Teach Soap

Houston....we have a problem.

Ok.....so I try artificial colorants for the first time....and possibly the last. I buy mica blue from BB with the cute little 0.15 cc scoops. I make my typical 2 lb batch, and at trace put in about 7 scoops and the color looks awesome. I'm impressed and like the way it looks. At medium trace I add my FO....Tuberose Moss from BB. My lightly colored, nice blue tint soap turned pure white as soon as I mixed in the fragrance. What the heck caused that. I've been using flower-infused water, honey in lye water, fruit drippings, etc as natural colorants and have been pleased. These are easy to use? What am I missing?

I wouldn't be skeptical if the soap didn't turn a nice blue before adding the fragrance. Something is amiss here.

I've never had that happen to me so I'm not sure. Sounds like it was some kind of an interaction of the FO and the mica. I would send Anne-Marie an email or a PM and ask.

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

Very very curious. I hope you get to the bottom of it!

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~bytheSEAsoap~ Mella bythesea, bythesea, bythebeautiful sea

海の皂

What happened as the soap cured? Did the color return? The reason I ask is that I use a liquid cp soap colorant that turns bright vivid blue in the pot then as I add the lavender essential/fo blend, the batch slowly turns grey, then creamy white. I make all my soaps with goatmilk by the way. As the bars cure, they slowly turn back to blue. It's really amazing. I have used these colorants for years and it only happens with the blue. It's like a magic trick!

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You may be only one person to the world, but you may also be the world to one person

I'd be happy to test this color and see what's going on with it. Any preference for the recipe I use?

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Happy Soaping!

Anne-Marie
blog: www.soap-queen.blogspot.com
supplies: www.brambleberry.com

I had a mica do that to me before. It didn't go white but it started off a brilliant blue, then turned to a wonderful teal, then gray, then peach, then pink and the final result was a deep purple. It was very weird but it was what I sort of expected. I used a Chamelian mica from a local supplier. I did a small batch just to see what it would do. It was fun to watch!

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Haven

Yes, Anne Marie.....I would be grateful if you could look at it. I sent you a pm and email over the weekend with the recipe and didn't hear anything back from you. Any guidance you could provide would be appreciated.

Knine: It hasn't cured yet as I only made it about 3 days ago. It's still milky white. If the color starts to return I'll post a photo.

Thanks.

Sorry. I've been in Saudi Arabia on business and just got back in last night =) I'll go check my PMs now.

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Happy Soaping!

Anne-Marie
blog: www.soap-queen.blogspot.com
supplies: www.brambleberry.com

No rush Anne Marie. Family first as I'm sure they missed you while you were away.

I think I'm having PM problems and they're not getting through. I'm receiving ok....but others aren't receiving mine.

Any help would be appreciated.

Same thing happened to me tonight. I used an amethyst mica, put Lavender in, and it went from lovely purple, all the way to dull white. It's not the first time it's happend to me. So I'm giving up on the Lavender. Not a happy bunny. (Just to add - the EO wasn't from BB.)

Hmmmm.....so it's not just me. Obviously there's a reaction going on between whatever is used to color the mica and oils....possibly carrier oils, or essential oils. Most likely, colors in dyes are from heavy metals. This is interesting but there may be more than meets the eye going on here. I'm interested to see what results the professionals come up with. If I could make enough batches to formulate a control group, the isolating the factor would be easier. I'm going to try it again this weekend and see what happens.

HUM the pot thickens! Very interesting.

A big welcome back to you Anne Marie, jumping right in! We missed you too!

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~bytheSEAsoap~ Mella bythesea, bythesea, bythebeautiful sea

海の皂

Ha ha - well the joke is on all of us! I should have read the information on the Super Blue mica before I even posted anything because it says on the Super Blue Mica description that it's not stable in CP soap ( http://www.brambleberry.com/Super-Blue-Mica-P4519.aspx ). I did make a batch of the soap and amped up the coconut oil instead of using crisco. I did dual layers and the Super Blue layer lost all its color while the Cornflower Blue (which I used to compare with) held a beautiful blue/green/grey color.

I guess jet lag really must have been hitting me if I didn't even read our own website before I made the batch of soap!

Amethyst Mica has a similar note on it (http://www.brambleberry.com/Amethyst-Pu ... P3598.aspx) that it's not stable in CP soap.

Mystery solved - it's not the fragrance, it's just the choice of colorants we used wasn't a stable option for us. =)

_________________
Happy Soaping!

Anne-Marie
blog: www.soap-queen.blogspot.com
supplies: www.brambleberry.com

That leads to the question is there a blue that is lovely and stable in CP soaps? I know the answer is yes because I've seen one and have a bit of a sample.

However I do not know what the colorant is, nor the name of the color!

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~bytheSEAsoap~ Mella bythesea, bythesea, bythebeautiful sea

海の皂

Wow. Thanks Anne Marie. I missed that in item description also about the blue mica.

Lesson learned & mystery solved. And ditto what mella said: Is there a stable blue that would be true?