Second batch

Definitely trying to run before I can walk here, but that's kinda just me all over. This soap didn't come out badly, especially for an experimental batch.



Coconut oil 25% 228g
Palm kernel flakes 5% 45g
Castor oil 5% 51g
Canola oil 45% 410g
Shea butter 20% 185g

NaOH 128g
Water 194g

HP cook to gel (took for-freakin-EVER), then add solvents:

Glycerine 153g
Propylene glycol 363g
Sugar solution 242g (115g sugar dissolved in 127g water)

Scented with lavender, cedarwood, and ylang ylang EOs. Smells kind of like "Fresh" or "Spring Air" type scents. But without the massive migraine that I get from synthetic fragrance. Yay.

The color... yea. Indigo. I don't know if it came out that color because of how I prepped it (strained the powder out of my lye water, which seems to have removed most of the blue compounds), or because of morphing during the cook and solvent stages. It did change color several times, between quite a few shades of grey and green. Never was blue.

Because of the shea butter, this soap probably would never have gone more than translucent, so I'm not too worried about that part.

You can always add more colorant after remelting the soap.

lsg said:

You can always add more colorant after remelting the soap.

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Could, but I'm actually not entirely unfond of the color it came out. Kind of looks like jade, and works with the scent. I might melt and recolor part of it, but some I'm going to leave as is and see how it cures out.

Id love to be able.to get that translucent like.look

So, I think I'm about ready to declare this batch a failure. I test washed with a bar the other day, about a month into curing, and it just started melting. To the point where it kept dripping thick goo for a while after I put it on a rack to dry out again.

The color is also fading, it's gone to mostly a pale yellow. Not as nice as the green was, but still not horrible. Still looks a lot like jade. The scent is holding ok, no real surprise there.

The question becomes, should I try to melt it down and treat it like a rebatch? Let it cure longer to see if it gets to a point where it's not all melty when it's used? Or just toss the batch and try again from scratch? Or D : All of the above?

"Natural" colorants generally do not last. Indigo is an especially weird one because it frequently morphs and depending on your supplier you don't always know what you are getting. I found to get that "blue jeans" blue, I add to add a whole lot and it still faded to an ugly gray by months 6-8.

I suspect your "goo" is from your additives. Did you add the extra glycerin because you wanted more humectant properties? Why the antifreeze - propylene glycol?

I would suggest rebatching with some other soap, not just on it's own.

I'm not terribly fussed about the color, I didn't really expect it to last.

I was trying to make a transparent/translucent/glycerin soap. I know it wouldn't have actually gone clear because of the shea. Propylene glycol is used in place of ethyl alcohol as one of the solvents, it's supposed to be easier to work with.

Unfortunately, too much glycerin gives you the goo. You could always add some clear M&P soap to your CP soap to achieve your translucency.

Apparently there are (at least) 2 types of indigo. One is green (for hair) and one is blue. If you use too much colour it leeches out. They do fade.

Cindy2428 said:

Unfortunately, too much glycerin gives you the goo. You could always add some clear M&P soap to your CP soap to achieve your translucency.

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I'm kind of set on doing a made from scratch translucent soap. Just me being weirdly me- I have these atavistic anachronistic fits from time to time.

I'll try an actual recipe for the DIY transparent next time I attempt it, like the one on the M&P board. The recipe I used for this batch was one I cobbled together myself, and I guess I got the proportion of solvents wrong.

You have definitely chosen a very difficult soap to make. Good soaping to you and I hope you succeed!