Good to know! Thanks for the feedback!
The slurry of castor oil & clays, as well as marinating my mixed dry botanicals in the base of castor / clay / essential oils as long as possible, is an absolutely stellar way to fix the scent, extend its longevity, and seems to be working so that all 3 slowly & gradually release the essential oil components into the environment the soap is in. This alone has already motivated many people to ask if they can place private orders. I give them a tester bar & they call asking to buy, every single time. Their first comment is THE SCENT! and next HOW BEAUTIFUL! using natural colorants exclusively.
Not only that, I am not experiencing drag marks or other types of marring from my botanicals when I cut when I give the castor / essential oil blend time to soften them up, and experience no brown bloom around botanical particles. Brown bloom tends to be ubiquitous, not to mention accepted, in other botanical-type soaps which I see when doing local market research. So the benefit of doing the above is far-reaching. Yeah, it's only soap, but it's PROFESSIONAL looking & smelling soap, which is huge. Pair that with the packaging & marketing & this stuff is amazing, if I do say so myself Every piece of the puzzle gradually comes together
So yes, I've said it before & will keep saying it THANK YOU for sharing your experience with this. I sincerely hope more people try this, because it DOES work!
I do try to take your advice, I swear.
I did two other batches on July 4, both exactly 500 grams of oil. Here are the results. The 72% is the dark bar (I assume red, but I'm badly colorblind and it looks dark brown to me... it has madder root in it),
Wow, BEAUTIFUL result from madder root! Not to mention the honkingly HUGE bars! How many grams are those puppies?? How long do you think they'll take to cure? That's always a concern for me when I start cutting things more thickly.
How did you end up using your madder root? Dry & straight in? Oil infusion? Water hydrated? Into the lye? Would love to know how you're doing things I have not yet tested it straight into the lye because I always do multi-colored soaps, but one day
I used this colorant yesterday in combination with a little bit of smoked paprika infused oil & pink clay for a nice earthy orange-ish tone, as well as a deep forest green & cool brown tones, a bit of charcoal sprinkled lightly here & there for definition of design elements. That slab is still cooking at the moment. I am always super stoked to see the results when gelling has completed. I think this one may not be ready for unmolding until tomorrow judging by the heat retention factor.
You are really doing an awesome job with your experimentation