Weirdness in my experiment

boyago · Sep 29, 2013

So I've been wondering about infused oils and if any scent can survive saponification. I did a little experiment. I filled some jars with spices. I used Star anise, powdered clove, chai tea, and cardamom seeds. About four Tbs of each in jars filled with olive oil left in a water bath on my hot plate at low and sometimes warm over four days. I mixed them all into a all OO soap 5% SF @ 33% water. I filled some cheap Tupperware to make small loafs and left them on the kitchen table. Just found this. It has been about 3 hours since I made the soap. All the lye I used was mixed at the same and used from the same container. The clove oil infused seems to be gelling. Feeling the bottoms the Anise is cold, the clove is hottest, the chai is warm but not as warm as the clove, and the cardamom is also cold. After I poured them I smelled them to see if anything was there. The anise was present, the clove not so much but detectable, the chai was present and the cardamom was the strongest. But whats up with the gel and heat? Also the anise still looks wet like I just poured it while the rest have matted over.

Saswede · Sep 29, 2013

Really interesting experiment. And a good demonstration of how the different additives we use can impact on the saponification reaction .......

I haven't used clove EO yet, but I was planning to make a spicy soap for Christmas - so will exercise due caution when I do!

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boyago · Sep 29, 2013

Saswede said:
I haven't used clove EO yet, but I was planning to make a spicy soap for Christmas - so will exercise due caution when I do!

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None of these were EOs. I infused straight OO with the spices.

Lidyax · Sep 29, 2013

I infused EVOO with dry rosemary and the scent stays in the soap. However, it's been almost a month and the soap is still very soft. It's 60% olive oil, and 20% each for coconut and palm. I did use too much water but still it should have hardened now?

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Obsidian · Sep 29, 2013

I infused some deer tallow with lemon thyme and it gelled really fast and really hot. It actually started to overheat so I uncovered it and it still completely gelled on a cool day.

Lidyax, how much water was too much?

Lidyax · Sep 29, 2013

Obsidian said:
I infused some deer tallow with lemon thyme and it gelled really fast and really hot. It actually started to overheat so I uncovered it and it still completely gelled on a cool day.

Lidyax, how much water was too much?

1 part lye to 3 parts water.

I just made a batch of soap with peppermint, patchouli, and green tea essential oil (I know there's no such thing as green tea EO, but that's how they sold it) and dilute them in castor oil before I added it. The batch seized! I haven't added my charcoal and i added it in hurry but it wouldn't mixed well. ****, it's going to look real ugly. I made soaps with this peppermint and green tea EO, separately, but they didn't seize. Ughh. **** unpredictable EO.

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kazmi · Sep 29, 2013

Interesting experiment Boyago! keep us posted as you unmold, cut, and cure. I'd like to know how each turns out along with the final scent retention.

Eve · Sep 29, 2013

Might be that the smell will be stronger with cure, that's what happened with my soap when I infused the oils with cinnamon.

boyago · Sep 29, 2013

About 12 hours in. I didn't expect the different soaps to act so differently. The Anise is still goopy and soft. The clove that gelled is very soft. The chai is pretty well set up and popped out of the mold with a light tap as did the cardamom. I wish now that I had been a little more scientific about the project but it's interesting anyway.

TVivian · Sep 29, 2013

Very cool experiment! I've had chamomile infusing in oil for over a week. I'm so excited to use it after seeing your pics!

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Forsenuf · Sep 29, 2013

Certain spice EOs are notorious for accelerating trace, heating up, etc- I would expect the powdered spices to have similar effects.

boyago · Oct 1, 2013

Update on the infused oils experiment if anyone is interested.
The anise scnent is still pretty strong, clove scent has seemed to come back, the chai is still present and the cardamom has vanished and now just smells like soap.
For those of you that are interested in color, the Anise seems to have turned a bright white, The clove is an olive color, The chai is a nice avocado green and the cardamom is a light off white.
All the soaps have pretty much fallen out of the molds except the clove which still seems a little too soft and stuck. It also took allot of pressure to get it out of the vertical mold. Also of note is that the cardamom block seems crumpbly.

eleraine · Oct 3, 2013

Lidyax said:
1 part lye to 3 parts water.

I just made a batch of soap with peppermint, patchouli, and green tea essential oil (I know there's no such thing as green tea EO, but that's how they sold it) and dilute them in castor oil before I added it. The batch seized! I haven't added my charcoal and i added it in hurry but it wouldn't mixed well. ****, it's going to look real ugly. I made soaps with this peppermint and green tea EO, separately, but they didn't seize. Ughh. **** unpredictable EO.

Sent from my iPad using Soap Making

I suspect it's FO and not so much EO that you used...but I can't be sure. Maybe can ask around in the aromatheraphy subforum here?

roseb · Oct 4, 2013

I've also been messing around with infusing OO. I use fresh herbs. I stuff them in a bottle with the oil and let them sit in a crockpot over night. I've used tarragon, rosemary, lavender and basil. I do HP and you would think that the rosemary would be the strongest after the cook, but it turns that the lavender and basil have the strongest scent. So much fun to experiment! Thanks for sharing yours!

boyago · Oct 5, 2013

roseb said:
I've also been messing around with infusing OO. I use fresh herbs. I stuff them in a bottle with the oil and let them sit in a crockpot over night. I've used tarragon, rosemary, lavender and basil. I do HP and you would think that the rosemary would be the strongest after the cook, but it turns that the lavender and basil have the strongest scent. So much fun to experiment! Thanks for sharing yours!

Awesome thanks for sharing. I just found someones lavender clippings and have a whole grocery bag full of lavender flowers.

Okay I guess a rating scale might be useful. Lets say 1-10 1 being no scent and 10 huffing the actual ingredient here are my results. The strongest smell of the star anise was the strongest maybe a 5.5 on the scale. This was followed by the clove with 4.5, the chai actually came out smelling like what I would think of as commercial soap kind of like zest about a three on the scale. The cardamom came out just smelling like soap. Did a quick lather test which was probably pretty useless as these are all OO and only a month old, but the chai did seem to bubble a little more than the others. That's all for now.

Skatergirl46 · Oct 26, 2013

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing this. I have a big Rosemary bush and I have been thinking about trying an infusion.

neeners · Oct 26, 2013

love this! thank you for posting the experiment. excited for further results!

maloga3 · Oct 26, 2013

oh my gosh...love this forum so we can post stuff like this

You inspire us all, thanks for posting!!

pulselesstea · May 12, 2016

Such great information!
I plan on infusing star anise, and was really hoping it would come through in scent!!

shunt2011 · May 12, 2016

pulselesstea said:
Such great information!
I plan on infusing star anise, and was really hoping it would come through in scent!!

This post is almost 3 years old. And with a bit of research you will find that non of the spices really come through and survive soapmaking.

Welcome to the forum, please go to the introductions forum and tell us a little about yourself.

Weirdness in my experiment

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