Teach Soap

I'm making my first BIG batch tomorrow - 4kgs!! Woo Hoo!! I am expecting to run out of my normal olive oil and dip into the reserve olive oil which is a darker green colour. I want to use the TD that I have sitting here (can't believe I've never used it yet lol!) and was wondering if there is percent rules to follow?

IE is it a percent of my oils / recipe that I use in TD? Or is it just a standard amount (teaspoon for e.g.) per batch? How do I work out how much I need to use?

Also... I put it in the lye water, yeah?

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The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

I tried 1/2 teaspoon per lb. of oil. Per SoapBuddy - she said 1/4 teaspoon per lb. to start with.

My 1/2 teaspoon per lb of oil is still curing - seems ok so far.

Good luck on "scaling up" - that has to be exciting! I'll be waiting to read how its different from small batches. That seems to be another hurdle you have to overcome as a pro - putting out larger batches with consistency over and over again.

Would also be curious to know how much labor time you save scaling up.

1 lb. is 2.2 kg. Depending how dark the olive oil is, start with 1/4 teaspoon, then take it from there. If you haven't worked with it before, I suggest that you make a small batch first. If the TD is water soluble, you can add it to your lye water. If it's oil soluble, you can add it to your oils.

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

Yeah, will see how much of my normal oil vs the green back up oil I have. If I feel it's too much for a test run with the TD, I'll just leave it without and hope it's not too off-white in the finished soap.

Will have to test if my TD is water or oil soluble. It just came in a zip lock bag.

_________________
The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

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

TD can be a pain to blend properly. I use BB's, which is supposed to be both oil and water soluble. After trying both, I found glycerin works better for me. It's really handy to have some pre-mixed in glycerin too.

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Linda

I learn so much when I can't leave well enough alone!

I prefer to mix mine with water, I find I get less clumps that with oil or glycerin. Good luck Coolah!

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

You've probably done your batch now! Hope it went well?!?

I've been experimenting with TD also, hardly ever used it before, have some dark green olive....... (the control freak in me only uses this for batches that are getting pretty well coloured up!)
The stuff I've got seems to go either way, but I prefer water, it's instantly dissolved. I have never added to the lye water as didn't want to 'fade out' all of my colours, but recently tried a few mixes with TD in & hey, there's a whole new range of colours!!!

You probably won't have this problem seeing you don't gel, but I have had the 'TD crackle' thing happening in anything I want to gel (ie. CP embeds etc) so have come to the conclusion, TD = fridge/freezer. Unless I'm going for that 'crackle' look!

Looking forward to updates on your big batch