Amount of TD in Water?

[Orla]

The 1 tea PPO is dry, so if you do a 2 to 1 mix, then you would need to add 2 tea. Or just add what you want to get the color you want.

Well, to be precise, if you added 2tsp of your 2:1 mix you would be adding 1tsp and 1/3 of a tsp

So does adding TD to some extent but if your temps are low and you use it for just a few seconds you should be fine. I absolutely cannot incorporate TD into my batter without it. My other micas I stir/whisk in fine. TD is a different animal in my experience. Like I said before, try it...you might like it! I use very little TD to get a nice white. The stick blender is the secret.

Minute 9:24 ...


Here's a thing. This website suggests that one US teaspoon of titanium dioxide weighs 21 grams!!!
https://www.aqua-calc.com/calculate/volume-to-weight
One tsp of TD (with my tsp measure thing) weighs 3.65 grams
Could someone tell me how much your teaspoon of TD weighs, because if I'm putting in 3 1/2 grams and you're putting in 21gms then I think I have solved the mystery of my invisible TD

 

[Jersey Girl]

Minute 9:24 ...

Well...she must have some magic TD. I use a badger paint mixer and “blitz” mine and I still need to SB to get a nice light color. BTW, I never measure. I keep it simple for my colors. Add some powder...add some water or glycerin for TD, or sunflower oil if I’m using mica (not from my batch) and mix with badger. Pour color into batter til I like the shade and pour. 83 batches of soap as of yesterday hasn’t failed me yet!

 

[Orla]

I think there may be differences in different TD as it's sold. I was using this ridiculously expensive premixed TD and I could mix it in fine without the blender, so I really did not anticipate problems as my TD mixed with castor oil actually looked exactly the same. I think this whole TD business is a very grey area - I can't imagine that you are all mixing 21 grams of TD in one tablespoon of oil. That doesn't seem possible. You see Jersey Girl, the difference between you and me is that your instinct is reliable whereas my instinct is an out and out trouble-maker. So to counteract any impulses I might have, I have become "gram this, gram that"... Plus this whole business of switching from pounds to grams to tablespoons. I heard someone in a video the other day using all of those measurements practically in one sentence!
I've retained pounds for some things as it's on soapcalc and quite easy, everything else I convert to grams.

 

[AliOop]

My water-dispersible TD will not mix into my batter without a stick blender. It completely disappears into the batter, and then reappears as random white streaks or rivers in the finished soap.

 

[Orla]

Partial victory for the blenders. On the bottom, SB'd, on the top oil dissolved and on the right water. Note, that for the water I did a 1:1 ratio. (two of them have stickers on the bottom: there were no errors). And this is at the ratio of 5ml PPO. If you look close at the non SB'd oil example, you can see a slight streak. If the TD were doubled in the water one (easy to do) then I am sure it would be whiter than the other two.
PS can't upload my comparison with my soap as rushing off to work and file too big. Will do when I next get a minute.

 

[shunt2011]

I have my doubts on that, Jersey Girl. The beauty of pre-mixing is that if done properly it can just be stirred in. That would be my feeling. And in any event, if that were the problem, we would see streaks - which is not the case.
I have two running hypotheses. One is that water-soluble titanium dioxide is somehow very different from oil soluble, so that the 1:3 ratio of my premixed TD/castor oil was much weaker than it would have been if I had used oil-soluble TD.
The other hypothesis is that experienced soapers actually use more TD than 1 tsp (I'm talking powder here) PPO - they just "eyeball" it (as you guys say... )
Anyway, I will conduct tests this evening, so watch this space!!!

TD needs to be blended in. It does not stir in well at all. I've tried several time with both water and oil dispersible. TD stick blended makes all the difference in the world.

I mix my TD 2 tsp to 1 T. water in a shot glass.

 

[EllieMae]

When using oil dispersed TD I find that mixing with SB directly into oil is the only way to ensure fully incorporating it in. I use about 1tsp PPO, so for my 2lbs loaves it would be 2tsp to make the whole thing white. Won't get any glycerine rivers, etc.

When using water dispersed TD I mix with water until it's like a slurry and then I can mix in by hand. I have found I need to use a bit more than I would typically use with the oil variety. The first couple times I tried water TD I used too much water and too much TD and did get some glycerine rivers, but now that I have the hang of it I MUCH prefer it because it's way easier to mix and get a consistent colour than oil TD.

 

[AliOop]

When using oil dispersed TD I find that mixing with SB directly into oil is the only way to ensure fully incorporating it in. I use about 1tsp PPO, so for my 2lbs loaves it would be 2tsp to make the whole thing white. Won't get any glycerine rivers, etc.

When using water dispersed TD I mix with water until it's like a slurry and then I can mix in by hand. I have found I need to use a bit more than I would typically use with the oil variety. The first couple times I tried water TD I used too much water and too much TD and did get some glycerine rivers, but now that I have the hang of it I MUCH prefer it because it's way easier to mix and get a consistent colour than oil TD.

I think a lot of it depends on the TD. I've noticed different results with different brands, myself. While I've never found one yet that I can stir in to the batter, some of them do blend in much more easily than others.