# Essential and Fragrance oils effect on soap



## musmar.firas (Feb 22, 2020)

I am doing cold process soap.
Every time I am adding the fragrance/essential oil  to soap i am getting the same problem where the mixture start to crumble and oil start to come on the surface after pouring. 

Any ideas ?


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## Mobjack Bay (Feb 22, 2020)

It might be what is called ‘ricing’ due the the fragrance.  The soap making gurus will want to know your recipe and whether you’re doing hot process or cold process.


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## cmzaha (Feb 22, 2020)

musmar.firas said:


> I am doing cold process soap.
> Every time I am adding the fragrance/essential oil  to soap i am getting the same problem where the mixture start to crumble and oil start to come on the surface after pouring.
> 
> Any ideas ?


You really need to post your recipe, procedure, and the fragrance or Essential oils you are using. You have not given enough information for us to troubleshoot. There is just no way all fo's and eo's are the problem. Either you are getting a false trace or simply not getting a stable emulsion before pouring, or your choice of fragrance is seizing.

The batter does not really crumble but can rice. Ricing looks like little grains of rice and many times happens with oil separation caused by a naughty fragrance oil. Seizing is when the soap becomes hard as soap on a stick from a naughty fragrance. When ricing happens it is best to try to mix it until the batter comes back together or dump in a crockpot to heat it up and bring it back together. When soap on a stick happens cover the container and wait until your batter heats on its own stir and pour quickly in a mold.


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## musmar.firas (Feb 22, 2020)

Thanks for your quick responses .. the recipe i was doing as attached .. I am doing CP Soaps and added charcoal to give it black color and use the soap for body.
the fragrance is Japaneses cherry blossom.


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## TheGecko (Feb 22, 2020)

No means an expert as I have only been making soap for a year, but I'm going to say that you're using too much water and you are overheating.  I personally don't use more that 20% Coconut Oil unless I am making a soap for my ocean fishing friends.


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## cmzaha (Feb 22, 2020)

It is really hard to say since the poster is from Saudi who knows where the fo comes from. It certainly can be the quality of the fo. I am not sure if Natures Garden ships there since I do know they carry Japanese Cherry Blossom and it soaps with no ricing or acceleration but the scent does not hold. 

Many soap with what we consider full water, which is around a 27% Lye Concentration, with absolutely no problems. I am still betting on the fragrance oil giving the problem. I would recommend trying the recipe with only using 500 g of oils and no fragrance to see what happens. While I have never soaped with Black Cumin Seed Oil I doubt it is causing a problem, and the 10% Castor will just up acceleration. I would lower the Castor to 5% and lower the CO to 20% adding the balance to the OO, keeping the sunflower at 30%. But this is just my opinion.


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## shunt2011 (Feb 22, 2020)

I’m guessing it’s likely the FO/EO you’re using isn’t stable in CP soap.  I use full water sometimes and never have an issue.  I use CO at 22% in one recipe.


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## Relle (Feb 22, 2020)

I use full water all the time, that's not a problem and soap with CO at 25%,so must be the scents your using.


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## musmar.firas (Feb 23, 2020)

cmzaha said:


> It is really hard to say since the poster is from Saudi who knows where the fo comes from. It certainly can be the quality of the fo. I am not sure if Natures Garden ships there since I do know they carry Japanese Cherry Blossom and it soaps with no ricing or acceleration but the scent does not hold.
> 
> Many soap with what we consider full water, which is around a 27% Lye Concentration, with absolutely no problems. I am still betting on the fragrance oil giving the problem. I would recommend trying the recipe with only using 500 g of oils and no fragrance to see what happens. While I have never soaped with Black Cumin Seed Oil I doubt it is causing a problem, and the 10% Castor will just up acceleration. I would lower the Castor to 5% and lower the CO to 20% adding the balance to the OO, keeping the sunflower at 30%. But this is just my opinion.


thanks . i will give it a try. i will divide the batch in 2 and use one without fragrance and the other with fragrance.


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## KiwiMoose (Feb 23, 2020)

I've used Japanese Cherry Blossom from nature's garden and had no problems with it FYI.


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## musmar.firas (Feb 23, 2020)

confirmed .. the essential oil is the reason. 
I tried a batch with and a batch without. 
the batch with got crumbled and riced as mentioned before. 
I usually add the flagrance oil after reached the light trace, 
i will try next time to mix it with the oils and see if that works.,

Another confirmation 
I added the fragrance oil to oils before adding the lye. Then added the lye and started to stair by spoon. It start to thicken and trace appears after 2 minutes. I thought it was false trace so I used the electrical blender when the crumbly and ricey started to appear. 

Now I am not sure if that the soap is failed or not. 

I poured it anyway and will see tomorrow when I remove it from mold. 

Any ideas?


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## amd (Feb 26, 2020)

musmar.firas said:


> Any ideas?


You will need to check that the fragrance/essential oil that you used is body safe. The supplier should have that information on the bottle or on their website. If you cannot find any information that indicates (such as "Safe for body use" or "do not use on body") then I would treat it as if it were not and dispose of the soap. For future fragrance purchased, look for "pH stable" or "soap safe" fragrances.

If the fragrance is body safe, I would rebatch it. It's still going to be usable soap, it just won't smell as pretty or look as pretty.


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## amberg (Mar 30, 2020)

Any essential oil when you use should have a carrier oil, for example, coconut oil, olive oil or almond oil. 
This gives a lot more moisture to the batter. It also helps to moisturize the skin. I mostly make my soap batches from essential oil supplies and add 1:3 ratio carrier oil. The result that I used to get is remarkable.


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## KiwiMoose (Mar 31, 2020)

amberg said:


> Any essential oil when you use should have a carrier oil, for example, coconut oil, olive oil or almond oil.
> This gives a lot more moisture to the batter. It also helps to moisturize the skin. I mostly make my soap batches from essential oil supplies and add 1:3 ratio carrier oil. The result that I used to get is remarkable.


SO you actually dilute the Essential oil _before _adding it to the soap?  That sounds unusual. SO if the recipe calls for, say 20g of fragrance, do you add 20g of essential oil PLUS the carrier oil?  Or do you make the total amount of essential/carrier oil 20g (thus only about 2g of actual essential oil)?


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