Calculating recipes that include colorant-infused oils

[luluzapcat]

I love math and spreadsheets--and yet I'm finding this challenging and frustrating! I'm hoping there might be some shortcuts or simple logic that I'm missing for doing this sort of thing. Just as an example, here's the soap I want to make now:

- highly superfatted (20%) all coconut oil
- in-the-pot swirl, with color portions as below
- 50% white
- 25% a darker blue
- 25% a lighter blue
- blues achieved by using an indigo-infused olive oil I made as my colorant. 1 part infused oil (say 1 oz) added to the darker batter, .5 parts to the lighter blue batter

I presume I need to:
- determine a properly proportionate amount of olive oil to add to make up for the oil doesn't come from the colorant in the white and light blue batches, so that the proportions of each part of the batter wind up the same. In my case, 2 oz plain olive oil added to white portion, .5 oz each of plain and colored to light portion, 1 oz colored to dark portion
- calculate lye for entire recipe using total coconut oil plus total of colored plus plain olive oil.
- mix up batter with only coconut oil
- divide the batch into 50%/25%/25% portions
- add my colorants/extra oil to the portions.
- then do the fun part!

Do I have the right idea? Is there an easier way to think or do this? Somehow I'm struggling to get this planned out nicely for myself. I have seen lots of videos where people are adding colors premixed into some oil, but I haven't seen how they have accounted for that in their calculations. Thanks for any help!

 

[atiz]

Yes, although in my experience you don't have to be very precise. Especially if it is a high superfatted soap, it is easier just to measure out your blue infused oil, subtract it from your overall oil amount, and then proceed as you would otherwise with the rest of the oils, adding back the colorant when needed. This will mean that the white part will have less SF than planned and the blue will have more, but at the end it evens out. (I'm not sure this would work so great with a very low SF, since then your white part may end up lye heavy. I haven't tried that.)

Alternatively, you can use @szaza's method of alcohol extraction and tinctured clay, at the end of which you just add the clay as colorant. It is easier to add more color that way.

 

[luluzapcat]

Thank you atiz--that is helpful!

And I will totally check out szaza's method for my next homemade colorant infusion. That sounds lot easier, as long as I like the clay in the soap (and is there white clay for a colorless baseline?)

 

[szaza]

I love math and spreadsheets--and yet I'm finding this challenging and frustrating! I'm hoping there might be some shortcuts or simple logic that I'm missing for doing this sort of thing. Just as an example, here's the soap I want to make now:

- highly superfatted (20%) all coconut oil
- in-the-pot swirl, with color portions as below
- 50% white
- 25% a darker blue
- 25% a lighter blue
- blues achieved by using an indigo-infused olive oil I made as my colorant. 1 part infused oil (say 1 oz) added to the darker batter, .5 parts to the lighter blue batter

I presume I need to:
- determine a properly proportionate amount of olive oil to add to make up for the oil doesn't come from the colorant in the white and light blue batches, so that the proportions of each part of the batter wind up the same. In my case, 2 oz plain olive oil added to white portion, .5 oz each of plain and colored to light portion, 1 oz colored to dark portion
- calculate lye for entire recipe using total coconut oil plus total of colored plus plain olive oil.
- mix up batter with only coconut oil
- divide the batch into 50%/25%/25% portions
- add my colorants/extra oil to the portions.
- then do the fun part!

Do I have the right idea? Is there an easier way to think or do this? Somehow I'm struggling to get this planned out nicely for myself. I have seen lots of videos where people are adding colors premixed into some oil, but I haven't seen how they have accounted for that in their calculations. Thanks for any help!

Yep, you have the right idea. If I work with infusions I always add them at trace. Added bonus is it reverses trace a little, so you can mix to light trace, add infusions and be at a perfect emulsion for fancy designs. To be honest I don't have much good experience with indigo infusion and prefer to add it mixed in a little oil. Depending on what I do with the rest of the recipe this is either a tiny amount of oil that I took out of my batch before mixing in the lye or if I use infusions in other parts of the soap I'll mix it in an appropriate amount of oil and treat it as if it were an infusion. Experiences with indigo differ.. I know there are a lot of people out there who do great things with indigo infusions (even make pink soaps with them, something I've never managed so far). For indigo I wouldn't recommend an alcohol infusion, mine turned grey on me. If you want to use clay, you can just mix a pinch of indigo powder with white clay and add that to your soap, but the clay is kind of redundant (I've done this in a recipe where my other colors were clays). Clays also tend to accelerate trace. Am I making sense?

 

[luluzapcat]

Thanks for your comments, szaza, and warning about indigo in alcohol.

I like hearing that adding the oils reverses trace a little, because I'm nervous about managing my consistencies. I've only nailed my color effects once out of about half a dozen tries at some fancy swirls. Well, it's all good learning!

I've had weirdness with indigo. Twice it gave me a beautiful blue (added directly as powder to the batter, and twice it gave me straight gray (once added to the oils prior to adding lye; once dissolved in water and added to the batter as my extra water after master-batched lye). I'm mystified.

You are definitely making sense. My only question would be: in the case where you "mix it in an appropriate amount of oil and treat it as if it were an infusion" do you end up doing the math and adding extra oil to balance the oil that was pulled out that gets added to divided soap batch, in order to keep all the oil/lye proportions the same between the portions--or do you let it come out in the wash (so to speak) as atiz suggested?

thanks!

 

[szaza]

My only question would be: in the case where you "mix it in an appropriate amount of oil and treat it as if it were an infusion" do you end up doing the math and adding extra oil to balance the oil that was pulled out that gets added to divided soap batch, in order to keep all the oil/lye proportions the same between the portions--or do you let it come out in the wash (so to speak) as atiz suggested?

For example if I would do a white, yellow, blue soap I would keep 20% of olive oil from my recipe aside and prepare 3 pitchers with equal amounts of 1. Plain olive oil 2. Annatto in olive oil infusion 3. Indigo dispersed in olive oil. Divide the batter made with 80% of oils and all the lye water in 3 equal parts and add to the 3 pitchers with extra oils.

That's my method. There was a discussion about this not long ago where a lot of people said they just make very strong infusions, so they only need a spoonful or so (a small amount) that they add to part of the batter and don't mind the minimal extra superfat they have. This might be an easier option.

What kind of indigo do you have? They type and plant species matter quite a bit.. I'm not super well educated on indigo, but maybe someone else who dyes fabrics might chime in

 

[luluzapcat]

I of course have to make it harder for myself, and do unequal proportions of the colors. But...I'm getting a feel for this and at least know I'm on the right track.

My indigo says "Indigo Dye. Natural Indigo Extract Powder to Use in Fermentation Vats. Indigofera Tinctoria." I'll search on that in the forum, and I'll keep experimenting and see if I can find any way to control it consistently, which I'll share if I do!

 

[szaza]

Indigofera tinctoria is the one I use as well. It gives me rather consistent blues when added to batter or to the lye water. I think there's something about how it's been treated as well, but I'm not completely clear on that one.

Oh and having different percentages of several colors isn't making it so much more difficult, I do it all the time. Just double check your math before starting the batch and you'll be fine also, be sure to note the weight of your soaping jug before you start so you can weigh your total batch weight and know exactly how much to pour into each separate color.