Amount of herbs to add?

[Fire Kitty]

Hi. I've recently made my first batch of soap. An 8lb batch hot processed: 1lb shea butter, 2 lb 10 oz of coconut oil, 4lb 4 oz of olive oil, and 4 oz of shea butter for super-fatting. It came out great. It's been drying for almost two weeks and I'm ready to re-batch the soap. I want to add frankincense powder, myrrh resin, and dragons blood powder to my soap.

My question is, how much of these ingredients do I add for the entire 8lb batch? I was thinking a teaspoon of each ingredient per pound, but wonder if that's too much?

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

What are you trying to achieve with the resin powders? If its scent you're looking for, you probably won't get much. Also, resin powders tend to be scratchy, so unless you want an exfoliating soap, I would leave them out. Have you considered using Frankincense and Myrrh EOs? Frankincense and Myrrh are both reputed to have skin benefits, but I'm not sure you will be able to achieve that with the powders in soap. Have you thought of a heat infusion of the resins in one of your soaping oils?
And to answer your original question...I think 1 tsp of each resin ppo (so 1 Tbs total) would be plenty...and right at the edge of too much.

 

[Fire Kitty]

I was hoping for scent and skin benefits. The dragons blood mostly for color though. I would like to use the oils. Do you know of a site that sells them at a reasonable cost? I saw one site selling frankincense essential oil at like $65 for 1/2 oz. I was like, no way! lol So if I use essential oils, is it still 1 tsp per pound for each oil? Thank you for your reply. I was just about to buy a bunch of frankincense powder and myrrh resin.

 

[melstan775]

Try Camden Grey for Essential Oils. It's where Shawnee gets hers. I browsed there the other day and it looked good. Remember that EOs are not just plant oils with scent added - they are actual liquid distillations of the plant, so depending on demand and rarity of the plant, price will fluctuate a lot. Rare and very in demand plants, or plants that have to go through loopholes to get imported will cost significantly more then say, lemon.

 

[Badger]

Yes, some of the EOs can be rather pricy, you can try FOs instead if you don't mind using lab made scents.

 

[paillo]

Always weigh your ingredients, never count on teaspoons or tablespoons.

I love Camden Grey for essential oils in larger amounts. I always do price comparisons with tabs open for Camden Grey, New Directions Aromatics, and Soap-Making Resource, factor in the shipping, then go with the most reasonable total.

And I think Shawnee's ideas for alternatives to using the resin powders are excellent.

 

[Fire Kitty]

I thought about FO's but I want to avoid synthetic materials in my soap. I will check out the sites you gave for the EOs and look more into heat infusion. Thanks for the replies everyone.