Teach Soap

Last week I made the palm-free recipe at soapqueen.com (http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body- ... -tutorial/). I had recently made green soap, so I decided to make blue and white soap. I added Super Pearly White Mica to one half and Sapphire low ph lab color to the other half. Because the soap was buttery yellow and the lab color was a deep blue, I was expecting I might get a tinge of green on the blue side. What I got was red. I am certain that I had blue, because I spilled a bunch on the counter. Does this make sense to anyone?

Also, it is the second time that I have made this recipe and it has been crumbly both times. I am certain the second time around that I am following the directions properly (pure OO, mix at 130F).

Thanks for the help!
Heather

The low ph labcolors are meant for MP soaps. So that may be your problem there. I will check with AM and BB about the recipe though.

The crumbles can be due to several things, but the two most likely usually are 1)because it has overheated during saponification or 2) because the loaf wasn't cut soon enough.

As for your colorant, you said you used a low ph lab color. I only use natural colorants, but I know that some herbals react differently in different ph levels. What is red in a high ph will be blue in a lower ph, so my guess is that your colorant is reacting to the ph level of your soap, just like some of my herbs do.

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

At what temp did you combine oils and lye? Did you reach true trace? Did the soap gel? It's hard to troubleshoot soap that's crumbly, unless you give us more info.

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

I'm really curious about the temps that you soaped at as well. Does it look like the soap might have a case of bad soda ash?

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Happy Soaping!

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

Sounds like you got a partial gel, which can make parts of the soap crumbly. Next time, make sure that you get your soap in full gel.

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

I had a loaf the color got weird too but I think it was because I used PKO which gives me "intresting" textured soap sometimes AND it had partially gelled the difference in the soap textures and colors from the gellled and non gelled part was very noticeable..i didnt even want to give those soaps away

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www.cocosbuttersoap.com

I haven't made that recipe so I don't know the temperature it recommends but 130 *F is pretty high. Try soaping around 110*F next time.

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Linda

I learn so much when I can't leave well enough alone!