When to add additives

[Jrachae]

Hi,

In doing research and watching countless Youtube videos, I've noticed that soapers apply their additives at different times in their soaping processes? Is there a holy grail for dos and donts of applying additives. For instance, should I apply kaolin clay to my soft oils before the hard oils and lye solution are added or after all oils and lye solution? Will both ways produce the same results as long as everything is room temperature? What about other additives?

 

[BattleGnome]

There is no single rule for additives. Different ingredients need different oreperations and different soapers have brain farts at different points in the process.

Most additives can be added to your oils before you add your lye. If you tend to be forgetful this can be a good strategy. You do have to be careful with exfoliants and stick blenders, the blades can chop everything to less useable pieces. There are also ingredients that can cause your batter to overheat or seize, those should be added once you reach trace. Some heaters could be honey, beer/wine/milk, or certain fragrances.

Except for the heaters, I don’t think it matters when you use additives a long as they’re mixed in well.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

BAG is spot on - depends on the additive and the purpose of it. I add my exfoliation additive when the batter is thick enough to support it well enough. Sugar, salt, and citric acid go in to the water before the lye is added.

If you're unsure about any particular one, ask particularly. It's much easier than trying to give catch-all overview answers

 

[dixiedragon]

BG's guidelines are good to follow. Me, I like to add my difficult FOs to a little olive oil, mix well, then blend that with the soap. Seems to help.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

I meant BG, not bag! Autocorrect fail

 

[lsg]

I agree, it is a good idea to add FOs and EOs to the oils before adding the lye mixture. IMO, this practice makes it much easier when dividing the soap batter for swirls, layering, etc.

 

[BattleGnome]

I thought it was a new way from distinguishing me from the other BG!

Or maybe you had a brief psychic moment, my real life initials are LAG