In this 2nd installment of the fragrance testing for the Summer Soap Panel of 2012 for Brambleberry I have gone ahead and made cold process soap! (you can read the 1st blog post here).
Fragrance can do many different things to cold process soap. The fragrance oil can fade after the soap has been made or it can change the color of the soap base. It can even make the soap set up super fast with no time to pour into the mold.
It’s safe to say that none of the fragrances caused my basic soap recipe to seize up on me…no soap on a stick here.
I made the following soaps using a simple recipe with no additives. I even made a “control” soap so you can see what the natural color of the soap base is without any fragrance.
Wow! Check out the results
For soapmakers: I allowed this batch to gel – waited 2 days to unmold as the soap will still be too soft due to the high olive content.
Some of the soaps stayed light whereas some soaped out to a yellow tint.
Soap#1 pretty much stayed the same as the control soap.
Soap #2, 3, 4 and 7 have a yellow tint.
Soap #5 has a nice yellow hue.
Soaps #6, 8 and 9 offer a beautiful tan/beige color to the soaps.
Check out the last soap! Fragrance #10 definitely darkens the soap base. I knew when I saw that the fragrance oil was amber in color that it will definitely darken the color of my soap base. A friend of the family that was visiting told me the scent reminder her of the air freshener they use in portable bathrooms!
Next up, I will make a batch of lotion using all 10 fragrances and determine what I would be willing to wear on my skin.
