamy suds throug out the wash cycle as an indication one had added enough product. The problem with using soap in front loaders is even one inches of suds can cause problems, and you have very little control over how much soap to use. If you add too little in the drawer, you may not have a way to add more during the wash cycle. Add too much, then you have other problems. There is also the fact that even a one inch layer of froth may trigger a washing machine's internal "over sudsing" system to abort the wash cycle. The tumbling action of front loaders will cause even more froth to form, which not only will decrease cleaning results, but can damage the washing machine as well. Simply put soap softens water (by binding hard water minerals), and also cleans like all "detergents". Differnece is detergents are "built" with additives to soften water, while soap will do this by itself, but one must use much of the product depending upon water conditions. It is the binding of hard water minerals that causes soap crud which forms on everything washed in pure soap. Besides creating froth, which is bad for front loading washing machines; the first several rinses after laundering with soap must be either hot or at least warm water temperature to prevent soap and the muck it has released from becoming trapped in textiles when coming in contact with cold water. Soap is very difficult to rinse from laundry (just because the froth is gone, does not mean all soap has been rinsed from garments), indeed the fats and oils used to make soap will leave a residue on textiles that can build up over time, resulting in dingy, tattle-tale grey fabrics that can turn rancid smelling. Zote, is still widely used in Mexico and other parts of South America as bar laundry soaps have been for ages; to do laundry by hand in either a river bank, wash tub/sink or semi or totally automatic top loading washing machine. Personally wouldn't use soap in any of today's low water front loaders, with the exception of soap based products such as Persil's "Perwol". Do have bars of vintage Fel's soap, but use it more as a pre-treat than to do actual wash loads. C.dS

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

My main concern with MP soaps is that you don't know what is in it, or what is not in it. Do they still contain all the natural glycerin? That's very important. Do they have chemical hardeners, etc added. Can we just buy regular white unscented grocery store soap and melt it into molds and add colour and scent and call it homemade? We can do that but is it the same? Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with MP soaps. It's not a question of right and wrong or better and worse, it's just that they are two different things and shouldn't be lumped together into "homemade" when the finished product is probably different. Do the customers know the difference whe buying "homemade" soap? Is it labelled MP? I know remaking soap is a lot of work, I've done it many times with my CP/HP! I'd almost rather mix up some CP soap in the blender and aging it than rebatch. If I needed "homemade" soap in a pinch, I think I would buy MP but I would label it MP instead of Homemade. Dollarama used to sell large bars of white unscented goat's milk soap for $1.00. Many times I thought about buying it and melting it down and adding colour and scent but I didn't because it and probably had chemical hardeners cals in it and no glycerine. Commercial soap is very hard on your skin. I guess it comes down to this: Why do we make soap instead of buying it in the first place? I know there are some good MP soap bases out there but you do need to careful about the glycerin content, etc. so the finished product is the same as the customer is expecting. If your repeat customers are thrilled with what you make, then don't worry about it. Sales and happy customers are what determine your success, not what other soap makers think - and that's true of all crafts, art included. A degree in art does not a successful artist make. But that is another discussion...

Hello Pepfun1, The MP (melt and pour) base is glycerin. Glycerin is derived from soap. Soap is made from using lye(sodium hydroxide, or for soft soap, potassium hydroxide) and mixed with fats and oils. I haven't researched this part, but this is my understanding of how glycerin is obtained. The large manufactures of soap pull off the glycerin, using salt. This is your melt and pour base. Cold processed soap contains about 5 or 7% glycerin. hth