While testing some new fragrance oils for gracefruit.com today, I confirmed an old suspicion – olive pomace is a tricky soap-making oil.
I don’t usually use pomace, as I prefer refined olive oil for my soaps. My reasons for using refined are almost purely aesthetic -- it makes a whiter soap. When I first switched to refined olive, I was making only hot process soap (where thick trace doesn’t matter), and while I noticed the longer tracing time with the refined, it didn’t occur to me that pomace could be a culprit when it came to seized soap.
Today I CP tested nine different fragrance oils twice – once in a batch made with pomace and again in a batch made with refined olive. The pomace batch traced to a medium custard consistency in less than 2 minutes. The refined olive took closer to seven minutes to trace. And in every case the fragrance oil I was testing seized or riced in the pomace soap batter. The refined olive soap behaved much better and none of the fragrances showed anything beyond light acceleration – and two of these fragrances were floral.
When soaping tricky floral or spice fragrance oils, it might be a good idea to have an olive oil other than pomace to hand. Aside from a more attractive soap, you’ll have an easier time with swirls and other decorative effects.
13.02.08 -- Edited for clarity. :)
mmm now that is interesting. Never noticed this myself but I don't do many FOs and I always do other things to avoid problems as much as possible.
ReplyDeleteTricia
When testing fragrance oils to sale, I try to invite problems to see if a fragrance is going to cause problems.
ReplyDeleteI test with low temps, high temps, and different soap recipes. This was the first time I'd ever compared the two types of olive side by side, though.