Jackie Thompson scent ls @ 5% total soap weight?

[johnnyusa]

help please, I don't understand what she's saying in this book about scenting @ 5% the total weight of the liquid soap (assuming safe EOs)

I thought both bar and liquid soap should be scented at 0.5oz-1oz of EOs ppo (ppo: per pound of fats or anything that the lye reacts w incl pine tar).
SoapCalc, Soapmaker 3, all calculate approximately the same way, I think, right? Or no?
What she's talking about? I don't get it.
5% the total weight of my soap is orders of magnitude off from Soapcalc's suggested scenting level of 1.56 oz EOs for the entire batch of 100 oz fats (including the weight of fatty-acid-free pine tar)

Random thoughts and possible criticism of this book...

Question #2: If Dr Bronner's chose to use potassium carbonate to skip the paste stage then that would have to be on his ingredients label, wouldn't it?
Jackie says all large soapmakers use potassium carbonate to skip the paste stage, but I don't see potassium carbonate on Dr Bronner's ingredient label.

I was almost beside myself reading about her telling me to go 8% to 10% heavy on the lye and then drop the pH w/ citric acid.

Mixing potash into water the way she suggested to make the lye solution isn't very practical, & her paste-free method of pouring hot glycerin into dissolved lye solution (pg 62) sounded positively dangerous. Aren't we always supposed to pour lye into liquid and never, ever liquid into lye? It'd be nearly a hundred times safer to add the lye solution to room temp glycerin and then turn the sufficiently large stock pot on high until everything's assimilated, but nooooo--- Jackie says we can't even use a pot- it has to be a double-boiler, or an oven

I'm unsure Jackie is really trying to teach anybody how to make liquid soap, bc if this book was all i had to go on i feel it's unlikely I would've ever succeeded at doing anything more than burning my face off.

Liked the chapter on scent.

 

[DeeAnna]

1 oz ppo is equivalent to about 6% so I don't understand your criticism about her advice.

Many hand craft soapmakers making bar soap calculate scent based on fat weight, but that's not the way the rest of the world functions. Lotion, lip balm, liqid soap, etc are scented based on final batch weight. You raised this point a few weeks ago and I thought we'd cleared up this issue back then.

Yes .... DRY alkali is added to water. But once the DRY alkali is dissolved, it's acceptable to add additional liquids to the lye SOLUTION.

Jackie's methods are valid, but not what you're used to. Don't decide she's wrong without knowing the chemistry first.

 

[johnnyusa]

1 oz ppo is equivalent to about 6% so I don't understand your criticism about her advice.

i need just a little help with that math- i'm a philosophy major, ma'am

Lotion, lip balm, liqid soap, etc are scented based on final batch weight. You raised this point a few weeks ago and I thought we'd cleared up this issue back then.

That conversation on Nov 15th
(scenting liquid soap from paste not based on batch weight)

before i read this book & was assuming scent based on ppo rather than final weight;specifically, adding 2.35oz EOs to 3.84 gallons diluted ls from 75 oz coconut oil, or 0.5oz EOs ppo.
1oz ppo would be 4.69 oz EOs, but 1 gallon of my diluted soap weighs a little over 8 lbs, 3.84 gallons of it would weigh 29.3 lbs, and 5% of that would require 1.46 lbs of EOs.

Is Jackie talking about scenting based on paste weight before the water is added?

But, on pg 100 it says "the concentration of fragrance must not exceed 5% in the finished product"- and it's not a finished product until the water is added, right?

What am I missing here, DeeAnna?

 

[DeeAnna]

I don't know what you're missing. Final weight is pretty straightforward ... it's what you package for use or forsale, so yes, it's diluted weight if we're talking about liquid soap.

My experience is products other than bar soap often do well with much lighter scent. I start with maybe 0.5% to 1% based on final weight. This has worked well for lotion, lip balm and liquid soap.