Teach Soap

Hi all,
I am new to this site and new to soap making so here goes!!!! I have only been making soap for about 2 months now. A couple of questions.............. My scent has completely gone from my citrus soap and I do not know if I should just throw it out? Oh by the way I make cold process soap. I have made 3 batches of VERY cold process soap after attending a course and buying a book by the lady who ran the course (Incidently the course was not very cold process, it was cold process) when making all 3 batches of very cold process something has gone wrong. 1: Rose and oatmeal soap has hardly any scent and still looks dark in the middle of each slice after a week. 2: Lavender soap has white ash on top which I do not know how to remove as I tried a swirl which looks good but now cannot get the white ash off. 3: Tea tree, peppermint and lemongrass: still very gel looking throughout after 24 hours. I am sure I will get better and I love making soap so any help would be gratefully accepted.

I'm not really sure what "very cold process" is.

You don't have to throw the orange soap out. It will still function like soap, it just won't smell very orangey. Citrus EO's are very fickle in soap. They really need an added ingredient to "anchor" them in the soap. It also helps if you are using Oranfe x 5 or x 10.

For your rose & oatmeal soap, it sounds like it only went through partial gel. It'll be fine and most likely the color will even out as it cures. As for the fading scent, without knowing how much you used to the percentage of oils in your soap and where you got the fragrance from, I can't really help.

Lavender is known for ashing. You can sometimes prevent that by spraying your soap with alcohol right after you've poured it and keeping it covered while you're gelling it. The ash will come right off when you use it, usually after the first washing with it.

As for the last soap, sometimes it takes longer than 24 hours.

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Genny

Like Genny, I'm confused with the "very cold process" unless that's what you mean by room temp CP, where you use the freshly mixed hot lye to melt your oils down.

Welcome to Teach Soap

Welcome! Cold process means oils and lye at about 110 degrees (US). Very cold process could mean room temp oils and room temp lye. Citrus oils are prone to fading. They need an anchor like Litsea, Vetiver or Patchouli. How much rose oil did you use per lb. of soap oils and where did it come from? Is it soap/skin safe? Lavender oil soaps are prone to ash. It's just a cosmetic issue.

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

Thank you for making me welcome. Genny: cold process is a method where you do not heat the oils. They are cut up and the lye is added to them as soon as it is mixed. Can I ask what oranfe x5 and x10 is? - I got the oil from The Soap Kitchen from internet. What kind of alcohol would I use and where could I buy this from please?
The rose essential oil was rose absolute - 5% in grapeseed. I used 10ml of this and 5 ml of both patchouli and sweet orange in a 2kg batch which is 4.4lb (I am in the UK so we use different weights). can I please ask what the best rose EO is to get that is not really expensive?
Soap buddy: I know patchouli is an EO but are Litsea, Vetiver EO's too or fixatives of some kind?
I do not understand the term soap safe, are there EO's that should not be used in cold process soap? I have heard something about peppermint and clove and cinnamon having bad effects.
Hopefully this gets me some more help and thank you. I am so pleased I have found this site

Hi Katie Okay, the method you're describing is called (at least on all the soaping forums and books I've read) room temperature cold process The term very cold process was what was confusing Genny & me

As far as EOs, there are a few that shouldn't be used at all, there are some that aren't safe for pregnant women, children, certain conditions. As much as we would like to cater to everyone, it is literally impossible to avoid anything that someone could have an allergic reaction to. As long as I list the ingredients in my soap and I'm using no EOs that shouldn't be used at all, it is the customer's responsibility to read the label and be aware of any allergens.

For the 5x or 10x, that means five fold and ten fold. It means the EO is super concentrated. The no-fold citrus EOs (especially orange) tend to totally fade in CP.

Hi Katie! To answer your question about fragrances being "soap safe" - some fragrance oils are only for use in candles and other products that are not applied to skin - if you use them in body products you risk having reactions because the oils are not meant for use on skin. A fragrance oil that is termed skin safe means that you can safely use it in all bath and body products, including soaps and lotions. Hope this helps!

Litsea and Vetiver are also EOs and work well when used with citrus scents to help them "stick" in CP. To my nowledge, there aren't any inexpensive rose EO's. Some people use rose geranium EO in place of rose absolut, but it doesn't smell the same.

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

Thanks for your help ladies and my soap that did not look so good is great now.

If your lavender soap has a smooth top, you can try rubbing the ash off with some 91% rubbing alcohol or "steaming" the soaps by holding them over a pot or kettle spout of boiling water to remove the ash. Wipe with clean paper towels in both instances. Usually does the trick quite nicely.

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Laura<3