Teach Soap

Last night I made my standard recipe with same ingredients, triple checked measurements without any alteration. Have been making this same standard blend for about 10 years with not a single incident.

My single variable last night was the addition of a different color of *Lab Color*. Was planning to make Mulberry but when I added the "Royal Blue for Olive Oil", it immediately turned a dark tan (picture the color of a cardboard box) in color. I've used the "Rio Rose for Olive Oil" with the same recipe and love the color. But the Royal Blue turned it brown. So instead of making brown mulberry, I switched to Dark Rich Chocolate for the fragrance to match the color. I blended, poured and wrapped it in blankets like I've done several hundred times to obtain a nice gel.

This morning, it feels like the bars are caked in grease and secreting oil. Nonetheless, I wiped them off as best I could with a towel and put them on the curing rack. They're still cardboard color and smell like chocolate.

My question is: What went wrong?? My only variable in a recipe and technique I've used hundreds of times was the lab color. It was diluted the same as the other lab colors I use and is the color its supposed to be when I poured some into a clear glass to check it last night.

Any ideas about the greasy feeling and the brown (instead of blue) coloring??

Thanks in advance.

I have FD&C Blue #1. That one turns purple in CP soap. Purple and pink should have still given you some type of a mauve color. The only thing that I can think of is pomace has a lot of green. Green and pink turns tan on a color wheel. You can't judge the color by dropping some in plain water. If you want to see if the color changes in water, add a couple of grains of lye to it.

I'm not sure about the greasy feeling. If you weighed everything correctly, reached a true trace and gelled, it's possible that the soap overheated. I would leave it be for now. See if it absorbs back in a couple of days.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Thanks SB. The amount of regular (not pomace) olive oil used is 10.5% and all the rest of the oils/fats are stark white: coconut, lard, palm kernel and about 5% castor so not using much OO. Gonna try another batch tonight and go over my steps. Maybe bring the lab color to the same temp as oils & water then see what happens. I may need to start using a different type of colorant if I want blue.

For a true blue I use ultramarine blue and mix it well, so there are no specks.

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Even though I've been making CP soap for a couple decades, coloring is still new to me. Thought I'd start simple with the Lab Colors but it's not working out so well. Soapbuddy what type of colorant would you suggest I try? I'm not swirling or doing anything multi-color. I'm happy sticking with a single color bar. Of course I'm buying from BB so could you please recommend a type of colorant that's easy to use and effective please? Keeping in mind that I'll be back asking some basic instructions on how to use.

Thanks again for all your help.

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Once it's added to the carrier oil, do you add it at trace? I apologize for asking a lot of questions but wading into colorants is completely new to me.

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.