Teach Soap

Very new to hot process soap making and have found that my oxides are great colors (green, burgundy and yellow) in the soap but also in the shower! I mixed them very well using 1/2 teaspoon oxide with 1 oz almond oil and added that to about 2 lbs of soap just before putting in my mold. There does not seem to be any undissolved oxide particles in the finished soap but the soap colors all leave their trail in the shower. Must be doing something wrong but can't seem to find any references to hot process colorants and this problem. Thanks

Are you using all these colors in one batch of soap at 1/2 tsp each color?

Also, how old is the soap that you're testing?

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Genny

I usually make a 3lb loaf and have used one color where i used about 1 tsp oxide and also have done two colors in a single loaf with 1/2 tsp of each color. I have made a few dozen different loafs over the past 6 months and recently have been very careful to mix the oxides thoroughly and use a little less color but still seem to get leakage of the color even though these newer bars are only about a month old. I have thought I was just using too much oxide so that is why i have reduced the amount and recently have not done two colors in a loaf trying to figure this out.. thanks for asking

Doesn't sound like you're using too much colorant.

Is the colorant staining the shower or just coming out in the water?

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Genny

Anytime your soap bubbles color, you are using too much colorant. Try premixing your oxides by adding 1/2 teaspoon of oxide into 1 oz of a carrier oil, then mix that well, using a mini mixer. Get all the clumps out then add that mixed oil into the batter portion that you want colored. You do need to be sure and factor the mixing oil into your recipe and check on the lye calculator. In other words, if you need 30 oz of olive oil and you use 1 oz to mix the oxides, only pour 29 oz when preparing your batter or recalculate to get the proper lye amount of 31 oz of oo. You will want to begin with using 1 teaspoon of the mixed color oil into one pound of batter. I think you will find that this is less than what you have been using, but will give you a nice, even color without colored bubbles in the shower.

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

Tammy

For a 3lb loaf I have never used more than 2 tsp of an oxide colorant. I have tried shaking them thoroughly but I will try the mechanical mini mixer to see if I get the oxide into a better solution. I have not been reducing my olive oil to account for the 1 oz that I use for dilution of the oxide. I appreciate the tip. Just so I am clear, what i find is the color in the soap dish as it sits and while washing in the shower, you see the colored water easily going down the drain, staining nothing. Not sure of the correct terminology of what this is called and assume my bubbles are colored! From what I'm hearing hot processing has nothing to do with this, will try less, more mixed oxide colorant and so appreciate the assistance.

If you add the 1/2 teaspoon of oxide into 1 oz of oil and then add 1tsp of that mixture into 1 pound of batter, I think you will be using less than the 2 tsp in 3 lbs of batter that you have been using. But try it and see. And yes, if your sink/drain/holder or what have you is colored, then that is too much colorant.

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

Tammy