We recently received a shipment of a new product which I’ve been very curious to test out to see if it does actually work – Vanilla Stabilizer for cold process soap.
I finally had the chance to make a soap last week so now I can finally share my results with you!
If you’ve been in the soap making world for a little while, you would have come across the term “discolouration” or “browns soap”. This means the fragrance oil you’ve scented your soap with likely contains something called vanillin (this is what gives the vanilla aroma) it is also the thing that discolours soap to various shades of brown. The higher the content of vanillin the darker brown the soap will go. This affects not only soap, but lotions, bath bombs and candles too.
This particular vanilla stabilizer is suitable ONLY for cold/hot process soap though. We do sell other stabilizers for Melt & Pour Soap and another for Lotions and Washes
So. Does it work?
Heck yeah it does!
Check out the results for yourself. This soap was made with our plain Vanilla fragrance oil and was split into three layers.
The bottom layer contains NO stabilizer.
The middle layer contains a ratio of 1 part stabilizer to 2 parts fragrance oil.
The top layer contains a ratio of 1 part stabilizer to 1 part fragrance oil.
As you can see, the stabilizer clearly works. The bottom part which contains none has gone a very dark brown which is typical of fragrances with a high vanillin content. The top two parts are hard to see a big difference. The stabilizer manufacturer recommends using a ratio of 1 part stabilzer to 2 parts fragrance where the fragrance oil contains a lower level of vanillin. Or a 1:1 ratio where the fragrance contains a high level of vanillin.
The very top of my soap is slightly lighter than the middle section, however I don’t think I would bother with using the extra stabilizer if the colour discolouration between them is so minimal. Of course, this is completely up to you. The soap will continue to darken as it cures over the next couple of weeks so the difference between the layers may become more noticeable to make the higher usage rate worthwhile (I’ll post an update if there are noticeable changes).
Hi I’d like to start soap making and if I could please purchase some items from you once I mail making soap base. I keep failing. Do you know a simple recipe for the base in mls? As I don’t have scales I have distilled water , caustic soda and olive oil.
Hi Janene,
Unfortunately you really do need a set of scales to weigh your oils and caustic soda. You don’t need fancy scales, you can pick up a cheap set of digital kitchen scales at places like the Warehouse or K Mart for around $10, then once you have scales you’ll find loads of recipes!