Tools for making tiny soap batches? (Milk frother?)

[Noodge]

Hi all,

My current conundrum is this - I'm drawing up some designs for new soaps, which would require a small layer of blue on the top.

Now, I only use natural colourants in my soap, and want to experiment with mixing indigo in with my lye water (as it turned very grey when mixed with oil and added at trace).

So, this would mean mixing a new, very tiny batch of soap. And by tiny, I mean about 100g of oil tiny, maybe slightly less.

The smallest I've done so far is 350g of oils, as that's the point where my stick blender is *just* submerged in my smallest bowl.

So I looked for mini stick blenders, cause surely that's got to be a thing, right?

Wrong! They don't exist! At least, not that I can find in the UK anyway.

Now, I've heard mixed things about milk frothers, some say yes they work with cp soap but take a while to trace, whilst it's a hard 'no' from others.

My standard soap recipe is a very fast tracer, so I think I might be able to get away with it - does anyone have any experience with this?

Cheers!

 

[shunt2011]

If your recipe is a fast tracer to begin with you should be able to just do it by stirring it. But a mini mixer would probably work too.

I use this to mix my colorants into small amounts.

https://www.elementsbathandbody.com/Mini-Cordless-Mixer.html

It's pretty powerful for a little mixer. I also use one to mix protein powder into almond milk.

 

[MarnieSoapien]

I've wondered this myself. I don't know if this helps, but Ikea has inexpensive milk frothers and I was thinking of giving one of these a try. Maybe it works? If it doesn't then at least it wasn't a lot of money. And if your recipe is a fast tracer, then a frother might work.

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/produkt-milk-frother-black-30301167/

I also remember reading in one post that someone had modified a dremmel drill and used it as a mini mixer. I wish I could remember who that was or what thread it was on. Sorry.

Found it! Post #11 is the details for making a dremmel mini mixer.

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/thr...es-to-test-compare-recipes.74033/#post-755312

 

[dixiedragon]

The issue with the milk frothers is that the motor isn't powerful, so mixing something thicker than milk - such as thickening soap - will burn them out. But it's worth trying! Maybe a few blasts to get the color mixed-in well, and then stir with a spoon?

 

[Dawni]

The ikea one is "powerful" enough to mix a tiny amount, like about 120g, of cooked fluid HP soap with annatto infused oil.

Just found out earlier tonight haha. I previously had one of those made in china ones and never thought to try.

If your batter isn't too thick maybe it'll work?

 

[penelopejane]

I make 100g mixes an use the standard SB. I put the mix in a cup just about the size of the SB head and mix. It doesn’t take long with small amounts and you lose a bit in the SB head but it works well and requires no new equipment.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

This is what I use. It has two speeds - fast and faster! In addition to this attachment, there’s also a frother and a whisk. I have not had to change the batteries since I bought it in the early summer and have not had problems with “propeller” attachment introducing bubbles.

 

[MGM]

I use my frother to mix colours into small batches and it has no trouble with medium trace batter. Mine came with two heads so i can easily switch out among colours.

 

[There's Soap]

I made this Advent candle inspired soap recently and had a really difficult time trying to blend tiny amounts for the top layers of the triangle. I used the milk frother from Ikea, but it was difficult to keep it from introducing bubbles. It took forever to mix! Then it was so slow to set up, and I ended up with sloppy layers instead of straight ones for the first three layers. (I was getting a little impatient since I was soaping at night, and it was getting late.) From about the third layer on, the batches were big enough to use the stick blender as usual, and everything was smooth sailing with nice flat layers.

Those tiny layers gave me such a hard time! I think next time I try it, I will just make more soap batter than I need for the tiny layers, then measure out the right amount once at trace and pour the excess into a spare individual mold.

If you're interested in the details:
the first layer was about 70g
the second layer was about 165g
the third layer was about 263g (finally big enough to use the stick blender well)

Other than the wobbly top layers, I was proud of myself for doing the calculations for the area of a trapezoid correctly, since the stripes look pretty even. Stripes in a triangular mold are way different than stripes in a square mold. (It's a good thing I'm a bit of a math nerd.)