Teach Soap

Hi! I'm from central Montana and just started soap making. So far I've made 2 batches which have turned out well - amazingly enough. lol. The first batch was a recipe straight out of Anne Watson's book "Smart Soapmaking". I added some FO, not even realizing it WAS FO and not EO but luckily it didn't cause problems. The second batch, I slightly altered the first recipe (yes I used a soap calculator) by changing one of the oils, separating a little, adding color (Labcolor), then attempting to swirl it in the mold. I also added some EO. The thing color thing was really freaky though. I was trying to make a purple swirl by mixing together some red and blue dye.... but when added to the soap it just looked really yucky yucky yucky gray! So I kept adding a little more color until I thought I was going to run out of time to swirl. I went ahead and swirled it and resigned myself to having gray swirled soap.....not exactly what I had in mind! But the next morning, after the soap was cooled down, the color had changed to a very dark purple swirl. I was amazed! Evidently the lye or the temperature or something? messes with the color initally. My question is... how in the heck do you know what the color is going to turn out to be when that happens? Does it only happen to certain colors or does it affect all of them? My swirling technique leaves a little to be desired... but it looks pretty darned good anyway! sorry this is so long...

Depending on the vendor, they should let you know if the color works in CP and if the color will morph. The LabColors page has a different swatch for different types of soaps. That will be the color of your finished soap. The color swatch all the way to the left is for CP soaps.

There is more info on LabColors here; http://www.brambleberry.com/labFAQ.html

I did buy the labcolor dye for CP soap. But I did not have a clue that it would look funny during the soap making.... then settle out to be the color I thought it would be. It really caught me by surprise!

Those colors can go through some weird changes til the soap is complete. I know for a fact FD&C Blue #1 starts as peach when you mix it into your raw soap, then settles down to a Lavender to Purple; depending how much you use.

Don't use a havey hand as it can make the soap bleed, or stain a washcloth.

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

I've been making soap for over 2 1/2 years now and I still run into times where color baffles me. I've had batches do one thing one time and something different the next. Your purples and reds, to me are the most difficult colors to master.

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April