A misbehaving FO walks into a bar...

[Ephemerella]

The FO crashes open the saloon-style doors, runs to the bar and slams down a fist full of cash. Pounding her fists, she throws back her head and screams, "BARKEEP! PINOT! PRONTO!" The bartender lazily looks up from polishing a glass and, in his best Dude interpretation, says, "Whoa whoa, whoa, whoa lil' lady...what's the hurry?" har har

So, I'm planning to use a super fast, super darkening FO. The goal is to create a Taiwan swirl, and the naturally dark color is a perfect color match for one-third of the overall color scheme, and the scent fits the profile for what I'm trying to accomplish ... if I can pull this off.

I typically FO at ~3%. I like a scent that lingers on the skin for a few hours. This FO has a max use in soap of 20%.

Can I put ALL of the FO into one-third of the batter so I can get the color I want without disrupting the rest and still get a strong scent in the final bar.... without singeing off Ryan Reynolds my skin?

In other words, 100% of the FO in 30% of the batter, so 2/3 of the swirls are un-fragranced, and 1/3 is super potent.

Am I nuts?

Thanks!

 

[KiwiMoose]

Are you going to weigh out the 1/3 and add 20% of that to the portion? If so, yes, you can do that but don't put 20% of the total batch oil weight into 1/3 of the soap. And TBH I don't think I would ever use 20% of FO ever, because it's not going to saponify and you will have all the 'free oil' wandering around causing problems.

Here's what I would do:
Work out what 1/3 of your batch weight is and then work out what 6% of that is. Add this amount of FO to that 1/3. (Ive never used more that 5% fragrance so this it out of my comfort zone). BUT you say it's an accelerating FO so whatcha gonna do to mitigate the imbalance of 1/3 of your batch accelerating while the other 2/3 is not? Do we know how badly it accelerates? To counter this I would add a further 2% of a decelerating FO or EO to that same third. I have some fragrances that are decelerating - and I often use them in this way. If yo are wedded to that particular fragrance can don't want to influence it with another - I would opt for a lemon, lime or orange EO because citrus can help slow offset acceleration. lemon EO in particular will not hold its scent, so will disappear over time.

 

[Ephemerella]

Oh goodness no! I'm thinking of putting 3% of the batch oil weight (the total I would normally do for an entire batch) into 1/3 of the soap. Then swirling it up a bit in hopes it leeches around without colorizing too much.

I only included the max use percent to make mention that it's a FO with a high usage. I think I'd faint dead away if I ever used 20% - from the cost alone!

Interesting about the fading EO. I pondered matching this FO with something else to spread it out -- I typically blend FOs -- but its unique and I couldn't come up with anything to pair it with without disturbing its nice balance. VERY interesting that lemon fades.

Thank you so much!

 

[KiwiMoose]

All that aside - how about the acceleration factor?

 

[Ford]

Yes, that percentage with all the fo. Will be setup. By time you get your colors going. Been there, done that.

 

[Ephemerella]

So..... I went for it. The oils were actually cooling as I started this thread last night. Acceleration and discoloration absolutely lived up to the reviews.
Dark Kiss (type) - Fragrance Oil

This little experiment was interesting because I was prepared for acceleration, so I soaped at my lowest temperature ever and enjoyed playing with such a light trace. It was fun! I got my colors ready, clay blended, portioned off the thirds, and waited until the last possible moment to ad the FO. Good I did because, within seconds, the batter was neon yellow pudding. Fortunately, I could coax it into the dividers, it stayed just moveable enough.

I screwed up the swirl, forgot a step, and in hindsight, I should've used a wider-diameter stick for swirling. It looks like the end result will be a gloppy mess visually. But I LOVE the chocolate brown color. And I'm so excited to have a strong dark color that, I presume, won't color the lather. I can't stand that.

I sliced it this morning. Will be interesting to watch what it does for the next few days.

I do this for the creative outlet, the sheer fascination of it, and to share something handmade with friends & family. So if the end result is off, as long as it's a good bar of soap, no big deal. The primary mission of this thread to was to ensure that I wasn't creating a harmful item by concentrating my FO on one portion of the batter.

Here's a peek after I sliced the slabs, the bottom shows the brown, the interior still shows the neon yellow: