Austrian bamboo grass scent and softer bar?

[katshe]

When I use thes scent Austrian bamboo grass from Natlure's garden the soap is softer and doesn't last too long in the shower as my other bars do ...same recipe

Anyone know why and is this normal with some scents???

Is there something I can do to harden it up when making next batch???

I do hp so usually batches are hard 2 - 3 wks

I have been using this recipe for 2 years now and never had this problem with other scents

[Kitn]

You could try sodium lactate at 1/2 oz PPO to help harden the soap up .

hth

[katshe]

do you mean salt...Im pretty sure i put salt in that batch for that reason but turned out softer that other batches with different scents...i do almond , coconut cream, winter garden, peppermint...those all are nice and hard and last a few weeks in the shower

I was thinking of adding stearic when i make the Australian bamboo grass batch and see if that helps....this is a customer fave scent but getting complaints about it melting quickly in the shower.

[Kitn]

This is what sodium lactate is . I understand the frustration for sure .

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art45947.asp

[Ann M]

Hmmm. I have soaped this at least 5x and never noticed any difference. It's still the same consistency as other fo's I soap. It does not appear softer to me at all. I do cp so maybe that is the difference.

Ann M

[Kitn]

I don't think it matters if it is cp or hp .

[topofmurrayhill]

I have noticed consistent differences in the consistency of soap using the same amount of different fragrance oils. There was one in particular that produced a soap that would not logo-stamp properly and didn't last quite as long as the others.

That seemed like a good opportunity to experiment with sodium lactate, but it didn't solve the problem. In any event, I prefer not to use it because if your soap isn't hard enough or doesn't last long enough, the best solution is to improve the formulation. The better recipes tend to be harder ones in any case.

In this case, the recipe was a pretty hard one and a very good one, so I didn't really want to tweak it for the one fragrance. Using slightly less FO for that fragrance solved the problem. I didn't have to change it by that much.

I don't know what accounts for these differences between FOs. It later occurred to me that some fragrance oils might have some sort of saponifiable base, so that they eat up some of the NaOH and produce a fattier soap. At some point I need to test that possibility by making the problem fragrance with the original amount of FO and a smaller lye discount.

[katshe]

I add fragrance after the cook as to use less fo.

Hardness on this recipe is 48- so, should be a good. All other fragrances are rock hard

I add 2 oz fo to my 3 lb recipe of this scent so it smells good...

i did a batch and used less and that soap lost its scent and smelled horrible after a month or so. Not sure what that was about , i think it was dos

Maybe I need to scent this before the cook and use more like 1 oz per lb of soap

All other scents I use 1.5 oz fo to 3 lbs soap and they do great but again, I add after cook for 2.5 hrs

Not the easiest method for soap making but I prefer it so that I am using less fo

thanks for the info guys I may use a harder recipe for this particular scent

Off i go to soapcalc

wish me luck

[Kitn]

Good luck

[Billie]

Good luck. I would think the scent would burn off if you add it before the cook, I always add after the cook. Maybe a harder recipe.