Mix colorant with EO

[phstandard]

Hi! Newbie here, so please bare with me! I have searched the forum, but could not find info on mixing with castor.

I do 2-color swirls and need to buy time after trace, so my colorants have to be well dispersed when I pour them in.

People recommend light weight oils. Will it not work to add my cocoa/coal/other colorant to my EO-mix? I premix: castor, EO, kaolin and rice flour. However castor is not lightweight.
I could divide the EO-mix and mix with colorants.

Another alternative would be to take some of the melted oils (shea, coconut, olive) and pour it in 2 jugs, mix in colorants + the EO batter and then add traced soap and blend.

If I do 1000 g oils, I can put 15 grams in each jug (amount to a totalt of 3 %, which is my superfat). But then Im worried if I don't mix properly, some parts of the soap may be too lye-heavy. :/

I'd rather not just add some "bonus oil", I'd like to follow a recipe.

 

[DeeAnna]

I think the point is to get a powdered colorant dispersed in a small amount of an appropriate liquid, so the colorant blends into the soap batter easier and lump free.

Until your post, I'd never heard the "rule" about only using light bodied oils for mixing colorants. I've also not heard anyone say they disperse their colorant in their fragrance either -- I think you'll have to try it and see.

I sometimes use a portion of the fats from my recipe, and I sincerely doubt a fat blend that's 60% lard would be considered "light bodied". Or I've used glycerin, which works surprisingly well. Or if the colorant is made to be water-dispersible, such as some types of titanium dioxide, I'll use water.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

When I am making multicolor soaps, I use a portion of my melted blended recipe fats, which include tallow, lard, butters, etc., to mix my colorants. As small aliquots of the fats firm up fairly quickly as they cool off, I usually set them on a tray in a warm oven until I’m ready to start making the soap. Other times I predisperse the colorant in one of the base oils, which works fine when there are only 1 or 2 colors in the soap. I gave up on using glycerin mostly because I had issues getting the very sticky glycerin out of the container/off the spoon.

 

[phstandard]

I think the point is to get a powdered colorant dispersed in a small amount of an appropriate liquid, so the colorant blends into the soap batter easier and lump free.

Until your post, I'd never heard the "rule" about only using light bodied oils for mixing colorants. I've also not heard anyone say they disperse their colorant in their fragrance either -- I think you'll have to try it and see.

I sometimes use a portion of the fats from my recipe, and I sincerely doubt a fat blend that's 60% lard would be considered "light bodied". Or I've used glycerin, which works surprisingly well. Or if the colorant is made to be water-dispersible, such as some types of titanium dioxide, I'll use water.

When I am making multicolor soaps, I use a portion of my melted blended recipe fats, which include tallow, lard, butters, etc., to mix my colorants. As small aliquots of the fats firm up fairly quickly as they cool off, I usually set them on a tray in a warm oven until I’m ready to start making the soap. Other times I predisperse the colorant in one of the base oils, which works fine when there are only 1 or 2 colors in the soap. I gave up on using glycerin mostly because I had issues getting the very sticky glycerin out of the container/off the spoon.

Thank you!

I did try to mix with the EO and yea, it did work, but not perfectly. Id rather do it like you suggest, with some of the melted oils.
To do what I want to do in the mold, I'll have to take my batter when it's just emulsified and blend in my addatives.

Say that I use the 3 % oils of my superfat margin to blend with colours, will that take long to mix with the emulsified batter? I mean, that oil has to emulsify as well, otherwise i'll have a lyeheavy soap.

Am I worrying too much? I mean I could do 5 %, but I would not like to kill the foaming.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

I often add my colorants just as, or just before, the splits of batter are reaching emulsion, so that should not an issue. As I mentioned above, the colorants are blended with the blended melted fats for the batch. I simply use a measuring spoon to remove a small aliquot of the fats, a teaspoon or so, to blend with each colorant. As long as the added colorant is then mixed evenly/fully dispersed in the batter, and the batter reaches a stable emulsion/very light trace before you pour, all should be fine. The trickiest thing is being able to recognize a stable emulsion. If in doubt, it’s better to err on the side of light trace as opposed to unstable emulsion. If you’re not sure about trace, this is a helpful video on YT.

 

[Ephemerella]

I disperse my colorants in my FO. I gravitate to misbehaving FOs, so, I like to add my FO at the last possible moment.

I measure out my FOs in different pitchers depending on the design and colors, usually 3. I add the colorant, mix thoroughly so there are no clumps. Then I mix my lye and batter, reach the trace I need for what I'm working on. When I'm ready to pour, I add the appropriate amount of batter to each pitcher, stir quickly and then do the pour.

My designs are typically streaky and unplanned, which is what I like.

 

[DeeAnna]

...Say that I use the 3 % oils of my superfat margin to blend with colours, will that take long to mix with the emulsified batter? ...

IMO you're overthinking this. For each color, remove a few teaspoons from one or all of the fats you've weighed out for your batch. The fat you're mixing with the colors is still part of the batch -- it doesn't matter whether you think of that fat as superfat or not.