Howdy from the Texas Hill Country

[drhodes2]

Howdy,

I'm Denise. I believe this is the same forum I was on back in the 90's but can't seem to remember my old login so I just re-registered.

I have been making soap since 1995 which began as a way to make gifts for friends and family. This slowly became an all consuming hobby, then small home based business. I gave it up because my husband was traveling a lot and it was taking too much time from my family. So I took up marathon running and triathlon. I had to expend my excess energy somewhere. Now, with the kids grown and having babies of their own I'm back to playing in soap again while training for triathlons.

I've been having a little trouble lately with getting my soap white. Until now I never played with TD, so the problem may be my soap formula or it might just be I'm being too stingy with the TD. I had gone though a phase where I wouldn't dare put any colorant in my soaps, but that got old and bit boring....I love color!!! and a nice white background always seems to give the best contrast for other colors. If any one can help me figure out how to get my soap whiter, it would be much appreciated.

How much TD would need to be added to about a 5 - 6 lb batch?

 

[makemineirish]

Howdy,

I'm Denise. I believe this is the same forum I was on back in the 90's but can't seem to remember my old login so I just re-registered.

I have been making soap since 1995 which began as a way to make gifts for friends and family. This slowly became an all consuming hobby, then small home based business. I gave it up because my husband was traveling a lot and it was taking too much time from my family. So I took up marathon running and triathlon. I had to expend my excess energy somewhere. Now, with the kids grown and having babies of their own I'm back to playing in soap again while training for triathlons.

I've been having a little trouble lately with getting my soap white. Until now I never played with TD, so the problem may be my soap formula or it might just be I'm being too stingy with the TD. I had gone though a phase where I wouldn't dare put any colorant in my soaps, but that got old and bit boring....I love color!!! and a nice white background always seems to give the best contrast for other colors. If any one can help me figure out how to get my soap whiter, it would be much appreciated.

How much TD would need to be added to about a 5 - 6 lb batch?

Howdy, neighbor.

Your post stood out to me because I live in Austin. The titanium dioxide that I bought is water dispersible and has a recommended usage rate of 1%. Their directions state:
1 - 2 teaspoons titanium dioxide per pound of Melt & Pour (MP) soap.
1 - 3 tablespoons per pound of cold process (CP) soap.


Another supplier has a picture of their cold process with 1 tablespoon ppo that might help hone your guess (http://www.brambleberry.com/Titanium-Dioxide-Pigment-P4040.aspx). However, it is still subjective to the recipe since the oils/butters used affect the base color that you are compensating for.



Good luck:grin:

 

[shunt2011]

Hello and welcome. Also, getting a white bar can be achieved by the oils/butters you use. 1T ppo does work pretty good, but will take some playing with depending on your recipe.

 

[lsg]

Welcome back. Lard makes a nice white bar. Using lighter colored oils also helps.

 

[IrishLass]

Welcome back to the world of soaping, Denise! :wave:

I myself like to use no more than 1 teaspoon TD per pound of oils, which weighs 3 grams on my scale........... although most times I can get away with using as little as 1/2 to 3/4 tsp. per pound of oils to get a stark white soap (much will depend on the color of your base oils).

As an aside, I've noticed that every time I've used much more than 1 teaspoon/3g ppo, my finished soap has felt chalky.

IrishLass

 

[snappyllama]

Howdy and welcome back to the forum.

I completely agree on recipe itself making a big impact. I also use TD and various white micas to make a nice white. Take a look at Mad Oils and Nurture for their micas. I find I can get a brighter white than TD alone and do not have to worry as much as that chaulky feeling from overuse.

ETA: are you preventing gel? My gelled white soaps never look as white as my ungelled ones.

 

[drhodes2]

WoW!! Thank you for all the help.

I'm pretty sure it's all the olive oil I use in my recipe that's makes it hard to whiten up with it deep yellowish/green tint. I like to use a mix of olive, coconut, palm, palm kernel, soybean, castor and cocoa butter. I haven't used an animal fats since my earliest batches where I actually rendered beef and deer fat, guess those were my pioneer days as in I was trying to be the pioneer, lol, it was more work than I like ;-). The other factor is that absolutely I was being stingy with the TD. I may have had 1 tablespoon if that in my 96 ounces of oils.

Thank you again

 

[Susie]

Hey and welcome!