Teach Soap

I made my first scented soaps a few weeks back with a friend of mine, and they're all ready for use now! I can't remember the exact quantities for the recipe, but it was something like 500g olive oil and 100g coconut oil, which I put through soapcalc for the water/lye.
I blended the soap to a light trace and separated it into two bowls for colouring and scenting with essential oils. To the first, I added orange colouring. This was to be an "invigorating" soap, so I added sweet orange, lemongrass, and eucalyptus essential oils.
The second was a relaxing/calming blend coloured blue (but which reacted with the cream colour of the oils to become purple!), with cinnamon, rosemary and benzoin. ...I actually meant to use basil, but I apparently grabbed the wrong bottle in the store. But I tested it before I put it in, and the trio actually worked together well!
I folded the colours and scents in with a spatula first, worried about the essential oils causing the soap to trace too quickly and seize, then used the stick blender to make sure they were mixed well. Once that was done, I used a silicone loaf tin with a baking-paper wrapped cardboard insert to separate the two soaps, then when it was set cut and turned them as normal.

Things that went wrong:
-Too much blue colouring was added, and was unexpectedly changed by the colour of the oils.
My friend was handling the colour adding, and though he says he only added a little, at first it looked like the soap was going to turn out almost black! That faded, thankfully, as it was mixed in. But I didn't realise, although it's obvious in hindsight, that the colouring of the oil would mix with the added colours. Thankfully, the resulting mix was a beautiful deep purple. While I didn't get the orange/blue contrast I was aiming for, I'm very happy with the result. I've since looked up about how to get more "blue", and the general advice seems to be to stick to whiter oils, like coconut/palm.

-Too much essential oils?
I tried to work through soapcalc for how much EOs to add, and I *thought* it was saying something like 5g of each EO. I tried to weigh that out, but it didn't seem to be working, and seemed like *way* too much, so I basically guessed it in the end. The resulting soap was, in the first week, almost overpoweringly strong. Thankfully, that seems to have faded since then.

-The colouring "leaks" a little.
Not a huge issue, and one of the things I wanted to test with this first batch. On the advice of a friend, not wanting something that would stain, I used a special colouring designed for icing. It seems to have worked pretty well, holding its colour, and certainly doesn't stain. It could just be that I added too much colouring, but it runs a little when damp, though it wipes up easily enough, and washes off hands without a problem.

Questions!

What's the best way to measure out essential oils? How much *should* I be adding?

I had some trouble cleaning out the stick blender right underneath the blades by rinsing off the oil with hot water, and my (gloved) fingers couldn't dislodge it. I couldn't *see* a way to take the blades out to clean it properly... Is there something I'm missing?

The soap lathers up well and performs pretty good, but the residue the lather leaves on the hands seems to take a little bit of rinsing to wash off. I've noticed a popular soap blend appears to be 33/33/33 olive/coconut/palm, could it be that I'm only using olive and coconut oils that it's doing that? Does palm oil improve it? I haven't looked into palm oil yet because I want to make sure I'm buying responsibly farmed palm oil, and I haven't had the chance to look into it yet.

The dry soap feels like it's got an oily coating. Is this normal? It doesn't have it after it dries once it's been used.

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All in all I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out! Next I'm going to try a "night" themed soap, using the blue to make purple again, scented with Jasmine EO, and I'm going to see what happens if I put a little glitter into the mix. :p

When you ran the soap through a lye calc, how much did you superfat?
Icing colors are not suitable for soapmaking. You can experimenter with them, but you won't get consistent results, they can bleed and they are not cosmetic grade.
Be very careful with cinnamon and benzoin. Cinnamon can be an irritant and benzoin is a known sensitizer.
Your colors and scents need to be blended in not folded. If the scent is not completely mixed, you could get fragrance pockets. Since the fragrance is not diluted, it could irritate the skin.
If you don't have an accurate scale that measures in small amounts, you can use disposable pipettes.
5 grams is about 100 drops or 4 ml's.

True Jasmine EO is extremely expensive. It can also make your soap seize. I would wait til you get a few more plain batches under your belt.
You need to learn to walk before you run.

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I'm pretty sure I left the superfat at default, so probably about 5%?
I'll have to look more into colourings, then. Thanks for the warning
I'll be sure to keep an eye out on those! When you say Benzoin is a sensitizer, what does that mean?
I mixed the frangrance and colours first, and then blended them for a while to finish it and make sure it was thoroughly mixed.
I'll have to look into those, and maybe a better scale.

Haha, I know I have more to learn, which is why I ask! Thank you for the advice ^_^

5% superfat should be fine, Personally I like 7-8%
Benzoin makes many people itch or get an allergic reaction. For me, it makes me itch.
If you are coloring and scenting the whole batch, you can add the color and scent to your cooled off oils.

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I remember the first batch of scented soap i ever made. Using EOs, of course. I dont know how it works with FO but EOs completely change the character of the soap beyond just the smell it actually improves the quality of the soap. My first few batches i didnt add any scent or color but once i did i never went back.