Teach Soap

Hello,

I am a newbie and I have been learning by reading your posts for some months. By the way: THANK YOU ALL for sharing your experiences! So glad I found this forum.
Today I need some advices about colours, pefrumes and recepie in general.


I am making CP soaps,
7% SF, OO 45%, Cocoa Butt.5%, CO 29%, Palm O 22%,
temp. around 110-120F, using soapcalc for lye and water (water:lye 2:1, 33% lye concentration.)
What do you think on that recepie? Is it ok with 7% SF due to high CO?
I used 8 % SF on my lavendel soap and I put some dried lavendel flowers on the top but after 4 weeks 3 of 25 bars started to get some brown spots right under some flowers. What caused those spots (assuming DOS)? Maybe too hight SF or it has something to do with dried lavendel flowers? Will this spots expand? I always cure them for full 6 weeks.

I have a question for all soapmakers who use vibrant (pigment) colours. I love colours but I am allways having trouble on how much colour to add to get the desired colour and not staining the lather. I had some bad experience with cocoa powder – I added it too much and the brown colour was (temporarily) everywhere where the soap was. I bought some liquid pigments and also have some powdered ones but I am not sure how much to add them. I tried yellow and brown and didn't used enough so the colours were very pale. I used other producer's violet pigment for lavendel soap and I added about the same quantity for almost triple total fats and was able to make a beautiful violet swirl. (All my pigments are EU producers).I was told the pigments don't bleed. Does this mean also that they don't stain the lather or this two terms are completely different?
What do you do if the soap is staining? Do you sell them anyway?

I have a delicious chocolate FO which caused ricing. Next day I cut the soap and there were still seen those »grains« and there were some liquid leaking out of them. I assume it was PO since I didn't mixed well after it started to ricing. This was my first experience with this thing and I stoped mixing and just pured into a mold. How can I know the soap would be safe after 6 weeks – besides using my tonque?
What can I do next time to avoid ricing?
Thanks for sharing your wisdome with us.

Claire

The size of the batch will determine how much colorant you are going to use. I separated a 3 lb batch into 4 containers (12 oz each) and I used about a tablespoon of a powdered neon colorant for each one. I swirled with 4 different colors and I do have a slightly pink lather. Not bad but I can see it. As far as adding lavender buds or a host of other botanicals, most of them will turn brown and look like mouse turds after curing. There is not much you can do about that. The batch that riced, if you do happen to experience ricing again, most of the time you can continue to stir and eventually beat it back into submission. I would be leary of the spots that are leaking. You may have lye pockets that did not get fully incorporated. I would zap test it with your tongue. I am not sure if you could rebatch or not. How long ago was the soap made? Hope this helps some.

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Haven

Thanks Hvrba! Of course every comment helps me.
I made the ricing batch 3 days ago and is curing now. I will give it a few weeks and see what happens. Smells so good though I don't expect much.
As for lavendel batch I know the buds go brown (sooner or later) but the thing that concernes me is brown spot on the soap right on the place, where the bud (just some of them, not all) is in touch with a soap. I had some experiences with DOS in the past and my heart gos wild everytime I go to check this one since it is really the nicest one I have ever done.