****PIC ADDED***Okay, I've had enough

[Jeremy]

That's it, I'm frustrated and I am not going to take it anymore. I made dots, and as cools as they are I cannot smell the Mandarin EO I used.
I used 24 oz of olive oil, 6 oz of water, and 3 oz of lye, I used CP and added 1 tbsp of Mandarn EO,(luv it) after sap started, also used, errr, a bunch, (it didn't come out of the bottle well so I got mad and took the drip spout off) of orange/nillsomething or other natural colourant.
Today I popped a dot out of the mold just to test and can barely if any, smell Mandarin so my plan is to redo this formula and blast the EO at a ratio of 1oz of scent to 1 pound of oils. Also, I wanted vibrant orange colour and yes I know that CP produces more or a pastel colour but there has to be better colour than babyfood yellow.
So if you are still with me, my questions are.
1: Is using 1oz of eo per pound going to do anything funky to my soap.
2: Does anyone know what orange colourant will give my soap POW!!
Thanks
http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/2928/spots.jpg

 

[southernvtsoap]

Citrus EO's are notorious for fading in CP soap. You do have a couple of alternatives - you can try to anchor the scent with a touch of another EO, I like litsea for this, or you can HP your recipe and add the EO after the cook. Be aware, however, that even HP'ing, there is no guarantee the mandarin alone will stick.

As far as coloring, I find I can get a more vibrant orange with the Pop Micas from TKB Trading.

Hope I helped a bit!

Edited to add: I use some of the less potent EO's at up to 1oz ppo and have had no problems

 

[SoapMedic]

sorry about your Mandarin EO. CP can eat up a lot of the citrus eos so that even if the scent does come through it tends not to stick well during the cure. Mandarin is known to have a lighter scent than some of the other citrus essential oils.

Your oils numbers, they are by weight, right? I usually use 0.8-1 oz (by weight) per pound of oils for citrus eos. I also add an anchor. Litsea cubeba (aka may chang) is a great anchor for citrus. So for 16 oz of oil I might use 0.8 of a citrus eo and o.2 of litsea. You could also use a titch of patchouli to anchor the scent. Using an overabundance of eo in your cp soap will sometimes cause some oily drops on the top which can be dabbed off later, and it may keep your soap a little softer in the mold. Aside from that it's mostly a waste of money to use too much.

As for color, well you can often get a brighter orangy-yellow by adding babyfood carrots at trace (they are pureed already so no lumps to worry about). I also use the orange pop mica from TKB Traders for a bright orange (varies in intensity depending on how much is used.) HTH
edited because I can't seem to spell today!

 

[IanT]

for a nice vibrant orange, try taking some fresh orange rinds (chopped finely) and mixing them in at trace, they will be both a scrubby and a colorant for the soap!

 

[mnten]

Try Select Shades colorants. They are in Bath, SC.
SelectShades.com

 

[carebear]

First off, 1 Tbsp (which is in the ballpark of half an ounce) in 24 ounces of oil was probably way too low. You want about 0.5 - 1 oz ppo and that's for STABLE EOs. But yea, mandarin (or orange) EOs are not stable and gonna disappear in soap - sorry. (even in other products they aren't very stable.)

if you really really want to use it then do so at 1oz ppo and try adding a touch of litsea cubeba or patchouli to try to anchor it. but your best bet is either 5X or 10X EO or better yet an orange FO.

 

[Jeremy]

Thanks for the advice, I just received some patchouli so I will give it a try, I read about another fixative oil in one of my books, cedar I think, I'll have to go back and read, so I'll try boosting my amount next time and maybe mix in a little 10x orange with a couple of drops of patchouli.
Anyhoo, I posted a pic link up top, they look great even though I ruined the bottom with saran, but live and learn.

 

[andreabadgley]

Thanks for the advice, I just received some patchouli so I will give it a try, I read about another fixative oil in one of my books, cedar I think, I'll have to go back and read, so I'll try boosting my amount next time and maybe mix in a little 10x orange with a couple of drops of patchouli.
Anyhoo, I posted a pic link up top, they look great even though I ruined the bottom with saran, but live and learn.

I did a nice blend of mandarin, 5-fold orange, and cedar, and it turned out lovely. I actually posted my blend somewhere on the forum -let's see if I can find it (called "tumeric to color orange/cedar HP")...

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/forum/vi ... t=turmeric

Now, this was HP, so the volumes would have to be increased to stick around in CP, but in a 4.5 lb batch (3.2 lbs oils) I used

1 oz sweet orange 5-fold EO
1/2 oz mandarin EO
1 oz cedar EO

After 4 weeks it has a sweet, natural orange scent with a light cedar base.

 

[carebear]

yea, woods are another anchor that sometimes work. sounds like a nice blend.

 

[nettles]

I have gotten a real orange orange with annatto seed powder.