Oil/water amounts when using additives

[Megan]

I'm new to soap making and I have a question about using additives.

When you have an additive that needs to be suspended in oil or water before adding to your mixture, do you discount the amount of water/oil you use from the recipe. What I'm trying to say, is if you have a recipe that uses 33 oz of oil, and you wanted to add titanium dioxide dispersed in oil, would you use a portion of your 33 oz to disperse the colorant, or a fixed amount that is extra apart from your recipe (ex. 1 Tbsp oil to 1 tsp colorant).

The recipes I've found have been unhelpful on this subject.

 

[amd]

You can do it either way. Some people prefer to reserve liquid/oil for mixing additives because they don't want to add a minute superfat, or risk glycerine rivers by adding more water.

Personally: I superfat at 3% so adding 1tbsp or less of oil really isn't going to change my recipe, and I embrace glycerine rivers so extra water doesn't matter either.

 

[Megan]

You can do it either way. Some people prefer to reserve liquid/oil for mixing additives because they don't want to add a minute superfat, or risk glycerine rivers by adding more water.

Personally: I superfat at 3% so adding 1tbsp or less of oil really isn't going to change my recipe, and I embrace glycerine rivers so extra water doesn't matter either.

Thank You! I'll probably have to try both ways then to see which I like better!

 

[msunnerstood]

I do HP Soap and I use water soluble TD. I don't subtract the water. I lose water during the cook and it hasnt seemed to make much of a difference in my results.

 

[dibbles]

I mix my micas in oil, just enough to make it pourable. I don't take it from the batch oils, because I like to add it a little at a time until I get the color I want. I haven't found it makes a difference for me, other than maybe increasing the SF a tiny bit. If I am using a lot of different colors, I will lower the SF in my recipe. If I am only using one or two, I will use batch oils since proportions are easier to figure out. Some people also use glycerin to mix colors, and then you don't have to worry about extra water or oil.

 

[penelopejane]

When I started out I was using the default water in soap calc (pretty high water) and I found that adding water to one section with colour made it softer (for years) than the other parts of the soap that didn't have colour. I learnt from that that it does matter and since I want to produce a consistent result I am particular about sticking exactly to the recipe and using the exact same amounts of additives of water or oil for each part of the soap. Even if it means I have to add back water/oil into other parts that I am not colouring.

Also, I want to be able to compare one soap to another so I want to know the exact (as far as I can measure it) SF and lye concentration.

 

[Megan]

When I started out I was using the default water in soap calc (pretty high water) and I found that adding water to one section with colour made it softer (for years) than the other parts of the soap that didn't have colour. I learnt from that that it does matter and since I want to produce a consistent result I am particular about sticking exactly to the recipe and using the exact same amounts of additives of water or oil for each part of the soap. Even if it means I have to add back water/oil into other parts that I am not colouring.

Also, I want to be able to compare one soap to another so I want to know the exact (as far as I can measure it) SF and lye concentration.

That is a very interesting point. I didn't even think about if one part was colored and the other wasn't.