Teach Soap

I purchased a pre made liquid soap base to mix a few bottles of hand soap with. I mixed two 8 oz bottles, in one I used a Cran-grape fragrance/flavor oil and a few drops of purple color, and in the other I used some vanilla EO, some sweet orange EO, orange colorant and some light sparkle mica for shimmer.

The orange and vanilla one is fine, but I noticed that the Cran-grape one started appearing to separate a few days later. When I shook it up, it looked fine for a while, but eventually it would look like two layers again. I wasn't sure if maybe the orange/vanilla one would look like that too if I hadn't added mica, because it turned opaque-ish when I added it, so I added mica to the cran-grape and it still separates. It also appears to be much thinner in consistency now than when I first mixed it. Any idea what is going on? I thought the pre-made base would be sort of fool proof, but somehow I proved that wrong!

Here is a pic of the cran-grape after sitting all day

Some fragrances don't play nice with liquid soap and that could be what happened to your batch. I made some liquid soap and scented part of the batch with BB's Sweet Meyer Lemon and it separated, but the bottles that I scented with Lavender didn't.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

I mix my fragrance into some polysorbate first, so it doesn't separate.

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

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

Darn, I just placed an order too. I wonder if I can add it, is it polysorbate 20?

I doubt that adding polysorbate later on will fix that problem. Pretty sure it is the FO that caused it. Even in synthetic soaps the FO is a bit critical. I tested all my FOs and made a list of what works and what doesn't. Looks like you've got your first two entries on your list!

Oh, I meant add it to my order that I just placed. I was thinking in my head that I had just placed an order for supplies, and if I had known I would have bought some of that too to have on hand. Doesn't matter, got an email that my order has already shipped, so next time I will get some.

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

There is one problem I have noticed with Polysorbate-20: it really suppresses lather, which is not something you want to do to soap. I've bought some PEG-7 glyceryl cocoate to try instead. It has a similar HLB (emulsification) value to Polysorbate but is supposed to stabilise and enhance lather. When I've tried it I will come back and comment on the results.