Teach Soap

Hi, All!
I've got a puzzlement ... made some soaps 3 days ago, using dark blue mica to get a pale blue opaque, and it worked fine. Today, though, I've noticed that my lovely blue ground is turning pink. Actually, it's 2-tone at the moment; blue (mainly) on the base and pink at the top. Can anyone tell me why or how this has happened?
Horses head 4.jpg [ 23.52 KiB | Viewed 5783 times ]

Horses head 5.jpg [ 18.72 KiB | Viewed 5782 times ]

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I am sorry I can't help you with your coloring problem, Captain Bubbles, but I had to pop in to tell you "Great job!" on the horse! You even gave the horse a blaze! How did you do that? I have that mold, but haven't ventured to use it yet.
Very pretty soap, even if the background is turning colors!
Steph

The horse looks like it might be a little lighter as well.... did you have the soaps sitting in sunlight? That can do it....

Hi, Stephanie and Bramble Momma!
You're right, Bramble Momma, it does look as though the horse has faded, but it's simply the way I photographed the soaps; thankfully the horse is still the colour it should be! They haven't been in sunlight (if we had any sun to stand them in I'd be sooo grateful - it's rained for nigh on 4 weeks here!) It's bizarre, and I'm nervous of using the same colour again.

Thank you, Stephanie! The blaze is dribbled on with a pipette, ditto the mane, forelock and rope border. Truly tedious, and I've had some very strangely patterned horses! It's a tricky mould to work with, though, because one of the moulds on the sheet points the other way, so the detailing has to be done bit by bit. They sell well, though - I'm just praying that the colour doesn't disappear altogether!

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CaptainBubbles, I'm having the same problem! I've been using Super Green & Amethyst in white LCP with no trouble, until the past 2-3 months - suddenly Super Green goes from a sage green-grey to pale yellow, & Amethyst fades VERY quickly (a day or less) to pale pink! I keep all my soap in the basement, nice & dark, & am using the same batch of FOs as when I first started & had no trouble with the colors... So frustrating!

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I have no idea, but it looks pretty!

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

Wow that is some really stunning work!

As to your fading, I have a couple of questions. You describe the mica you used as dark blue. Was the mica plate (the little sparkle particle) the only color or was there an ultramarine or oxide for a background color? Has the color of the sparkle changed or just the background, or both? I'm not sure I can come up with an answer for you, but we can narrow down some of the possibilities at least

The funny thing about mica is that it isn't really the color you see, the color we see is light reflecting through a mica base that is topped with a thin titanium dioxide plate, the thickness of that plate determines the color being reflected. So I don't think your mica in the bar will fade away entirely, but without knowing more about what you used I can't really say more than that right now.

I'm sure you will be able to sell them in their pink state (just not to as many men, I know), they really are exquisite!

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Thank you all for the help, and for the compliments ...!
Supersoaper, ref the mica plate, I don't know the answer to that! We've got a microscope lurking somewhere in the house, so as soon as I've woken up I'll take a look at a smear of the mica and see if I can spot anything. Completely pointless exercise, I'm sure, but it'll make a nice photo!

Got up this morning to find that they've turned pink ... a much nicer shade than the yukky lilac they were yesterday! Wonder what'll happen when they get wet ... ? Be cool if they turned blue again - Colour-changing Soap! Luckily the main buyers of these soaps are little girls, who either have or want a pony, so at least they turned pink and not green! What I think I'll do is make a tiny batch of opaque M&P with no FO but the same blue mica, and see what happens. I'm at a market tomorrow, so wish me luck!

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Lol, I am sorry I am not being clear. What I was asking is, did the color of the sparkles in the mica change? You know how gold mica has gold sparkles and silver mica has silver sparkles? Did the mica you used have blue sparkles that turned pink? Or did the color of the sparkles stay the same? I was using the term plate to describe the glittery bits (sometimes I lapse into technical terms, sorry) that are visible to the naked eye.

I hope you did well yesterday

Next let's get a discussion going about how soap is a lyotropic liquid crystal!

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Super Blue Mica is a fader and we suggest using UV Inhibitor with it. Is that the color you used potentially?

I agree - I LOVE the detail work you did. It looks awesome!!!!

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Happy Soaping!

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

Supersoaper ... love the idea of a lyotropic crystal blog ... ! !

The mica I used isn't very sparkly when it's mixed into the base, so impossible to tell. I imagine they turned pink, because otherwise the dark blue plates would be visible, and the soap's an even, pale pink. The mica supplier has suggested that it reacts to alkali, so I've got to play around and see if that's the case. My gut feeling, though, as Soap Queen suggests (thank you!) is that it simply fades. Which makes it pretty much useless unless you like candyfloss pink! I'm going to try various bases, though, and might throw a bit of vinegar into a small batch to see if the alkali argument holds up.

The Farmers Market went well, but I didn't sell a single pink horse!! Or a chestnut one, come to that, so perhaps it just wasn't a Horse Day. Your comments about the detailing are gratefully received, Anne Marie - thank you! Wish we could get your angled syringe over here, though ... pipettes are truly useless for tiny work. I don't recall seeing a UV inhibitor for sale here in the UK (which doesn't mean they're not available) but we're such a complaining lot over here that I won't risk it again; I'll just use blue pigment. Must post a pic of the pink one, so you can see the full story!!

Thank you all so much ...
J xx

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Tired? Depressed? Sick of the weather? Talk to your doctor about the benefits of Chardonnay ...