Gahhh - failed rimmed soaps and what to do with all those failed attempts.......

Since I spent quite some time trying to figure out how to create a rimmed soap so that it could be reproduced again and again with good results, needless to say, there have been many failed attempts. But, as someone who does not like to waste good soap, there are many ways you can still use the soap from these failed attempts. My most recent failure was just last week when I added too much sodium lactate to the rim soap and it wanted to crack on me. It was till flexible/moldable, but not enough to roll nicely without cracking. Knowing what was coming, I immediately stopped trying to roll it as I knew from past experience not to try to continue on with rolling and forming into the PVC pipe - it just leads to a mess.

Instead, I chose to use individual square silicone molds to create a square rimmed soap. While this can be quite a bit more laborious, the results are great. I take the slab and cut individual edges for each length and height of the mold (mine is 3" x 3" x 1 1/4"). This works for rectangular individual molds too.  Each piece is mitered at the corners or you could just cut them to fit and overlap at each corner. You can even just place rimmed pieces on two opposite sides instead of using all 4. Create a new batch of soap for the inner portion and proceed as usual filling each individual mold with new soap.

Allow to gel and unmold when hardened enough to do so. These will need some cleaning and trimming to look good, but the finished soap is really unique and beautiful.

My original slab (the colors muted a bit after gelling this part)

Square molds with rims cut and formed from the slab.

New soap batch poured into each mold

Finished Soap Cleaned Up and Edges Beveled

Both a full rim (left) and a 2 sided rim (right)

These bars were scented with a pumpkin spice fragrance that I know will turn a bit darker orange than the color shown here as the soap cures. 

Not round, but still a unique rimmed soap.

Other things you can do to reclaim your failed soap rims.

 - Create soap shreds to used in a new batch of soap

 - Cut the rim into long strips to use as embeds

 - If your slab is thick enough, use small cookie cutters to make mini guest soaps

 - Create Soap curls to add to a new batch of soap

 - Create soap balls to use as embeds in a new batch

Some of the above ideas have been used in these soaps below. The two soaps to the right (the embedded soap balls and flower shaped guest soaps) were from the same failed rimmed soap attempt too.

~ Faith

Rimmed Soap Tutorial

It has taken me quite some time to figure out and be able to recreate a rimmed soap design - both in cold process and a combination of melt and pour and cold process. Now that I feel confident in being able to recreate this in a variety of designs with consistent results, I will share how I put this together. For cold process soap, it takes two days to complete. Day 1 to create the rim and allow it to set to be firm enough yet still flexible to manipulate. Day 2 to create the inner core soap. Depending on your formulation, you may be able to do this in a shorter amount of time, but I find the 2 day process works for me. Melt and pour/cold process can be done in 1 day as it takes only an hour or so for the melt and pour rim to set up.