Additives to create Opacity?

[RedLance'sApoth]

Hello!
I'm working with Essentials by Catalina's Artisanal Sulfate Free Glycerin Soap base. After a few experiments, I'm realizing that I would prefer the bars be more opaque. I'm wondering if the collective wisdom here has any ideas about what I could add to achieve this? I'd prefer to stay away from Titanium Dioxide which is what Essential's by Catalina adds to achieve their white base. I thought about arrowroot powder but I worry the bars would be gritty. I've wondered about something like rosehip powder or cornsilk powder? I don't necessarily need the bars to be white - just not so translucent. Any ideas?

 

[AliOop]

That base is created to be opaque, and if I recall, you can only add something like 2-3% in additives without affecting the soap’s quality and performance. You might try some white kaolin clay, but the truth is that a clear premade base isn’t going to be a good fit for what you want to achieve.

Have you thought about making soap from scratch? It is not as hard as it seems, and lye isn’t as scary as some people make it out to be. You would easily create opaque bars that way. You could also use infused oils, clays, and ground plant matter, so that your soap has much more of the additives you want to include.

Just keep in mind that it is illegal in most places to claim that soap does anything more than get you clean - unless you get it formally tested, which is quite expensive. So while you can certainly advertise that your soaps include a, b, and c in them, you can’t say they are “healing” or “good for eczema” or the like.

 

[RedLance'sApoth]

Hey AliOop! I wanted to loop back to offer my sincere thanks for your suggestion. I initially decided to pursue M&P because I have a little one in the house and I'm usually only able to work in short bursts of time. M&P seemed the safest option given my limitations. However, I eventually had to admit that I deeply disliked the product I could create with M&P. And I'm not here for that. My kid started Kindergarten this week and I decided to make use of the child-free hours to jump into proper soap-making with both feet. I've made two batches of hot process soap this week and I've learned oodles. I've got plans in place for next week's experiments and I'm way more excited about the possibilities with this process than anything I was able to produce with M&P. So, I just wanted to come back here to say thank you for the nudge in this direction.

 

[AliOop]

Awesome! Good luck on the journey, and please show us some pics when you have a moment.

PS - when you find a base recipe that you like, you can save lots of time by masterbatching your oils (premixing a large amount so you can scoop out what you need and go). You can also MB your lye solution. Both of those things make soaping more doable with my super busy schedule. There are some great threads here about how to do both of those things which could help you down that path.