Rebatching soap experiment

I am continuing to make my own soap as I have oils to use up that I bought before they became so very expensive to buy. I was able to buy Coconut Oil in bulk last year so have been making a lot of 100% Coconut Oil Soap  but I still have Rice Bran Oil to use up and a little Olive Oil so I made up a batch a couple of weeks ago but, for some reason, it was a monumental fail. So I decided to rebatch it. 

Years ago I had a couple of soapmaking sessions when I tried to rebatch soap and the second effort was better than my first . I wasn't all that keen on either of the results but a friend told me about a soapmaker in Queensland and I checked out her website Elly's Everyday and she has both soapmaking and breadmaking videos available. I watched her video about how she rebatches soap and followed her instructions and the soap in the above photo was my first try. 

This was the failed soap which went horribly wrong.

This was the other half of the batch which didn't turn out too badly but, seeing as I had some unused Activated Charcoal  I decided to make do some more rebatching and make a black soap like Elly did.

  

Well, even though I actually added more charcoal than she did in her batch it still didn't go black but instead is a grey colour. In the photo above you can see the bottom of the soap....

...and this was the top but when I cut it I mixed the top and bottom up a bit as I cut a thicker than usual slice. I added some calendula flowers as a contrast to the dark colour. Hopefully it will turn out well in the long run but time will tell. 

All the hollyhocks this year have turned out to be various shades of pink. I started off years ago with growing only red hollyhocks but I mustn't have planted any red ones this year. I will rectify that next year as the red hollyhocks are quite stunning. 

Also on Elly's website she has a tutorial on making sourdough in the breadmaker which I have mentioned before and I have been experimenting with a few different flours and this last one was the one that rose the highest. I have been buying  Lighthouse Bread and Pizza Flour from Coles but they have been out of stock lately so I checked out Woolworths and noticed they have a wholemeal  version as well so I mixed both flours together and added 1/2 cup sunflower seeds .....

...and was pleased with the result. Eventually I will buy a 5kg bag of breadmaking flour but I wanted to experiment first while I decided if I should keep my breadmaker or give it away. I find the process easy to do so will keep the breadmaker as it is much cheaper to make sourdough myself than spend $7 or so at the Bakery.

We are in for a week of hot weather with no rain on the horizon so that is something to look forward to. Yikes! I will be making lots of visits to the shopping centres to enjoy their aircon. We have fans here so rarely use the aircon in summer but sometimes they are only blowing around hot air and there is enough hot air around here without adding anymore. LOL!

Have a great week everyone!