Teach Soap

I just made my very first EVER batch of CP. Things seemed to be going well until I got to the colorant. I went by Ann Marie's Cold Process soap recipe shown in her 3rd YouTube episode of how to do CP. She didn't address colorant in that video but I tried used the Bramble Berry Hyacinth High ph Labcolor diluted with water. I dropped some of the diluted colorant into the CP but it didn't seem to spread out and color the soap base, even when I added more.

Will the extra water from the diluted colorant ruin my first batch?

Should colorant be hand-stirred into the soap base instead of using the stick blender ? (the colorant stayed on top in my lye/soap so I couldn't really use the stick blender without risking slinging the lye/soap mixture everywhere)

Did I use the wrong type of colorant?

Thanks!

I always use a stick blender to disperse the color. At what point did you add yours?

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

I tried to add it after trace. Then I read on the BB web site that the colorant can be added to the lye water before mixing the lye water into the oil. Is that correct?

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

I'm not starting off so well with this cold process soap

I made a second batch and added the color (green) to the lye water, which was fine, but then I got mixed up and added the fragrance oil to the lye water/oils mixture before I started blending the whole thing with the stick blender. The mixture got a little ricey and apparently I still didn't add the correct amount (or strength) of color because the whole thing looked like pale guacamole.

So I have my first two batches of CP sitting in my spage bedroom and neither of them looks very good. (sigh) I spent so much time on this today too. It wore me out because I was a little stressed about using lye for the first time and I didn't really know what to expect. Guess I need to get this color thing figured out.

Oh no! Don't add the fragrance oil to your lye water; add it to your cooled off oils. Depending on the color of your oils & the color of the fragrance oil, the green can change to olive green. I hope your next batch is a success!

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

I didn't add the fragrance to the lye water itself.

I added the color to the lye water, then stirred it with a spoon.
Then I poured the colored lye water into the olive/coconut/palm oils.
Then I added the fragrance to the whole thing.
THEN I started mixing with the stick blender.

Is that the right order?

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

I know how hard it is to want that first batch to be perfect, but the fact is most of us has had to go thru a learning period. My first 3 batches were so so. Now I do better, but just had a batch rice on me. What FO did you use? I hope you keep trying - and the extra water will not stop that batch from becoming soap, and even if the color is not what you expected it is still soap. I still gifted some of the 2nd and 3rd batch (but not the first one!). Wrapping, as in all gifts, can make a difference.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

I thought I shouldn't let my oils cool off too much? I read the lye water and oils should not vary more than 10-15 degrees from each other when I mix them together. Is that true?

Do you all take the temperature of your lye water and the temperature of your oils each time you make soap? If so, what temps do you usually have each of them at when you mix them?

Did I add the color correctly when I added it to the lye water in the second batch? It wasn't a very pretty color but I was afraid to add more because of the additional water I would have been adding. I've sent an email to Anne-Marie of Bramble Berry to ask for more detailed instructions on diluting the colors.

All my colors and fragraces were from Bramble Berry. I used Fresh Snow fragrance in first batch and used Pineapple Cilantro fragrance in second batch. I used Hyacinth High pH color in first batch but it only turned the white soap a dingy white (I should have just left it white to begin with but I was anxious to experiment with color). I used Sage Mist High pH color in the second batch but it ended up only barely greenish tinted.

I used equal measures of coconut, palm, and olive oil in both batches.

Thanks for your help!

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

Wow! Really? I spent so much time sticking thermometers in and out of stuff that I wore myself out stressing over it. So you don't even really use a thermometer in yours? I wish I had one of those nifty thermometers that Anne-Marie has in her videos. She just points it at the liquid and it gives a temperature.

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"A baby goat can stand up within minutes of being born, and know what its looking for and pretty much where the udder is. Yet people think it happened by accident, and there is no Creator. Guess again!"

Katie M Molalla Oregon

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

Hey thanks for the link! Maybe I can buy one if I sell some bath salts and some bath sugar scrub cubes that I made last night. I'll put that money towards one of those nifty thermometers since I don't trust my judgement yet on how to know when CP lye water and oils are okay to blend.

This is such a great forum; very helpful! Thank you again.