Teach Soap

Hello all,

So my weekend project completely failed. I thought I was doing it right. I melted the soap and put some "Fired up Fushia" mica in a tablespoon. I then dropped some alcohol into the tablespoon with the mica and stirred it up with a chopstick. Most of it looked properly diluted, so I poured it in the soap. As I did so, I noticed some chunky mica left in the bottom of the spoon. I just poured that in too, thinking, "well it's mixed with alcohol now, I'm sure it will be chemically diluted enough to mix with the soap."

Not so. Even though I used an electric mixer and mixed and mixed, when the soap hardened in the mold, there was tons of ugly mica sitting on the bottom. I tried cutting off the ugly mica and re-pouring into the mold again using what looked like fairly well mixed color. Not so again. Again, ugly mica chunks were at the bottom of the hardened soap. I basically realized this was not going to end, and I've ruined most of the soap.

It's not a fragrance I like either (Passionfruit Rose). Fortunately, I had a moment of inspiration and mixed most of the really ugly soap with Grapefruit Lily fragrance, and I just love the resulting smell, so I'll use the ugliest stuff for my personal use.

Is there anything at all I can do to remediate this problem in the future? I've accepted that there will be a sizable amount of ruined soaps being a new soaper, but I want to mitigate some of the damage.
Thanks!

Look up the soap queen episode on the neon colourants. You need to use glycerin in the future. Water and alcohol don't work with these pigments.

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

Since it's MP, couldn't you just remelt it, then stir again? I'm confused why would you use an electric mixer. Wouldn't you get a lots of bubbles this way?

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

Oh, thanks for the info on glycerin. For some reason I had in my head to mix it with alcohol.

It won't mix in even if you remelt it, I tried that. Mine hadn't mixed into the glycerin properly and I ended up with little specs of pigment on the tops of my soaps (bottoms of the molds). Mine looks neat though.

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

Yeah I figured it was a losing battle after about the 3rd reheat. I'm using a stand up 3D mold (BB Wedding Bells mold) to make my wedding favor soaps. So the mica chunks settle to the bottom of the wedding bells and it's definitely not a cool effect. I guess I'll save the ruined soap and use a different mold for some future birthday present or something. It is just soap after all - it will still clean.

Lesson learned.

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now know as Gwenann's Sudz...

That seems like a lot of mica for 20 oz of soap. I usually start at 1/4 tsp of mica per pound of soap and then add a little more until it's to where I'd like it.

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Genny

Whenever I have a batch like that I usually just use it for personal use. The good news is that almost everything that you could make is still going to be better and cost less than store bought soap, so using it for yourself is still a win! Especially if you like the fragrance.

I put the mica in a little ramiken or tiny plastic take out cup and spray some alcohol in with it, stir it up a little, then pour a little of the melted soap in, mix again, then pour the stirred up mica into my soap, it works fine for me that way.

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

I know someone mentioned it, but just to be clear, the Fired Up Fuchsia is a pigment, NOT MICA. Mica you would mix with alcohol, but the pigment powders require pre-mixing with liquid glycerine. I've made this mistake, too!