Mica and TD

[DarthSuds]

When doing CP soaps how to you apply your mica? Powder straight into the batter or do you disperse it first with oil/rubbing alcohol/water? If using oil, do you take some oil from your batch so it’s not emulsified or do you just add some oil into a cup so that it is enough to become liquid?

With titanium dioxide I pre mixed the powder, 2 parts hot water to 1 part TD powder. Does that sound about right?

Thanks all

 

[shunt2011]

I use a bit of oil from my batch or mix with glycerine. My TD is water soluble so I pre mix it in a small bottle with a cap. I don’t measure it, I know. Sorry. I just put some TD in the bottle then add distilled water and shake till dissolved.

 

[Callie]

Hi
From the videos I have watched and reading about colouring, I would suggest mixing into a little oil from the batch and then blending it in once your soap is emulsified.
I am a bit nervous about just dumping the mica into the whole batch and blending it in as soap with lumps of unmixed mica or other affitives looks awful.
I think you should treat your titanium dioxide powder the same way as mica. I believe that TD can be either water or oil dispersible, so you would have to check your product description as to which one it is. If it mixed up nice and smooth eith water I would say that what you did was ok

 

[lenarenee]

I gave up using oils from my batch oils because there was no guarantee I'd use all of the mica/oil mixture - thereby reducing the amount of batch oil used. Some micas also seem to soak up more oil than others and I'd have to add more.

Instead I mix soap batter to emulsion and scoop out some of that to mix with mica.

Also, if I'm only doing a couple of colors I have more time to mess with micas - - I just plop the mica into the soap batter, mix by hand, and hit briefly with the stick blender.

 

[KiwiMoose]

It just occurred to me that I cannot for the life of me remember whether I used water or oil to pre-mix my TD - and Ive used it three times so far! I did notice that it tends towards lumps, so I now have a mini milk brother which I can mix it with next time. How would I know which is correct to mix it with - oil or water?

 

[Callie]

You could try both and see which works better? It is just that I have seen pigments, TD for sale with both water soluble and oil soluble options.

The Lovin Soap lady (I am having a brain fade with her name right now) just throws the Mica in a then buries it with the blender and blends.
I think with pigments and oxided it is more important to premix as they clump. In MP you mix them with glycerine or a small amound of the soap. I guess that unless your product says otherwise, mixing into a bit of reserved soap batter would have to work as it is oil and water

 

[shunt2011]

It just occurred to me that I cannot for the life of me remember whether I used water or oil to pre-mix my TD - and Ive used it three times so far! I did notice that it tends towards lumps, so I now have a mini milk brother which I can mix it with next time. How would I know which is correct to mix it with - oil or water?

Some you can do either. But from my experience it sounds like maybe you have the oil TD. That's why I switched to water. I could never get all the clump out so had to strain it.

 

[Zing]

When doing CP soaps how to you apply your mica? Powder straight into the batter or do you disperse it first with oil/rubbing alcohol/water?
Thanks all

I dump my micas directly into the batter and have never had a problem with clumps. With other colorants and oxides, I have to disperse in oil first.

 

[lsg]

Some TD is water soluble and some is oil soluble. Make sure you are using the correct mix.

 

[DarthSuds]

Thanks everybody for the feedback!

 

[penelopejane]

My TD says oil solubile on the box but it mixes much smoother with water. I mix it 1:1 with water from the batch and more specifically from the part of the batch that I’m colouring.