QuasiQuadrant's Stellar Method for EO Blends That Stick

[MomInWA]

@QuasiQuadrant and @Zany_in_CO , I have been experimenting with adding my fragrances to kaolin clay as you mention above. I have been adding this to the soap batter. My issue is getting it evenly dispersed without getting the soap batter too thick. The last time I tried it, when I cut my soap, I found pockets of clay in parts of the bars. I have not tried adding castor oil to the slurry. I generally soap at 5% SF and 35%-40% lye, I find that if I use a lower lye percent I usually get a lot of soda ash, so I really don't like the idea of using more water.
1) Should I be adding the slurry to the oils first, before adding the dissolved lye?
2) Will the addition of castor help it disperse a little better?
3) Maybe, it would work better to hand whisk it into the batter before I do any stick blending? For example, pour lye water into oils, hand wisk, pour in fragrance slurry, hand whisk again, then stick blend in bursts until get to trace desired.
Would love your suggestions and thoughts.

These are excellent questions! Following.

 

[AliOop]

If it is a one-color soap, I definitely add my clay-fragrance slurry to the oils and stick-blend it very well before adding the lye solution. I do the same with goat milk powder and colloidal oats, as well.

I've not tried adding the castor oil to the slurry, and I've already included it at 5% in my master-batched oils. I might have to make up a batch or two of soap without using my MB oils, just so I can try this.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

1) Should I be adding the slurry to the oils first, before adding the dissolved lye?

That's the way I do it. SB for one full minute before adding the lye solution.

 

[Savage Daughter]

1) Should I be adding the slurry to the oils first, before adding the dissolved lye?

You absolutely can. Stick blend those puppies in til everything is as smooth as a baby's bottom

2) Will the addition of castor help it disperse a little better?

2) Castor oil will help hold the scent better for sure, and yes, it can help with dispersing your slutty, for sure.

3) Maybe, it would work better to hand whisk it into the batter before I do any stick blending? For example, pour lye water into oils, hand wisk, pour in fragrance slurry, hand whisk again, then stick blend in bursts until get to trace desired.
Would love your suggestions and thoughts.

3) You can do that too, not a problem. I would say it depends on whether or not you're splitting your batter up for different colors.

For example, if I am doing a 3 color soap & I want to ensure my essential oils are mixed into my 3 colors as evenly as possible, I would split the essential oils between the colorants and / or botanicals either by weight or volume (your preference), then add some castor oil. You'd then have 3 different portions of slurry, each intended to make a different color.

I would then add each portion of slurry to part of the soap batter & use a hand whisk to blend well without causing my batter to thicken up a crazy amount.

Hope that makes sense

 

[AliOop]

Castor oil .... can help with dispersing your slutty, for sure.

As another former English major here, I am going to beat @KiwiMoose to the punch on this one.

@QuasiQuadrant please, we all want to know more.

 

[KiwiMoose]

As another former English major here, I am going to beat @KiwiMoose to the punch on this one.

@QuasiQuadrant please, we all want to know more.

I don't know anything about dispersing slutty I'm afraid. I'm only onto husband number three

 

[Jorah]

As another former English major here, I am going to beat @KiwiMoose to the punch on this one.

@QuasiQuadrant please, we all want to know more.

2) Castor oil will help hold the scent better for sure, and yes, it can help with dispersing your slutty, for sure.

While laughing at this, I accidentally clicked on an ad in the right rail of this page, and the seller's motto is "Make Your Own Soap at Home with Our Tool."

I suppose that could be handy, depending on how much slutty you're dealing with...

 

[Savage Daughter]

OMG LMFAO hahahaha THANK YOU spellcheck for failing & providing us with a laugh

I think we all need to be responsible for dispersing our own sluttiness, as required, on an individual basis....doctor's orders LOL Castor oil *may* be able to assist you in this, yes, but I will cut my advice off right there because we are getting into the land-of-inappropriate-no-return...

@Jorah keep your tools to yourself son! LOL

As slutty....and inappropriate....as I wanna be LOL

 

[Savage Daughter]

As another former English major here, I am going to beat @KiwiMoose to the punch on this one.

@QuasiQuadrant please, we all want to know more.

And I a former teacher of English! LOL

EDIT: I once had an adult student, a government official from the country I was living in at the time, attending one of my adult evening classes. He signed up because he was going out of town to a conference where there would be many people - other government officials - from different countries meeting & discussing 'business'. He wanted to be able to hold a conversation with others in English, speaking about things he & his family did, during times of non-officlal business, such as dinners & lunches.

At one point he said the phrase - in practice thank god - 'My wife & I PLAYED HARD last weekend' in reference to his leisure time with his wife, with absolutely NO CONTEXTUAL WORDS around the phrase....dear mother of god...I lost my composure & burst out laughing, as he sat their looking at me stone faced, and embarrassed, which is never a good sign when teaching a second language That was the one & only time I burst out laughing when teaching, because it is never a good idea to be knocking the wind out of the sails of your students....but for the love of all that is holy, I HAD to explain WHY he shouldn't be saying this, especially with no context attached to the phrase, before he went on this trip...

Try as I might once I got myself together, I could NOT find a way to explain - in an APPROPRIATE MANNER - *why* this was not a good phrase to be using when having conversations with people, *especially* those he would be first meeting in an official capacity LOL

He finally got across to me that what he was trying to convey was the idea that he & his wife had been playing some hardcore games of golf outdoors, and was trying to use some vocabulary he heard on an English TV show, wishing to give the impression that he was a 'hip' guy LOL *and* an avid golfer.....also not a good idea if not true as someone may wind up inviting y'all to a game of golf....and then yer buggered haha and I don't mean with just yer English!

 

[KiwiMoose]

And I a former teacher of English! LOL

EDIT: I once had an adult student, a government official from the country I was living in at the time, attending one of my adult evening classes. He signed up because he was going out of town to a conference where there would be many people - other government officials - from different countries meeting & discussing 'business'. He wanted to be able to hold a conversation with others in English, speaking about things he & his family did, during times of non-officlal business, such as dinners & lunches.

At one point he said the phrase - in practice thank god - 'My wife & I PLAYED HARD last weekend' in reference to his leisure time with his wife, with absolutely NO CONTEXTUAL WORDS around the phrase....dear mother of god...I lost my composure & burst out laughing, as he sat their looking at me stone faced, and embarrassed, which is never a good sign when teaching a second language That was the one & only time I burst out laughing when teaching, because it is never a good idea to be knocking the wind out of the sails of your students....but for the love of all that is holy, I HAD to explain WHY he shouldn't be saying this, especially with no context attached to the phrase, before he went on this trip...

Try as I might once I got myself together, I could NOT find a way to explain - in an APPROPRIATE MANNER - *why* this was not a good phrase to be using when having conversations with people, *especially* those he would be first meeting in an official capacity LOL

He finally got across to me that what he was trying to convey was the idea that he & his wife had been playing some hardcore games of golf outdoors, and was trying to use some vocabulary he heard on an English TV show, wishing to give the impression that he was a 'hip' guy LOL *and* an avid golfer.....also not a good idea if not true as someone may wind up inviting y'all to a game of golf....and then yer buggered haha and I don't mean with just yer English!

I had a student ask me once - "Teacher, you like Coke?" Meaning the drink, of course, but the way it was pronounced sounded like a part of the male anatomy!

 

[Zing]

How have I missed all this titillating discussion about English majors?!

In all seriousness, @QuasiQuadrant , do you include the castor oil in your lye calculator? When mixing your oils, do you subtract a Tbsp of castor oil? Do you just not worry about it because you have a low superfat?

And also, sorry if this is naive, I thought all botanicals ended up looking like mice ****, some botanicals are okay?

How did I miss this? I only use essential oils and am leaving to raid Mrs. Zing's canning jars for my slurry.

 

[Savage Daughter]

How have I missed all this titillating discussion about English majors?!

I am no English major, but I have taught English in various countries nonetheless....and I am proud to say that my students were tops in the schools I taught in

In all seriousness, @QuasiQuadrant , do you include the castor oil in your lye calculator? When mixing your oils, do you subtract a Tbsp of castor oil? Do you just not worry about it because you have a low superfat?

I just don't worry about it as I am using a 5% superfat. When I started making soap in the mid 90s, I was taught to superfat at 10% and I sold a LOT of soap. I also had everyone who used it say it was the 'best' they ever tried. I have those same people buying my soap NOW saying the same thing They were super excited to hear I was at this again, which was heartening. My neighbours drop by regularly to buy soaps by the bag-full because they say they're super hard, they last a much longer time than the other handmade soaps they have bought, and are super gentle on their skin with a really nice lather. And no, I have never experienced DOS, despite that higher superfat then or now. So yeah....I just don't worry about it based on the above factors. But if you're into being more precise about things, go for it, add it to your ingredients in your lye calculator

And also, sorry if this is naive, I thought all botanicals ended up looking like mice ****, some botanicals are okay?

No apologies for 'naivety'....we don't know what we don't know, myself included

All of the colorants I use are botanicals, none look like mouse even when I add their dry material straight to my soap batter VS infusing oils with them for use as my natural colorants. Rhubarb root, indigo, safflower petals, charcoal, alkanet root, fustic, chaga, chlorella & so on. I also add ground lemon balm, nettles, seaweeds & more to my soaps. I grind them fine, then sift them through a fine mash strainer, then grind the larger bits again & so on, and then soak in my essential oils / castor oil slurry to soften them to prevent drag marks. For botanicals which I wish to have appear as larger specks or flecks in my soaps, I just don't bother grinding so much.

It's possible to do the same with lavender flowers, actually, so they wind up looking a lot less like mouse turds It's their shape which lends the perfect turd-y look to them

How did I miss this?

Dunno

 

[Savage Daughter]

I had a student ask me once - "Teacher, you like Coke?" Meaning the drink, of course, but the way it was pronounced sounded like a part of the male anatomy!

See....if that was me.... I would have had a VERY difficult time not responding 'inappropriately' LOL

At the *very* least, I would have been gutting myself laughing about it for days on end...

But hey, that's may just be *me*