Mixing Fragrance Oils with lye water has anyone done this?

[IrishLass]

Now I am curious. What sort of things have you added to the lye?

Nothing too wild....... just things such as honey, fructose, sucrose, cucumber juice, carrot juice, titanium dioxide, EDTA, sodium lactate, different kinds of milks, etc...


IrishLass

 

[Desederata]

Don't worry about it and just make soap. In my years of making soap I cannot say I have ever really ran across an fo or eo that actually changed my soap recipes noticeably. And do not add fo to your lye solution, better to add it to your oils or at light trace. There is a wealth of info in the Beginners forum to learn from. This is immaterial, of course that is just my opinion.

okay, thank your for your advice

 

[user 27375]

Now I am curious. What sort of things have you added to the lye?

I usually add tussah silk and sodium lactate to my lye mixture.

 

[IrishLass]

I usually add tussah silk....

Oh- and that, too.

 

[Alfa_Lazcares]

Going back to the accelerating fragrance and when to mix it...
I just tried one FO that i mixed in to the batter once it was at a very light trace, once i hand mixed it once or twice I noticed it was thickening suuper fast so i gave it a last spin by hand and plopped it in to the mold barely in time.
I still have a bunch of this fragrance so i want to finish it, (it was the smallest bottle they sell, but it is still enough for several batches) my thinking was that maybe this method of mixing it with the lye might work?
Or should I do the other thing I thought about doing: just making the batter, plop it in to the mold and add the FO there, give it a mix by hand and let it be. It will then cut the step of transfering a thickening batter from a bowl to the mold. I dont mind not having fancy designs or anything, i just want to have a usable soap that doesnt look like i had to fight with to get it in to the mold!

 

[penelopejane]

Going back to the accelerating fragrance and when to mix it...

Or should I do the other thing I thought about doing: just making the batter, plop it in to the mold and add the FO there, give it a mix by hand and let it be. It will then cut the step of transfering a thickening batter from a bowl to the mold. I dont mind not having fancy designs or anything, i just want to have a usable soap that doesnt look like i had to fight with to get it in to the mold!

It won’t be usable soap unless the FO is evenly and thoroughly mixed into the batter. It will be an oily mess in the parts where it isn’t mixed in.

Try SB the oils and FO together and THEN add the lye and stir by hand only.

 

[earlene]

I have seen at least one soapmaker who stick blends in the mold after pouring the batter. If you pour the batter in first and then add the FO while in the mold, I would try to SB rather than hand stir at that point. You could add color before the pour that way.

Penelopejane's suggestion above is actually a pretty good one, and can work with many FO's, but with a fast moving recipe already, even that doesn't guarantee a lot of extra time. So I'd say try it once with this FO and see it goes with SBing the FO into the oils first, then slowly handmixing the lye solution into the oils. If that doesn't improve your issue, I'm not sure you'd be able to get a well homogenized mix of FO into batter in the mold with the SB either.

 

[Alfa_Lazcares]

Thanks! i’ll try mixing it with the oils first. I have hopes with it because the soaps i made yesterday and unmolded (i used individual molds) are okay. I mean, they are kinda ugly because i had to press the batter in to the mold, but the first two that i was still able to pour are alright. No lye heavy, no oily, not soft (they gelled), they just look funky. Havent used them yet, obviously, but so far so good. If that doesnt work i might try stick blending then directly in the mold. The SB fits in the large one i have so it should be fine.
Thanks for the advise!

 

[Lin19687]

<--- hates soap on a stick and hopes that when it happens that it is no a scent I like... because you know it will not be sellable
hahahaha
That one I did the other week it still sitting curing. I hope the scent gets better so I will be able to use it and not have to shred it or toss it.