Teach Soap

I feel silly asking this first question, but what does it mean when a soap "zaps"?

The second question, can you put fresh things in CP soap? For example, if I mush up raspberries can I use them to colour CP soap?

I've never made CP soap yet, and don't plan on it until I've done LOTS of research.

Thanks so much!

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Mandy

Hi Mandy, welcome to soap making.

I am a 2 year old newbie but I hope I can answer your questions correctly.

You test your soap after un-molding to see if it is lye heavy by wetting your finger and rubbing on the soap and "tasting". If you only taste soap, your good to go. If you get Zapped, it's supposd to feel like licking a 9-volt battery. I believe that some methods of soap making (non-gel, in the freezer) can still zap after a few days, so it's probably best to test after a few days of curing.

As for fresh ingredients in cp soap, you need to puree them or juice them. Larger chunks will go rancid in your soap. For me, Raspberries color soap a "muddy" fleshy pink that only gets worse over time and the spots from the puree, get brown. I don't get "good" color from fruit, it's probably best to use other natural colorants like alkanet root powder (purple) or turmeric (orange) pink clay (pink of course) and I like spirulina (green).

Hope this helps

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"Maintaining Balance Between People and Nature"

It helped a lot! Thank you.

Do some of the natural colorants give strange scents to the soap?

I'm giggling about the zapping, because I have experienced a 9 volt battery on my tongue. I did some silly things in my childhood. lol

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Mandy

I don't get a smell from the cured soap with the ones I mentioned, but I believe on here someone said to be careful about kelp powder because it does leave a smell if you use to much. Maybe others will chime in to give us some idea about others to watch out for. I only color a select number of my soaps because I prefer them that way, so I haven't tried many of the other natural colorants out there.

Have fun!

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"Maintaining Balance Between People and Nature"

Some herbs or natural colorants can give you an odor in soap. Be aware that herbs that contain chlorophyll or are green will oxidize and turn brown after a time. And I agree with dustygarden about zapping or using fresh fruit or veggie chunks. I don't gel, so my soaps can zap up to three days later.

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