Teach Soap

I have not yet tried making soap with infused oils but I do wonder if the lye will ruin the infusion? I've read some people will only add the infused oil at trace stage, but others recommend to add it all together...
Thank you for your thoughts!

What type of infused oil are you wanting to use? I saw a recipe on Otion's blog for a bastille soap with the olive oil infused with lavender and calendula. I used my own bsatille recipe and infused the olive oil in that recipe with the lavender and calendula with the olive oil in my recipe and it actually gave my soap a very light scent that comes through after and the scent is a bit stronger when using in the shower.

I add my infused oils at a heavy trace with cold process, but at that point the soap is still caustic, and the lye will "take what it wants to take" so you probably won't get much benefit from it. The only way to be sure that whatever herbs you have will still contain active compounds is to add them to re-batch or at the very end of Hot Process once you've reached neutrality. Even then, being a wash off product, there probably wouldn't be much benefit as in say a leave on balm or lotion bar.

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Just call me "Apo"

This is my opinion. At trace, lye is still very active and it will take whatever it wants. So adding any oil or butter at trace is no guarantee that that particular oil will end up as your superfat. I add everything right up front.

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