Soap batch was going good until...

[stateline]

Last week I used this recipe:

4 oz. Coconut Oil
6 oz. Olive Oil
6 oz. Palm Oil
1 oz. Sweet Almond Oil
2.2 oz. Lye
6.8 oz. Water

I used the higher amount of water that the lye calculator said to use. It was going well, it came to a nice, creamy trace like my other batch did(different recipe). It was when I added the fragrance oil that it didn't look so nice. It went from a creamy smooth texture to an applesauce like texture. Before I started, I was trying to figure out how much fragrance oil to use. I kept seeing 0.8-1 oz. of fragrance oil per pound of soap. I wasn't sure if it included the weight of the water and lye or just the oils/fats. I calculated based on the whole recipe and came up with 1.6 oz. of fragrance oil using the 1 oz. of fragrance oil per pound of soap. Is that too much? I used 1 oz. of Tahitian Vanilla and 0.6 oz. of Sandalwood Amber, both are from New Directions.

A while after I had poured the soap into the mold, it had liquid sitting on top. Did I just not mix long it enough after I add the fragrance oil? After a week, the soap is drying out, but still fairly soft. That could be due to the higher water amount, correct?? It's texture still isn't smooth like my other batch. Also, it started out a medium tan color and now it's darn near chocolate brown. Does anyone know why it changed so much?

I've read that some fragrance oils can ruin a soap batch. Can someone please tell me what to look for when buying fragrance oil, so that I know it is not going to ruin my soap?

 

[Obsidian]

I use .50 oz PPO and my scents are usually plenty strong, some of the softer scents I do use more of.

The applesauce texture could have been accelerated trace or ricing. Both are caused by certain FO's, best to always buy from a dealer who has reviews so you can read if other people have had any trouble with a certain scent.

The color change is from the vanilla, it will always go dark. This is another thing a good scent dealer should have information on. I like buying from natures garden as they have a lot of info on their scents and any issues you might encounter so you can be prepared.

If you soap still has a oily top or seems like it separated, you might need to rebatch it. If you ever get bad acceleration or ricing again, switch to HP to cook it smooth.

 

[judymoody]

Your whole recipe weighs 26 ounces and you used 1.6 ounces of fragrance - this is about 6% which (if you are calculating according to your oil weight only) would be the equivalent of 1 ounce per pound of oils (PPO). Generally fragrance is calculated according to oil weight.

I typically use 3-4% fragrance per oil weight. If your supplier says 6% is fine, then it's probably OK. Many people use 1 ounce PPO. I prefer a less strong scent.

Fragrances can cause your soap to separate, seize, or rice. When this happens, try to stir it or SB it back to a smooth consistency. If that doesn't work, I agree with Obsidian, you should shift into HP mode or rebatch. The best way to avoid these problems is to read reviews of how fragrances perform in CP soap or use HP (hot process method). If fragrance is added at the end of cook, the lye is already transformed and won't mess up your fragrance.

 

[new12soap]

Yes, you probably used too much fragrance oil, generally usage rates are calculated Per Pound of Oil, so 1oz total would have been plenty.

Yes, your fragrance is probably what caused the problem.

Yes, I agree, you will probably need to dump all of it, oil and everything into a crockpot and cook and stir until it comes back together.

I would also recommend doubling your batch size. For beginners, 2lb of oil is usually a large enough batch to allow a little bit of room for error and small enough not to waste a lot of supplies if it doesn't work out.