Does fragrance oil/additives count as a part of total oils?

[MrWalker1750]

It seems like an easy simple question and may be.

I'm making a fairly large batch of soap and I will be adding about 4 ounces of fragrance oil (vanilla buttercream 15% vanillin) + 4 ounces of vanilla stabilizer + a couple tablespoons of sodium lactate. Also adding a couple tablespoons of kaolin clay.

That just seems like a lot of liquid to add and I'm wondering if it changes anything in the soap make up in the end.

It may not and I might just be overthinking. But I thought I'd ask. Thank you

 

[dixiedragon]

Nope. Total oils means fats - olive oil, coconut oil, etc.

Post your recipe and the experts can tell you if it's too much. Never used vanilla stabilizer or sodium lactate myself so I can't help you.

 

[cmzaha]

Vanilla stabilizer is a waste of money in cp, in fact even in m&p it only keeps it from discoloring for a short time. As mentioned ^^ it is not counted as your oils. When using a dark discoloring fo it is better to seperate off some of your initial batter and not add in fo to use if you want to swirl. What I like to do is pour off batter for 3 swirls, add td to one and a little fo in two of the others (different amount in each of the two) then add the balance of the fo to the main batter batch.

 

[IrishLass]

When I use vanilla stabilizer, I decrease my water amount a little bit....... for example instead of my usual 33% lye concentration (1 part lye to 2 parts water), I'll nudge my lye concentration to 36% (1 part lye to 1.75% water).

I also use sodium lactate in my batches, but I don't adjust for that.

RE: vanilla stabilizer: It can be hit or miss, depending on the FO and how much vanillin is in it, but I just wanted to mention that I've actually had very good success with mine so far. I use the stabilizer from BCN and I add it directly to my oils (instead of mixing it with the FO). The FO that I use it with is Santa's Pipe from SweetCakes. Without it, my soap turns a medium tan/light brown, but with the stabilizer my soap stays stark white for a year and a half . I like to color it white with red and black swirls, and that's how it stays for me until it gets closer to the 2 year mark. By that time, the white part starts morphing to a light beige.

I recently used the stabilizer with a different FO, but it's too soon yet to report any final results. It's still stark white right now after a few months, but I want to see how holds up a year down the road.


IrishLass