Infused Oils?

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CherryGardenGirl

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How many of you soapers have used, or made, infused oils to make soap with? Does it change the process or trace time? Does the scent/properties carry over?

If you have made your own infused oils, what amount of herbs to oils did you use?

I have lots of dried Chamomile and want to make infused olive oil for my next batch of soap :)

Thanks!
 
CherryGardenGirl said:
How many of you soapers have used, or made, infused oils to make soap with? Does it change the process or trace time? Does the scent/properties carry over?

If you have made your own infused oils, what amount of herbs to oils did you use?

I have lots of dried Chamomile and want to make infused olive oil for my next batch of soap :)

Thanks!

Usually the usage rate I have found to work best is .5-1oz per pound of oils (ppo). I have infused lavender into olive oil and it turned out lovely. I didnt find that it changed the time it took to trace, but it was hard to tell since it was a high-percentage-olive-oil recipe and we all know those usually take FOREVER and a day to trace. That being said... I found that only the faintest scent made it through to the final soap. I would imagine with resinous herbs/plants it might last through to the final soap a bit better (like rosemary, pine, cedar, etc...) since the resinous properties tend to hold better through the soap...

Im not sure if the properties (healing...etc) would carry over into the finished soap, probably to some degree, but you have to remember that with the saponification process (an exothermic reaction, meaning gives off heat) alot of the healing properties of herbs tend to be cooked off (Its the same logic as if you want to get more vitamins from the veggies you eat, cook them less... because the vitamin molecules get denatured (destroyed) because of the heat.)

Hope that makes sense :)

and hope it helps :)
 
glad I could help!! :) Happy-Infusing/soaping!! :)

(by the way I LOVE LOVE LOVE infused oils for cooking and dipping bread in... mmm mmm mmmmm tasty)
 
One more question!!! Did you use the infused herbs in your soap as well? Or did you filter them out? I know some people add dried herbs to their soap so I wasn't sure if the infused ones would go rancid or not!
 
CherryGardenGirl said:
One more question!!! Did you use the infused herbs in your soap as well? Or did you filter them out? I know some people add dried herbs to their soap so I wasn't sure if the infused ones would go rancid or not!

Yeah I just let my SB do the work of chopping/grinding them up while they were in the oils... I love the herbs in the soaps, but some people dont , they tend to stick to certain parts and can create a little mess in the shower, so it depends on your likes/dislikes... I looove herbs and any use i can find for them, so it was cool to have a little bit of a scrubby exfoliating effect from the added herbs :)

Infused herbs shouldnt go rancid as long as they are chopped very fine... people put fruits in soaps as well, from what I have heard as long as everything is puree'ed finely, its all gravy baby ;)
 
I always use infused oils...started when a local designer started ordering my soap to give with every sale. She requested bay essential oil, which is so expensive here it was somewhat prohibitive. I thought I could at least support that expensive eo by infusing bay leaves from the grocery store in the oil, and also making a bay "tea" for use as the liquid.

Now here's the thing: the recipe for her bespoke soaps is my favourite, self-created recipe. I make it frequently, as my standard favourite. However, no other soap of this recipe has the same quality as this soap.

To add to the mystery of bay, in Provence I saw a lot of soap called "Aleppo Bay Oil Soap" http://www.inkanat.com/en/infohealth/aleppo-soap.html

some of it is 30% bay oil! now how do I get me some of that oil...because it is about 12 euro for 5 mL (1 tablespoon) here. So 19 CAD (Canadian dollars) for a tablespoon and they're making soap at 30%???

Well I can't afford the oil, but I have since infused each recipe with bay "tea" and infused olive oil, in the hopes that that gorgeous quality, if not the scent, comes through!

anyone else come across that phenomenon with bay?
 

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