Donut Soap and DIY vanilla stabilizer

I was reading a book by Zig Ziglar, where he shared a story from his childhood about donuts.

He said that growing up he lived in a very small town, and joked that the town was so small that they had put a mirror at the end of Main street to make it look bigger. Before I go on with the story, let me give you some context. Zig Ziglar was born in 1926, so I would think this happened in the early 1930’s. He said that when donuts made it to his town, he was fascinated by them because he had not seen one before. His older brother told him that if he ate into the doughnut hole in the middle, he would die. Which sounds pretty drastic, but as children, we tend to believe most of what we are told. So he would carefully bite around the hole in the middle, avoiding it, believing that he would indeed die if he did bite into it. I found that story funny and remember it every so often when I eat a doughnut myself.

The design for this soap was inspired in the fragrance, Cinnamon Sugar Donuts from Lone Star Candle. I made donut soap embeds with soap dough, but was not too sure about the design because of the vanilla content of the fragrance (8.32%). Around that time, I was reading in the Soap Making Forum, about a handmade vanilla color stabilizer. I had already tried a DIY vanilla stabilizer before, and while it did prevent a dark brown color from developing, my soap still turned light brown. So I was curious to experiment with the ingredients in the recipe from the forum.

I should mention that the DIY vanilla stabilizer caused some of my other experimental soaps to smell like the chemicals used in a perm. It did not happen with this donut soap though, so I am not sure what triggered it, but that awful smell went away with the cure anyway.

After adding the fragrance to the soap batter, I poured a small amount into a round cavity mold, then I added the stabilizer to the rest of the soap to be able to compare later. Here are the results two months later:

Equipment

• List of regular equipment
• Round cutters (one was used for the planet division).

Molds

Mini tall and skinny mold

Fragrance

1 oz Cinnamon Sugar Donuts from Lone Star Candle.

Additives:

1 oz of DIY vanilla color stabilizer. Made with:

• Sodium Thiosulfate from Makeyourown, also available here
• Sodium Metabisulfite from makeyourown, also available here

Colorants

• 2 tsp Shimmering White clouds mica from Wholesale Supplies Plus

Embeds

The donuts were made with soap dough, and sprinkled with salt, sugar and cocoa powder. I basically shaped a small piece into a ball, flattened it between my palms, and then used the tool with a rubber pointy tip to make and enlarge the hole in the center.

• Soap dough
• Sculpting Tools*
• Soap dough confetti: made with Clay extruder and round disc, then sliced up.

Recipe (for 1 lb mold)

** If you have never made soap before, this is not the recipe to try for the first time. I would suggest this one instead.

Recipe Totals

Liquid Required	4.58 oz	129.82 g
NaOH Weight	2.26 oz	63.94 g
Oil Weight	16 oz	453.59 g
Fragrance Oil Weight	1 oz	28.35 g
Superfat		5%
Total Batch Weight	23.96 oz	679.3 g
Lye Concentration		33%

Recipe Oils, Fats and Waxes

Oil	%	Ounces	Grams
Olive Oil	30	4.8	136.08
Tallow Beef	30	4.8	136.08
Coconut Oil, 76 deg	25	4	113.4
Castor Oil	8	1.28	36.29
Shea Butter	7	1.12	31.75
Total	100	16	453.59