Managing fragrance oils with vanilla/vanillin

[jeanemarie]

I'm relatively new to soapmaking & this forum but have come up with a question that might be of interest to other newbies.

I am making a 76oz batch of coffee themed/scented soap. It will be divided into thirds - dark brown, light brown and white. My FO smells fantastic but discolors to dark brown. Not a problem with the brown colors so I don't want or feel I need to use a VCS.

The question - Can I simply put fragrance into only 2/3 of the batter and leave it out of the part I want to stay white?

Feedback? And thanks. I have benefitted so much from what I read on this forum!

Oh but wait! A second question! Using prepared coffee vs instant coffee vs grounds brewed in hot lye. Any benefits to one of these?

 

[AliensrReal]

Yes you can.

 

[lsg]

Have you thought of adding white mica or titanium dioxide to lessen the discoloration?

 

[dibbles]

You can add fragrance to only part of a batch. I have used some vanilla fragrance oils that discolor very dark brown, and those can also bleed into lighter areas over time. I would do a layer with dark brown on the bottom, then a layer with some TD, and then the unfragranced layer to separate it from the very dark portion.

 

[Nona'sFarm]

Oh but wait! A second question! Using prepared coffee vs instant coffee vs grounds brewed in hot lye. Any benefits to one of these?

I do not use liquid coffee in mine, just water. I use coffee grounds. This adds a little exfoliation attribute to the soap. If the fragrance doesn't get the soap as dark as I want it, then I also add a little brown colorant to make it darker.
I happen to have some curing right now, so here's a picture. I did get this batch a little deeper brown than usual. The really dark specks in the soap is the ground coffee. I like to whisk in the ground coffee after adding the lye water to the oils, at emulsion.
Further clarification: at emulsion I separate out about 1/4 of the batter. To the 3/4 I add the coffee grounds, fragrance, and some brown colorant, bring to medium trace, then pour into the mold. Then I add TD to the remaining 1/4, bring to medium to thick trace and spoon on top of the brown. Finally, just for fun, I sprinkle brown mica on top.