TD vs vanilla stabilizer

[honeysuds]

I am trying to make a decision on which to use in my soaps, titanium dioxide or vanilla stabilizer. My goal is not to make soaps look white, and I use natural clays, herbs, or spices for coloring (not sure if that makes a difference in which I should use) but to minimize the discoloring effect of fragrance oils with vanilla in them. Advice? TIA!

 

[JaimeM]

The TD will lighten them. I've never tried the vanilla color stabilizer because it's for MP soaps. I read that it doesn't work well in CP (works at first, but eventually the vanilla will discolor anyway). So I saved my money and just use TD.

 

[osso]

Never tried the vanilla stabilizer either. TD works to lighten but keep in mind the vanilla content of different FOs will vary as will your resulting color.

 

[JaimeM]

Oops. One more thing (LOL!): I always pull out any soap I want a "pure" color in before I add the fragrance if I'm using a vanilla FO. The unscented soap will show off the color of the clay, or in my case oxide, and not get muddied by the browning of the vanilla. Your swirls will look so good, and the whole thing still smells amazing because the rest of the soap is scented! Yay!

 

[honeysuds]

Wholesale supplies plus has vanilla stabilizer for CP soap, but its so pricey its putting me off. And since I'm not a seller, I guess I'd rather save the money and will try the TD. Thanks!

 

[Second Impression]

You'll need a lot of TD and it will only combat the brown up to a certain amount. Any FO high enough in vanilla content is going to go brown, it's just what happens. High vanilla contents will also migrate into unscented portions of your soap. Stabilizer is wonderful when you just can't live with brown, but I find I need more than the recommended amount if my FO is over about 6% vanilla. Also kind of freaky, but I get brown ash on top of my gelled soaps where I used enough stabilizer.

Embrace the brown as much as you can!

Sent from my XT907 using Soap Making mobile app

 

[honeysuds]

Oh I don't mind the brown if it means I get yummy smelling soap lol! But sometimes I want to have a lighter shade of brown, or maybe try to do contrasting shades of brown and if I can just use TD to achieve that then its all good!

 

[lsg]

I have used vanilla stabilizer for cp soap. So far it has worked well for me.

 

[shunt2011]

I too have used vanilla stabilizer for CP (NG and WSP both carry it) It's worked well thus far. As for the vanilla causing my other colors to discolor I've not had that happen. I quite frequently separate out a portion an don't use the FO and the color stays just fine. I've got some 2+years that still look good (my personal stash).