Getting FO mixed in

[dragonmaker]

Hey soaping friends! I’ve been having a hard time getting my fragrance oils to mix into my soap batter fully. I melt my solid oils, and add liquid oils. Then I pull out the goat milk ice cubes and slowly add NaOH while mixing gently and constantly to avoid burning the milk. When the lye is fully dissolved, I pour it into my oils down the flat of my spatula to avoid splashing or air bubbles. I alternate stick blending and stirring until light trace. Then I add my fragrance oil and stick blend and stir it in until it looks uniform again. Usually the batter is at medium trace by then, so I pour it into the individual molds. I’m getting mottled coloring (it doesn’t look like the pictures of rivers or crackling to me) that I strongly suspect is poorly mixed in fragrance oil discoloring the soap. For example, I have a fragrance oil high in vanillin that is known to discolor to brown. I add it to the soap and get tan soap with dark brown mottling throughout. It looks like I added dirt and didn’t mix it in well. I’ve tried just hand stirring and stick blending it half to death and I’m still having a hard time getting even color.

Any tips? I would love soap that is a uniform color!

Edit: I have not used any colorants. The color is only soap, how cooked my milk gets, and fragrance oil discoloration.

 

[Obsidian]

Can you post pictures? FO really isn't hard to mix in, I don't imagine you'd get fo spots so often.
You can always add your FO to your oils before adding your lye, that way you know its all mixed in well.

The only other thing I see that is unusual is mixing your lye and adding it immediately to your oils.
Usually you would make your lye first so it can cool while you are melting your oils and getting everything else ready.

 

[penelopejane]

I add my FO to my oils to ensure they are mixed in well without accelerating trace.

 

[shunt2011]

I too add my FO to my oils before adding the lye mixture. Only exception is if it's a know misbehavior those I hand stir in.

 

[lsg]

I agree with the two previous comments; add the FO to oils and stick blend thoroughly before adding the lye.

 

[DeeAnna]

I agree with the advice to add fragrance to the oils first, unless you're dealing with an accelerating fragrance. But I have never thought fragrance was all that hard to blend into the soap batter at trace with some thorough stirring with a spatula.

I question your assumption that it's the fragrance.

A strong possibility for the mottling is your use of milk to make the lye solution. Any milkfat will react with the lye to make curds of light colored soap. These curds will show in the finished soap as white (or very pale) colored areas, because the milkfat soap won't change color even if you use a discoloring fragrance.

The way to learn the truth one way or the other is to make a not-milk soap with the discoloring fragrance. Use the same method you're using now to mix in the fragrance. See if you get the mottles in this batch.

 

[GemstonePony]

I frequently use frozen liquid to make lye solution, and my mixture usually ends up fairly cool. I'm wondering if between the time the oils have to cool down and your relatively cool lye solution you may also be getting Stearic spots? Without pictures or an actual recipe, this is all speculation, but I thought it might be worth mentioning.

 

[amd]

I suspect that your batter may be at a thicker trace than a typical light trace, and you aren't getting it fully mixed in. I would stop your initial batter blending a bit sooner and try adding the fragrance in at that time. You might actually be stopping at more of a medium trace, and have a fast moving recipe, so that it is a thick trace by the time you get the FO added and stirred in. My recipe tends to move very fast, so I add FO directly to oils before lye.

 

[dragonmaker]

It looks like my phone failed to actually upload my post a few hours ago, so I am trying again with my laptop.

The most recent recipe was also the ugliest.
450g Coconut oil
215g Walmart great value shortening
280g lard
555g olive oil
436g frozen goat milk
218g lye NaOH

I was patient this time and added the lye slowly enough that the milk lye didn’t turn bright burnt orange. I added the lye solution to the oils when both were around 110F, which was right after all the milk was melted and the lye was fully dissolved.

I measured out 287g soap batter and hand-stirred in 10g Sandlewood Vanilla FO from Brambleberry.

There is a little soda ash, but beside that there are some white splotches of soap, especially on the top rim of the soap in the first picture. I also see dark splotches and specks all throughout the soap surface. When I cut it open, it is still a creamy tan like it was the day I poured it with slightly darker tan specks throughout. I zap tested all of it, and no zap.

What do you think is going on? It might be months before I can soap again. I make soap outside, and the weather here is usually dreadfully rainy all late fall and winter. So I won't be able to test a non-milk soap for a while.

 

[TheGecko]

I make a lot of GMS and I’m wondering if you are soaping too cold. I make my goat milk lye solution first, not letting it get above 70-74F. While that is going on, I start melting my hard oils/butters, then add my soft oils. Because I don’t color my GMS, I dump the FO and lye solution into my 90F oils and whisk to mix, then maybe give it a bit of stick blending.

I use an ice bath and while my lye solution will thicken, I’ve never had it get lumpy.

 

[Todd Ziegler]

What is the vanillin content of your FO? Because it looks to me that your FO has vanillin in it and that is what is causing the darkning of your soap.

 

[GemstonePony]

What is the vanillin content of your FO? Because it looks to me that your FO has vanillin in it and that is what is causing the darkning of your soap.

4.5%, OP gave the name and brand in post 9.

 

[dragonmaker]

Yes, I expected it to darken, just not in specks and blotches. I expected it to darken evenly if I could get it fully mixed in.

@TheGecko I mixed this one around 110F. Is that too cold for stearic acid to be fully melted?

 

[Todd Ziegler]

Yes, I expected it to darken, just not in specks and blotches. I expected it to darken evenly if I could get it fully mixed in.

Did you gell the soap? I know you expected it to darken all the way through but sometimes things happen that go against the norm.

 

[TheGecko]

@TheGecko I mixed this one around 110F. Is that too cold for stearic acid to be fully melted?

My apologies, I didn't see that your oils and lye were 110F so you should have been fine with regard to stearic.

I am no means an expert in GMS, my first batch was absolutely horrible, but I have experimented a lot over the last year and a half with different kinds of goat milk: canned, boxed, dairy section and fresh from the farm along with different colorants and scents. I have not used powdered GM, so I don't know how that compares.

Regardless of which form of liquid GM that I use, my lye solution is thick...somewhere between pancake and cake batter. But it is not uniform or smooth like my batter is when I add my Distilled Water/Lye to my regular oils/butters and that's because of the fat within the milk. All that lye is immediately attracted to the fat in the milk and makes what @DeeAnna calls 'curds' and you can never 'blend' them completely out so your soap will have a slight 'mottled' appearance. Even my "Bare Naked' GMS...it looks super creamy and uniform, but if you know what to look for, you can see tiny little 'white' spots here and there.

I am a bit curious about this: I measured out 287g soap batter and hand-stirred in 10g Sandlewood Vanilla FO from Brambleberry. in light of your total batch oils of 1500 g. Was this for a separate soap, or did you add this back to the batter? And if you it was the latter...why?

 

[cmzaha]

I always stir in my fragrance when my soap batter gets to emulsion and I never have a problem. I do not like to add fo to my oils before adding my lye.

 

[dragonmaker]

I am a bit curious about this: I measured out 287g soap batter and hand-stirred in 10g Sandlewood Vanilla FO from Brambleberry. in light of your total batch oils of 1500 g. Was this for a separate soap, or did you add this back to the batter? And if you it was the latter...why?

I split the soap batter into 2 containers. The smaller 287g portion was to test the new sandlewood vanilla fragrance oil and once mixed was poured into individual silicone cupcake molds. The larger portion got a different fragrance oil that doesn't discolor my soap and was poured into different molds.

 

[TheGecko]

I split the soap batter into 2 containers. The smaller 287g portion was to test the new sandlewood vanilla fragrance oil and once mixed was poured into individual silicone cupcake molds. The larger portion got a different fragrance oil that doesn't discolor my soap and was poured into different molds.

Ah...thank you.

 

[dragonmaker]

I have never purposefully forced my soap through a gel phase. I usually use individual silicone molds so they do not retain a lot of heat.

 

[jwarnerca]

I have never purposefully forced my soap through a gel phase. I usually use individual silicone molds so they do not retain a lot of heat.

What is the trick to using silicone molds as far as making sure there are no air bubbles and a smooth flat finish? My first batch with molds and second batch with my own recipe yielded a light, pudding thick consistency that I had to spoon into the molds.