Additives chart

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

RobertBarnett

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2015
Messages
132
Reaction score
56
I have been putting together a chart of additives for soap. I would like to share this chart with everyone here. You can get it at:

http://www.robertsessentials.com/soap_pdfs/additives_chart.pdf

Also, if you have any ideas for additions, corrections, etc. please let me know what they are. I can make the word document available if someone would like to help with it.

I keep this printed out in a binder with page protectors so I can us it without having to worry about messing the pages up.

There are some other soap related off files available as well as some recipes all free on my web site. This will probably get me edited or banded by the Irish lass but it is on topic and I find the chart very helpful and would like to see it expanded.

I plan to keep everything on my site free. I don't believe in charging people for every little thing.

Robert
 
I just find it a little off that you join SMF in Dec 2015 and then in Jan 2016 you register your site and start filling it with information that you could also just post here directly (recipes) or via file sharing and link here (pdfs) but instead choose to direct traffic to and promote a site of your own on a forum which has most certainly given you a lot of that same information.
 
Robert. thank you for sharing your chart with us. Wow! It took a lot of time to put this together and I appreciate you 'giving back' a very organized piece of information.
You took time to help organize many of our ingredients So Thank You!

For someone starting an Essential Oil site, I appreciate your research and 'seeking' information from all those who are the 'Professors" of the soaping field.

I joined this group to gain any additional knowledge I could. I was a long time side liner with great hesitation to join as I saw many sharing their ideas and thoughts (new bees and others) only to be .... Disrespected with some members feeling they have the right to comment assuming they know the whole story

Again thank you and for me back to being a lurker.
 
Robert,
My concern is the " used for" column. IF I label any soap I make using the information contained there I may change my soap into a cosmetic or drug. You may want to include a very clear disclaimer for the chart.

Some FEEL that this material MAY add xxxx to the soap.

There is a lot of risk involved in making open statements like those contained in the mentioned column.
Just what I saw with a quick overview of the chart. Thanks for putting it in one place and sharing the information.
Steve
 
Steve85569

Thank you for the feedback. I will add a footnote warning people about that. That information is just what I use the additive for and I assume and hope that people are doing their own research before adding something to their soap. My chart is not intended nor should it be used as the final word.

But I will add the footnote.

Robert

Kittensmom,

You are most welcome. The pdf's are just things that I keep in binders and refer to often and so I wanted to share in the hopes that it helps others.

Robert
 
The first position got my attention, 1/4 tsp to 1 tbsp PPO; Activated charcoal ...........black lather and grey water, very drying
 
Last edited:
The obvious salt and sugar are missing.
Thanks for the information nice to have all in one place.
 
Your chart is excellent, thanks so much Robert. There is just so much to learn and this chart is a very useful starting place.
 
Hi Robert,

Good Chart. There is a thread on natural colourants. There are very, very few that are worth using as very very few stick at all.

Spirulina powder fades after a few weeks even if it is in the complete dark. I don't think a UV stabilizer would help it.

Also, from personal experience, coarse sea salt sprinkled on top of soap doesn't add wow factor but does add "ouch" factor. A very bad mistake. I chopped off the top of my sea salt decoration batch. So annoying. Even in salt bars I use the finest, cheapest salt I can.

I personally would put 1/2 tsp - 1 tbsp of titanium dioxide ppo. Hopefully people will experiment but starting at 1 tbsp ppo seems high to me.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the feed back. I will make corrections. The coarse salt sounds like an ouch you to me too. Who wants to scrape the hide off. I don't.

Robert
 
Thanks for the feed back. I will make corrections. The coarse salt sounds like an ouch you to me too. Who wants to scrape the hide off. I don't.

Robert

Stop! I love the coarse sea salt on my soap :D
It looks so pretty and it softens during the first wash anyway. I just put it on the top of some of my bars - give myself a bit of a scrub then use the other sides of the bar. Not all of us are against the scrub factor ;)
 
Which is why these sorts of charts can end up being useless for their intended purpose, utterly confusing, or a mix of the two. Take the bentonite clay on the list, it's down as an additive for shaving soaps. Now, it's not only used for that, but it's also not used in all shaving soaps. As it stands, someone reading the list will think that the clay is needed in a shaving soap, which is patently false. But to go in to enough detail would make it confusing to use. Same with glycerin and countless other examples - to actually list the myriad of uses that they have would take up pages in your current format
 
That chart must have taken you quite some time to compile, 26 pages, wow.

When did you make your very first piece of cp soap? I get the impression that you are quite new to it? Just curious because you must be really into it since you take the time to do all this hard work to get it all in one place.
 
For someone like me who is relatively new to soap making Robert's chart is very useful. It's a great starting point to find ideas to get going with some additives I'd like to try. I do understand that it isn't a comprehensive list and that the suggestions for uses in the "used for" column are just that - suggestions. That's a thought actually - perhaps that column could be re-named "Suggested Uses".

Robert asked for input from any experienced soap makers who would like to contribute, and that would make it even more useful. I'm grateful to people like this who share their hard work, experience and research with others, it certainly makes my life easier! Thanks Robert, for your willingness to share, and your courteous manner throughout this interesting thread. :)
 
Thanks all for the kind words. I will be making some updates to the chart soon and will include all the suggested corrections and additions.

I just finished making my 7th batch of soap. So I am new to all of this.

Robert
 
Thanks all for the kind words. I will be making some updates to the chart soon and will include all the suggested corrections and additions.

I just finished making my 7th batch of soap. So I am new to all of this.

Robert

I sort of got a feeling that you were new. We have all been that at one point, I mean, you got to start somewhere, right? And it does takes time to get a good sense of what is a good soap, and eventually good soap to you personally. Everyone has different preferences, which is making the fun-factor of soapmaking so much higher.

Good luck with the chart, I am so glad you are keeping it free.

And if you could please post your growing project somewhere in the forum too it would be seen by much more people that don`t have to go via your personal blog to find the information. I understand you want traffic to your blog, but not everyone will know your username as there are thousands of usernames in here. They simply wouldn`t know where to find you and your blog link.
In here you can easily get direct and updated feedback from people who can help you make your list expand and grow, and everyone to benefit from it. Then they will see your blog link under your username too : - )
 
Back
Top