Teach Soap

Hi Everyone,
My soap turning reddish brown really bugged me! I decided I needed to know what exactly caused this.
I think I found out!!!
I took a small amount of the same clear base and followed my actions step by step.
Added FO and vanilla stabilizer - premixed & let it sit for awhile after mixing
Added yellow mica
Mixed all this into the base.
Up to this point the color was a beautiful pale yellow!
I added chopped up Calendula petals.
It still looked fine. I kept gently stirring to suspend the petals - still looking good!
Poured in into the molds. Spritz!
As it hardened, it darkened! It's not that reddish brown color of the first day, but it's not as light as yesterday's batch either.
It was fine until it was poured, spritzed & hardened.
I used vanilla stabilizer from the same bottle as the other two batches. The only difference today from yesterday was I added mica & a few more Calendula Petals. Could this color be caused by the Calendula Petals?
What a mystery!
Any ideas
einnoc

_________________
"Soap is to the body what laughter is to the soul!"

What color was the mica?

Here's a thought. I've seen vanilla stabilizer that was only made for CP soap, then another one for MP. Could you have gotten the wrong one? Which fragrance did you use?

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

I have read on a few websites now that Vanilla can turn a soap brown, maybe thats the problem???

I've been scouring the net to see if calendula would have a bad reaction to any of your above-mentioned ingredients and I can't find anything Plus, every resource says that the calendula should turn the soaps a pretty yellow-orange color. And since the soap was fine before you poured and not so great after it hardened, I would think it's something up with your vanilla stabilizer. It could be a million things, but the one that sticks in my head right now is maybe not enough or too much of the stabilizer was used? I've never used vanilla stabilizer before and haven't been able to find anything on what happens to soaps if too much stabilizer was used The only other thing I can think of, is maybe there's another factor in your FO that has color-changing properties that the stabilizer isn't made to catch?
Ooh... I just found another possibility:
I read a review over at wholesalessuppliesplus that some vanilla stabilizers have the potential to change the color of some dyes, though they didn't go into detail as to which dyes...

Good luck getting this figured out, hun!

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Tamra
New to soaping, long time crafter and artisan, avid learner of new things!

Have you tried a bar with just the FO and the stabilizer?
Stabilizers will only stop discoloration due to vanilla in the FO's it won't stop discolorations from anything else. =)

Thank you all for trying to help me figure this out.
The mica was this beautiful yellow. I bought from BB. It's a lovely color. I used 2 tiny white scoops.
The base was clear from BB - never have had any trouble.
BUT
the FO was Honeysuckle. I used 1 TBL of Honeysuckle & 1 TBL of Vanilla Stabilizer also from BB, mixed together and let it sit.
The Honeysuckle was not a BB FO.
I did look it up & it stated that it had a strong vanilla content, thus the VCS.

I let the whole mixture thicken, kept stirring to get ready to suspend the Calendula. The color was fine.
I don't know how long it takes to turn something brown.

After I added the Calendula Petals, I noticed it getting dark.
I don't know.
I love vanilla but .... every scent I touch now, I'm afraid there is some hidden vanilla in it, that isn't written down and if I don't use VCS
I will ruin my soap! I now have Vanilla Paranoia!
einnoc

_________________
"Soap is to the body what laughter is to the soul!"

If you're not sure about the vanilla content, add a drop or two of the fragrance oil to a small amount of MP soap and set it aside. That way you're not wasting a whole bar.

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

Thank you, Soapbuddy. I did do this - this time, and it was fine.
Can't the color change later?
einnoc

_________________
"Soap is to the body what laughter is to the soul!"

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