What are the advantages or disadvantages to adding the FO or EO to the oils?

[SunRiseArts]

What are the advantages or disadvantages to adding the FO or EO to the oils? Before you put in your lye?

I was wondering what experiences you all have with it.

 

[BattleGnome]

For me the biggest advantage is not forgetting to add the scent. It's a bit disheartening when you plan a perfect design for a scent and realize it's sitting next to your freshly poured mold.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

It can also be helpful to do it that way if you have a difficult FO

 

[Soapprentice]

I have been testing new fragrances and adding them to the oils helped me make a decent soap out of 2 misbehaving FOs as one accelerated and one seized. The soaps are not very pretty but hey are least they are scented

 

[Arimara]

I have been testing new fragrances and adding them to the oils helped me make a decent soap out of 2 misbehaving FOs as one accelerated and one seized. The soaps are not very pretty but hey are least they are scented

Good way to look at things.

 

[shunt2011]

I've been adding them to the oils for years. Unless they are really naughty it work well. With FO I know misbehaves I will add them to batter already divided and colored and then just hand stir them in.

 

[navigator9]

By adding the FO to the oils before adding the lye, you can get an early indication of how the batch is going to behave. When I do this, I watch carefully what happens when I add the lye. If the FO is not problematic, the oils will probably go slightly cloudy right away, but if the FO is going to accelerate, the whole thing will go opaque immediately. If that happens, don't use the stick blender at all. I use the spatula to stir, so I won't have to stop and switch utensils as I pour. I just stir as much as possible, making sure to scrape the sides and bottom, and mix as well as you have time to, and then scrape it all into the mold.

If you wait until trace before adding the FO, the batch is already so far along that you may not have time to stir at all, and may not even be able to get it into the mold. It really can go that fast!

 

[toxikon]

I like adding them to the oils as well. It really makes life easier for multi-coloured soaps. My unicorn soap had about 10 batter divisions and adding fragrance to each little cup of batter would've been such a pain, and probably would've thickened up too fast to work.

 

[dixiedragon]

I like adding them to the oils because they get incorporated more. If you stir to trace, or even to just emulsion, then add the oils, then you have to stir more. I actually like to add my FO or EO, then have the stick blender going in the oils as a slowly pour the lye.

 

[Saranac]

I used to add the FO to my oils, but I don't like the unpredictability. Now I use a modified method--
1. I start by adding all of my FO to 20% of the batch oils (I use HO SF and I warm it slightly)
2. To do a swirl, I disperse each of the colorants in a measured amount of scented oil (typically 1/8 of the oil blend per color). I like that my base is nice and white so I typically stick to 2 colors.
3. I bring the rest of the oils and the lye solution to a thick trace. I use a 35% lye solution, soap at 120F and stir with a whisk. I stopped using a stick blender a few years ago--I prefer a whisk as I feel like I have more control over the process.
4. Once at a thick trace, I add a measured amount of soap batter to each color. I don't stir until I'm ready to pour the color.
5. The remaining scented oil gets whisked into the batter.
6. I proceed with swirling and molding.
I started doing this a few years ago when working with a fragrance from NG. In spite of their experience of "No acceleration," I had instance soap on a stick that separated in the mold. I really liked the fragrance and even though I lost 2 batches, I was determined to make it work.

 

[SunRiseArts]

Thank you all. So interesting.

Have anyone divided their batches and added two different FO to each portion? As if they were different soaps, and then put together? is that crazy?

 

[BattleGnome]

Thank you all. So interesting.

Have anyone divided their batches and added two different FO to each portion? As if they were different soaps, and then put together? is that crazy?

I've done that. I mixed my colorants with my FOs and divided my batter almost as soon as I hit emulsion. I was using squirt bottles and it was a quick shake before molding

 

[dixiedragon]

I've done that with lavender and mint EOs. Both of them are well behaved, so that helps. IMO, if you mix the lavender and mint and then add that to the soap, the scent gets sort of harsh and muddy. I color the mint portion with green French clay and then plop them in the mold, so there are distinct patches of lavender and distinct patches of mint. I also like it b/c some bars are more mint than lavender, some more lavender than mint and some about half and half.

 

[toxikon]

Thank you all. So interesting.

Have anyone divided their batches and added two different FO to each portion? As if they were different soaps, and then put together? is that crazy?

Nothing wrong with that. I seem to recall IrishLass mentioning she makes a soap with a brown bottom scented with a Dirt FO and a green top scented with a Grass FO.

 

[Logansama]

What are the advantages or disadvantages to adding the FO or EO to the oils? Before you put in your lye?

I was wondering what experiences you all have with it.

The one time I did it, my soap seized. The FO I used tends to move in CP but using the stick blender did it in and nearly ruined the batch. So I'm back to adding at the end. The fragrance is truly the last thing I'll forget, so that's not a worry for me. Also, the less exposure to active lye, the better, IMO.

That said, many soapers do add to the oils and obviously have good results. So go for it.

 

[IrishLass]

It depends on the FO whether I add it to the oils or to the batter. Some folks report that they have been able to tame certain naughty FO's by adding them to the oils, but it has backfired on me more times than it has worked, so when working with known accelerating FOs, I just add them to the batter after everything is colored, etc.. and I hand-stir them in with a whisk or spatula right before pouring. This works much better for me.

If my FO is a well behaved one, though, I just add it to my oils.

Have anyone divided their batches and added two different FO to each portion? As if they were different soaps, and then put together? is that crazy?

Not crazy at all. It's actually one of my favorite things to do whenever I come across 2 different scents that I think would smell great together in a layered soap, such as the Dirt FO/Fresh-cut Grass FO soap that Toxicon mentioned above.

Here are some others that I love together: Milk Sugar Kisses FO/Wild Mtn. Honey FO; Paradise FO/Black Raspberry Vanilla FO; Green Tea FO/Black Tea FO, etc... There's a few more, but those are the only ones I can recall off the top of my head right now. I simply split the batter in two, color and scent each portion, and then make a layered soap out of them. Sometimes, instead of layering, I just pour each portion into the mold at the same time in a criss-cross fashion and then swirl with a chopstick or hanger.


IrishLass

 

[Zany_in_CO]

For me the biggest advantage is not forgetting to add the scent. It's a bit disheartening when you plan a perfect design for a scent and realize it's sitting next to your freshly poured mold.

LOL ^^^ Ditto!

 

[Soapmaker145]

The later you add the fragrance, the more likely it is to preserve the complexity of an FO. By the time the batter is at thick trace, the pH would have dropped about 2 points which reduces the reactive lye ions that happily destroy anything they can react to. It won't save aroma molecules that are very sensitive to lye but it will save slower reacting molecules. I've tested some of my more delicate FOs and adding them at thick trace made a big difference.

 

[SunRiseArts]

Thank you all!