so- how do you work with vanilla FO?

[FreeRabbit]

any tips about working properly with vanilla FO? without discoloring (much), seizing, crumbling, overheating and all that vanilla trouble?

 

[carebear]

the only inherent vanilla issue is discoloration, and frankly there isn't much you can do about it.

it can be "minimized" by not gelling, but it's still going to be brown - just slightly less slow, or delayed.
you can try adding titanium dioxide, but it's still going to be brown - just slightly less so.
you can try using a "vanilla modifier", but there are all sorts of problems with them such as finding sharp crystals or oozing in the soap, plus it's just delaying the browning anyway.

so me, I do nothing beyond embracing the fact that vanilla goes brown.

 

[Sunny]

I don't get what the big deal is. Vanilla beans are brown to begin with!

I guess it sucks in fo's that have a little vanilla but are not vanilla scents, like maybe cake scents, etc. But still. Yep, you just get over it... or try a vanilla stabilizer.

 

[Chay]

I'm with Carebear on this one. Things go so much smoother when you work with the natural flow of your product and not against it. I accept the brown when working with vanilla.

 

[xyxoxy]

Ditto...
And I'll share one way that I embrace the brown.
I do a chocolate mint swirl using a vanilla/mint and chocolate FO blend.
I split the soap and add the FO to one half and I add my chromium green colorant to the other half. The scented part turns a wonderful chocolate brown and when you swirl that with the green colored half you will never notice that the green colored half is unscented.

Magic!

 

[tryanything]

I don't mind the brown, but I just bought a vanilla FO for my mother for Christmas and I'm worried about accelerated trace. Any tips on how to help reduce the possibility of ending up with soap on a stick? I think I read about adding it to the oils before adding the lye, then stirring with a whisk instead of the SB. Would this help?

 

[LadyM]

Yup accept the brown! I use comfrey root to swirl a darker brown so it's two tone. Pretty!

 

[Midnight Rowan]

tryanything, a couple more things you can do to keep it at least semi-controlled:

Soap at low temps (I'm talking room temp, below 90 degrees)

Use full water amount, no discount.

HTH!

FreeRabbit, I'm in your boat lol Still looking for that magic way to keep it from looking dark when all you want is a nice soft color

 

[judymoody]

I don't mind the brown, but I just bought a vanilla FO for my mother for Christmas and I'm worried about accelerated trace. Any tips on how to help reduce the possibility of ending up with soap on a stick? I think I read about adding it to the oils before adding the lye, then stirring with a whisk instead of the SB. Would this help?

I've tried about 10 different vanillas and none have accelerated on me.

That said, whenever working with a new FO, if you have any anxiety about it, use full water, cooler temperatures, and maybe start with a whisk. If it doesn't accelerate, you could shift to stick blender.

Another tip I read for speedy FOs is to add half the lye mixture to your oils (including your fragrance and any additives). Mix well. Then add the remainder of the lye with a whisk and be prepared to move quickly.

 

[Jerry S]

FO's with vanilla...

im with Carebear on this one as well...u just have to research all the FO,s with vanilla and stay away from them inf you don,t want brown or tan soap...Even using TD doesn,t help that much....the color still turns a crappy brown..

 

[BakingNana]

Ditto on learning to embrace the brown. I'm jealous of those of you who can successfully swirl a different unscented color. In my experience, in a few months the brown "seeps" into the colored swirl, discoloring it as well. Embedded chunks discolored, also. I gave up on trying to do that. Vanilla soap is brown....period.

 

[IrishLass]

I agree with Carebear and all the others who say there's not a whole lot you can do to tame the brown of FOs that contain a fair amount of vanillin. I personally don't mind the brown color so much, since as Tasha so rightly pointed out- vanilla is brown! But what I hate is the brown lather that usually comes along with it. I remember the first time I bathed with one of my brown discolored soaps. I saw all this brown stuff going down the drain and thought, 'Wow! I must have been really dirty or something!"

tryanything, a couple more things you can do to keep it at least semi-controlled:

Soap at low temps (I'm talking room temp, below 90 degrees)

Use full water amount, no discount.

HTH!

This is very excellent advice when soaping with liquid-at-room-temp oils and other oils/fats with a lower melting point, but I just wanted to give a heads-up that if you are using a fair amount of hydrogenated PKO or butters with a higher melting point, soaping below 90 degreesF can backfire on you. I cringe to even say it, but, ask me how I know! Gives me pseudo trace every time, even if my FO has not been added yet. When I soap such harder-to-melt oils/fats at 120 degreesF, though, pseudo-trace (which looks like very fast acceleration, but really isn't) is non-existent and things go beautifully smooth for me.

Adding the FO to your oils and hand-stirring half the lye water at first until mixed in well, and then hand-stirring the remaining lye water has worked well for me with some of my troublemaking FOs. Not all, though. On the two really stubborn ones that I have that refuse to give in, I've found that lowering the FO amount does the trick. Thankfully, they are both very strongly scented FOs and can handle the reduction well.


IrishLass

 

[Soaplady22]

Yup - what they said; embrace the brown!!
(I use a 2-cup white swirl to give it some distinction.)