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12. Colour Layering
Colouring Agent should be added AFTER the No Separation stage. All Essential Oil/s and SuperFatting Oil/s should be added BEFORE adding the Colouring Agent. Once the Soap Mixture is ready, split equally into 3 separate Measuring Jugs. Add Colouring Agent to each Jug to achieve the desired shade and line them in the layering order. Choose an Artificial Scent that will expedite the Saponification process and add it to the Colour-ready Soap Mixture and mould quickly. After the First Layer, pour the subsequent layers from the side of the Measuring Jug and over the flat surface of the scraper to avoid messing up the surface of each layer.
It is also possible to have a SuperFatting Oil that also works as a Colouring Agent (refer to三色香橙精油皂recipe).
Formula for Colour Layering Soap should include at least 10% of Castor Oil to ensure each layer will “stick” to each other. Using the Lavender Soap (薰衣草精油香皂) as an example, change the formula as follows:
Since both SuperFatting and Lye Reduction end up with a higher Oil proportion than Lye, technically, the final product should be the same, however, due to the fact that the addition of oil in SuperFatting is AFTER the addition of the Lye Solution, hence the nutrients of the SF Oil is not destroyed by the Lye as much as in Lye Reduction.
The Standard Water Multiple is 2.5, but this is affected by a number of conditions:
a) Addition of Pure Alcohol will speed up the Saponification process. As Pure Alcohol exists in all Artificial Scents, hence by using one with high concentration of Pure Alcohol (e.g. any Rose essence), will introduce “spontaneous” Saponification. This, however, also means that, if any Artificial Scent with a high concentration of Pure Alcohol is used in the recipe, moulding needs to be worked quickly as soon as it is added.
b) On the other hand, if the soap mixture is not thickening as expected during the whisking step, adding a few CC of Artificial Scent containing high concentration of Pure Alcohol will solve the problem.
c) Adding Powder[1] of any sort to the Soap Mixture also helps to harden the end product. This is another way (other than adding Artificial Scent) to expedite Saponification.
SuperFatting is when the amount of Oil exceeds the amount of Lye added. Theoretically, the higher the amount of oil in the soap the better it is for the skin (and vice versa for the Lye), however, the more “Oil over Lye” the faster the deterioration, hence SuperFatted Soaps are not made commercially.
Once the Lye is added to the Oil Mixture, continuous whisking is required until there is “No Separation” between water and oil. The higher the temperature the less whisking is required to achieve this, however, the higher temperature will result in greater loss of the nutritious values in the oils.
If the oil colour is DARK (colour change will occur if pre-soaked with certain plants, e.g. Comfrey, refer to Lavender Soap recipe), it is difficult to tell whether the separation has disappeared. This needs to be checked by looking at the surface of the Oil. There will be a thin layer of oil that floats on the Soap Mixture surface initially (when the Lye Solution is added), it will appear in the shape of a new moon while whisking. The Soap Mixture is ready when the new moon shape disappears.
[Saponification – the process that changes liquid oil to solid soap.]
a) Soft Oil (軟油, 油) – regardless of temperature, always in liquid form.
b) Hard Oil (硬油, 脂, 蠟) – regardless of temperature, always in solid form.
I. BASIC NOTES. 3
1. Types of Oil3
2. The 3 Major Oils used in Soap making. 3
3. Typical Hard/Soft Oil Combination for different Skin Types:3
4. Cold Process Saponification (冷法皂化)4
