infused oil in soapmaking

Deeore2017 · May 11, 2017

Hi ,

I've been making a few infused oil (mainly grapeseed and coconut oil) for my personal use . Have been experimenting with ginger , coffee beans and cardamom. Others are in working process....

Wondered how to use these oils for Soapmaking so that they retain the scent and the properties? As the primary oil in mixing with the lye....Or to add at trace ? Do i need to do h2o reduction in this case?

Thanks in advance for your insights!

shunt2011 · May 11, 2017

The properties and scent will not survive during the process of making soap. Lye pretty much eats it all. Also, grapeseed is prone to causing DOS due to short shelf life. To use it in soapmaking you would include the amount of oil in your recipe on a soap calculator. So if you are using 4 oz of grapeseed infused you would include that in your recipe for the lye calculation.

If doing CP it doesn't matter when you add the oils, however, if doing HP you can add your infused oil after the cook.

WeaversPort · May 11, 2017

From what I've read the fragrances won't survive the soap making process, but I don't actually have any experience with infused oils in soaping. The general consensus here is that the properties infused will also go away, once lye is added, but I've had soapmakers elsewhere tell me otherwise... So I don't have any good answers for you on that.

Sexymess · May 12, 2017

I use alot if infused oils. But Iam just a new soap maker. What I know from my own experience is the smell does not stick around in cold process soap. I had a one time fluke with chi tea and turmeric. I added gram masala also ( I was really experimenting that day) in canoila ( rapeseed oil) and it did come thru. More now that the bars are 3 weeks 5 days old. But I used ALOT! I didn't know how much to use so I filled a litre mason jar half way full and in my recipe, for half of it I used all the oil. I hot water processed for one whole day. I only made one pound of soap. So 1/2 a pound and the scent came through. But only for that. Like I said it was a fluke and I won't be repeating it. I use spices and teas for color. I found out I don't need such a strong infusion. Again new to soap
Making, but lots of almost dried rosemary leaves, left a nice smell. Not strong mind you. Just not completely Unscented. These are my personal findings after a lot of trial and error

Seawolfe · May 12, 2017

I haven't had much luck with infusions for scent, but I have had very good results for colors for colors like alkanet, madder root, turmeric and annatto. I've only used more durable oils like olive or sweet almond oils.

Deeore2017 · May 29, 2017

Thanks a lot for your feedback!
Since then, i did a batch ( olive, coconut and grapeseed oils) with green coffee infused oil ( added at trace),cardamom infused water, with Ylang EO. 3 weeks later , i do get some light undertones of coffee and cardamome scent even though the Ylang is very present ( which is what i wanted). Very strong and earthy smell... with a very light beige colour.