Teach Soap

Hi, it's so wonderful to be part of this wonderful community. I've been cp soaping for about a month and am falling more in love with it on a daily basis. I make palm free soaps and have been experimenting with recipes. Had a couple of questions and would be most grateful for any help.

First, I live in a country where access to colourants, fragrances etc I'd very limited. I am waiting for an order from brambleberry which was shipped to a friend in the States who will visit next month but in the meantime I have been using food safe colours to experiment with in my cp soaps. My question is I'm hoping these are totally safe and have no side effects or are not harmful in any way?

Second, I'm finding that my soaps generally get to thick trace pretty quick, despite only lightly blending them. While I mix in the colours often they have reached thick trace and are difficult to pour and I end up having to spoon them in thereby not being v successful with any designs. I have tried a few different recipes including the rock soap recipe on soap queen but not v successfu with the pouring and design work.
I would love a link/ explanation on how to recalculate palm recipes into palm free recipes and what the rough percentages of hard and soft oils and butters should be. Any help or direction would be much appreciated.

And finally would anyone have a recipe for a basic melt and pour transparent base to make from scratch? I have access to all the oils but not to any ready made bases and would love to experiment with m and p soaps too.

Many thanks for all the help in advance.
Mish

Welcome!
Food coloring is not meant for soap. It can bleed, morph or fade. It is not meant for this purpose.
Making MP soap from scratch is a time consuming process. Some recipes require DPG or straight alcohol.
If you are truly interested, there is a book on amazon that you can buy. I think it's called Making Melt N' Pour base from scratch.

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

Hi Mish
I have only been making soap for 18 months, when I first started I just went on line and watched soap making videos, Soaping 101 is a really informative soaping channel on You Tube? Plus of course Anne Marie on Soap Queen!
I read many books, and have tried heaps of different recipes - there are a lot more experienced soapers on here than I , but you have to start somewhere, and its all about trial and error!
There are heaps of recipes out there.......
I have used this recipe, its slow moving and palm free, hardens up after 6 weeks
72% olive oil
25 % coconut oil
3% castor

From my experience you can use the same recipe and get different results depending on the fragrance oil, additives, temperatures?

Why don't you try colouring your soap with natural ingredients?
For reds–cherries, beets, or cranberries
For blue, blueberries
For yellow, turmeric or saffron.
Other spices like paprika or chili powder for orangey colors
Spinach and all sorts of other veggies or herbs would work for green
Use just enough water to cover vegetables and fruits and for spices, use one tablespoon per cup of water. Simmer it down to really concentrate the color into a small amount of liquid. Let cool then strain out fruits/veggies from the liquid.
(Pour it through cheesecloth to finely strain out herbs and spices.) Add just a little bit at a time at trace till you get the color you want

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Diane

Reds–cherries, beets, or cranberries oxidize and turn tan to brown.
Blue like blueberries oxidizes and will not keep the blue color either.
Some natural greens fade completely or turn yellow over time.
Paprika can be used, but it needs to be strained. Otherwise your soap will be scratchy.
Chili powder can be irritating in soap. I would not use it.

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

Thanks Irena. Food colourants are not in any way harmful are they? That's my main concern. I know they are not great for soap but since I have nothing else available here till my brambleberry package arrives I thought it would be a good way to experiment.

Also any leads on how to convert palm oil recipes to palm free with other oils etc would be great!

Thanks so much

Are these food colorants you get at the store? Or are these something you have special ordered? I have used FD&C food colorants, which are super concentrated. You can use those in TEENSY amounts.

You can also try crayons. http://www.millersoap.com/soapdesign.html#Color

Another option is frosting colorant.

Not all crayons or frosting colors will work. I'm not sure how things are labeled in your country so I don't know which ones to tell you to use!

You can also Google "natural soap colorants" and you will find things in your grocery store you can use. Some good ones are dried parsley (green), beta carotene (yellow or orange), and cocoa powder (brown).

FD&C colorants are different then food coloring, even though they use some of the same colors. The processing is different.
If you are not selling, feel free to try,.

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

Diane thanks so. Uh for your reply!! Have been testing natural ingredients too and will continue with the ones you have suggested.
And thanks so much for the recipe - can't wait to try that one!!
Much appreciated

Dixiedragon, just checking out the crayon website sounds so interesting
I live in India and the food colours I use are generally meant for icing cakes etc
Thanks for all the advice

PLEASE do not use crayons! They are not cosmetic grade and your product could be labeled as misbranded by the FDA with fines involved. They could also confiscate all your products.

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