Teach Soap

Hi! I have some mica's that faded I didn't know they would. I took the pictures right after I unmolded the soap since I like to take the pictures before they get all murky looking from the plastic wrap. Now my lime swirl soap which I used Super Green Mica in, is now a "mountain dew" color and my mangosteen soap which was a swirl of merlot and amethyst is now pink where the amethyst was
Now I have to retake the pictures since I have these listed to sell. I'm disappointed there was no warning about fading.
These have not be sitting in any light and I know it's not the FO since I have a soap sheet of the green I was making cut outs with, that had no FO in it. I parcially made this post to "warn" others of the fading affects of these two colors. I hope it isn't just me though! lol If it's not going to be amethyst or green then why bother. Now I'm paranoid about buying any mica but I love them!
Should I email BB and tell them they both fade quickly?
I did notice both of these have this ingredient in it : ferric ferrocyanide
Not sure if that makes any difference, but the others I bought aside from Antiqued blue (which does state it does not fade in the listing) don't have that ingredient in it. should I stay away from mica's with that ingredient in it?

Ooooo, ShinyCat, I'm so sorry - I'd had the same problems earlier last year & had meant to post about it in detail... Both Amethyst & Super Green wash out in 1-3 days to pale pink & a miserable yellow. These are the only 2 micas I've had issues with - Merlot, Apricot, Luster Black, Cappuccino, Sparkle Gold & Silver are all perfectly stable in my experience.

I ran into trouble with getting a purple color when BB discontinued their Lavender mica & I switched to Amethyst. That began a ridiculously frustrating couple of months as I tried to figure out WTH was going on

Fast forward to now - to get lavender, I've started using Ultraviolet oxide, which is beautiful & totally stable. For my greens, I'm using LabColors, but plan to test out oxides as well.

Def email BB & let them know - at the least, they will hopefully post a note in the product description so no one else has to go through the nasty surprise you got

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Please visit my Etsy shop!

Thank you for replying Tart! I'm so glad it wasn't just me! Sorry it happened to you also
It sucks too because they are so beautiful in the jar and right after the soap was made.
I guess I will email and tell them about the quick fading. These were less then 3 weeks old.
I'll try the oxide next time or liquid purple. Time to keep notes about color too.
I thought I only had to keep notes on fragrances! lol

Here is my before and after pictures.

Green



Purple (merlot swirl on the right)

The green is beautiful! I can understand it fading in CP but I wouldn't have thought it would have turned to that awful yellow color in M&P.
The other soap doesn't look too bad at least, even tho it's nowhere near as pretty as it was when you poured it. Thanks for posting the pictures.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

no problem! I loved the green when I made it. I kept my soap up since I didn't want to waste 4 bars of Lime soap, but now no one will probably look at it lol. I did change the pictures on my listings, didn't want someone to complain haha.
I originally bought the Super Green for my Grass Soap but decided to use liquid green instead. I'm really glad I did now.
I've used these Mica's the past couple weeks with no problems so far:
Merlot
Honeyed Beige
Cappuccino
Copper Sparkle
Antiqued Blue

I still like both actually! I know that wasn't what you were going for, but to me, the green turned into a nice golden color and the second one still has nice colors, even with fading.

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

Shiny Cat - I'm so sorry about that! It sounds like Courtney in Customer Service is helping you right now.

To make sure you don't use any colors that morph or fade always use micas that have Oxides or Ultramarines in the INCI for the color. That's just a rule of thumb. But I think it is definitely the Ferric Ferrocyanide that is not happy about being in soap!
We've added a note to both of these colors.

Thank you so much for letting us know.

Amber

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Bramble Girl
www.brambleberry.com

Thank you for the quick reply! So it should just say INCI : Mica, iron oxide and if it has Ferric Ferrocyanide then it will probably fade? Both said oxides as part of their INCI description though although one was Tin(purple) and one was Iron (green). Hmm hope that made sense lol
Just want to make sure for future reference.
I appreciate the note on the website now, even though one of my soaps (the green - I made a unscented green sheet for embeds) was in a kitchen cabinet with no light hitting it and it still faded within a 2 weeks.
Thank you again for the reply

I have to agree with you, Shiny - my soaps are stored in a lightless basement, & both Amethyst & Super Green-colored soaps faded within days. I don't think it's the light that's the catalyst.

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Please visit my Etsy shop!

I meant to say Thank you to soapbuddy too!

Tartchef - love your heart "series" soaps!
Thank you for your feedback on these mica's also. It's appreciated! I got a very nice email from them addressing the issue. She said she is going to test them this week along with some other things and that it was the first email they had received about those fading like that.
AAA++ Customer service...I love how fast they get back to you!

Looking at the ingredients of these products I agree that the Ferric Ferrocyanide (also called iron blue) is probably breaking down from being exposed to an alkali. In the Amethyst mica, carmine can also be unstable at high temps.

Light is most definitely not the problem. For what it's worth, I prefer neutral toned mica (looks like a whitish powder) and adding my own ultramarine or oxide to color the background. It can give you a lot more options and you will be using colors you know work in soap.

Hope you are able to resolve this to your satisfaction, and kudos to BB for jumping on this issue.

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