anyone ever use Black Nebula carrot puree in a soap?

[kasilofchrisn]

I know I haven't been on here in a while but I have a new idea for a soap.
I canned up my experimental carrots that I grew this year.
One of my experimental carrots is the black nebula carrot that I got seeds for from Baker Creek heirloom seed company.
These carrots are a very dark purple/black throughout the carrot.
Supposably these carrots can even be used as a mild dye.
Well judging by the way my hands look after peeling them I would agree.
They also colored the water black in the jars during the canning process
So I was thinking of making a carrot puree soap such as the one from the soap Queen on YouTube.
I'm wondering if you think this would turn out okay or if someone else has possibly tried this already?
The one picture shows the black nebula next to an orange colored carrot for reference.
I canned some orange carrots the same time as the Black Nebula.

 

[violets2217]

That is something I'd love to see! Definitely following this post. What do they taste like? I'm so curious. If it were me, I'd try out the canning water as replacement water first, just to see if the color is affected by the lye. I wouldn't want to waste those beautiful carrots!

 

[Obsidian]

Yep, do a test with some of the water. Purple botanicals tend to turn brown. It would be awesome if they kept their color.

 

[kasilofchrisn]

The flavor of these carrots is not that great.
My regular carrots are on 9 to a 9.5 out of 10.
Alaska grown carrots are always super sweet and supposedly tested sweeter than carrots grown in any other state.
But these carrots were more like a 7.5.
Not quite as sweet and more earthy in favor.
I'm not worried about having enough carrots.
And using these in a soap is certainly not wasting them!
I think I have 11 or 12 half pints of the black nebula.
My main carrot bed probably produced 60 lb of carrots for me this year.
Probably only half or 2/3 of what it produced last year.
But it was a cooler rainier summer and a tougher one for gardening in general.
I'll probably just try with some of the carrot puree and I will definitely use the water for the lye water portion of the soap.
Here is an excerpt from the description on the baker Creek website:

This fine carrot is delicious raw or cooked! It’s also used as a dye, and it makes a stunning dark purple juice. Add a squeeze of lemon to turn juice bright pink. Amazingly, it retains its color after cooking and is incredibly high in anthocyanins and a 100 gram serving provides more than half of the daily recommended amount of vitamin C. If left in the garden, it makes an exquisite white, flower umbel tinged with lavender. A supremely sweet and heat-tolerant carrot.

 

[earlene]

Since the orange color of orange carrots color soap within the yellow to orange spectrum, I would definitely try the purple carrots in soap at the same rate. They may not be as dark as the color you see in the cooked or canned carrots, but I do believe there is something in the carotene that makes the color stick. And apparently purple carrots have about double the carotene as orange carrots.

 

[Cat&Oak]

It would be incredible if it holds its gorgeous color. Can't wait to see how your soap turns out!

 

[kasilofchrisn]

Since the orange color of orange carrots color soap within the yellow to orange spectrum, I would definitely try the purple carrots in soap at the same rate. They may not be as dark as the color you see in the cooked or canned carrots, but I do believe there is something in the carotene that makes the color stick. And apparently purple carrots have about double the carotene as orange carrots.

I didn't think it would turn the soap completely black but I was thinking I might end up with a nice purple color.
The description of this carrot from the baker Creek website says that it has been used as a dye.
So fingers crossed it turns out looking good.
I do plan to use the water from the carrot jars as a portion of my lye water.
I don't think there's enough water in the jars to supply all of the lye water I need. But I guess I won't know until I get to make it and weighing and measuring everything out.
Then I'll puree the canned carrots for that part of the recipe.

 

[artemis]

Add a squeeze of lemon to turn juice bright pink... Amazingly, it retains its color after cooking...

The fact that it retains it's color after cooking is promising. However, changing it's color with lemon juice suggests that the color is pH sensitive. I still think you should try it, but I suspect that the color is going to change after the lye hits it. I'm very curious to see what happens!

 

[Babyshoes]

I would initially try a very small amount (spoonfuls) of the water with a reasonable amount of lye, left for a few hours/overnight, just as an experiment to see if it changes colour at high pH.
The results can then go down your sink to clean your drains.

If it doesn't go brown, please do go ahead with your small batch soap experiment... I'll be interested to see your results.

 

[Sweet Potato Soapl]

There's nothing to it but to do it. If the color changes the soap will still contain the properties that the black nebula carrot brings to the party. Carrot makes a very nice soap MY eczema prone skin loves.

 

[kasilofchrisn]

I'm out of town for work right now.
But when I get home I'll do some testing with the lie and the carrot water.
And I'll certainly post up my finished results good or bad!

 

[Johnez]

The fact that it retains it's color after cooking is promising. However, changing it's color with lemon juice suggests that the color is pH sensitive. I still think you should try it, but I suspect that the color is going to change after the lye hits it. I'm very curious to see what happens!

Yes, very interesting.

If this stuff is pH sensitive as the lemon juice indicates, and temperature insensitive....would this maybe keep it's color in HP soap? Being lye would likely have fully reacted with the fats?

 

[artemis]

Yes, very interesting.

If this stuff is pH sensitive as the lemon juice indicates, and temperature insensitive....would this maybe keep it's color in HP soap? Being lye would likely have fully reacted with the fats?

I don't think so-- soap itself has a high pH, even after a lengthy cure.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

With anthocyanins, pH 9 or pH 14 can make all of the difference between “turning blue” and “turning yellow and decay within minutes”. Worth a try – it has much higher chances to survive the (comparatively) mild alkaline milieu of HP soap (or liquid soap), than the caustic inferno that CP batter is.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Don't want to rain on your parade, but I infused raw beets in oil -- ages ago. Beautiful beet red oil turned brown when soaped. That being said, I'm hoping for the best!

TIP: Based on @ResolvableOwl 's input, I would HP; add 1 tsp.- 1 tbls. PPO white Kaolin clay to the oils before adding the lye solution to lay down a foundation for the color. Add the puree after the cook. Make sure to stir for 1 full minute before pouring.

Option #1 - If that works, I would make a second batch with lemon juice at 1/3rd of the liquid used to make the lye solution but added to the oils before adding the lye solution, just for fun.

Option #2 - IME, infused oil seems to hold color better than water-based dyes like herbal teas in most cases. (Indigo being one exception.) So if there's a raw carrot available, I can't help but wonder if Carrot Tissue Oil might be worth a go?

 

[kasilofchrisn]

Don't want to rain on your parade, but I infused raw beets in oil -- ages ago. Beautiful beet red oil turned brown when soaped. That being said, I'm hoping for the best!

TIP: Based on @ResolvableOwl 's input, I would HP; add 1 tsp.- 1 tbls. PPO white Kaolin clay to the oils before adding the lye solution to lay down a foundation for the color. Add the puree after the cook. Make sure to stir for 1 full minute before pouring.

Option #1 - If that works, I would make a second batch with lemon juice at 1/3rd of the liquid used to make the lye solution but added to the oils before adding the lye solution, just for fun.

Option #2 - IME, infused oil seems to hold color better than water-based dyes like herbal teas in most cases. (Indigo being one exception.) So if there's a raw carrot available, I can't help but wonder if Carrot Tissue Oil might be worth a go?

Sorry but there's no raw carrots left.
Well not the black nebula anyway.
I do have some Bolero, Hercules, and sugar snack carrots left but they're just a typical orange carrot.
I haven't yet played around with hot process soap.
So most likely I'm just going to start with making a cold processed soap and seeing what comes of it.
If if the color doesn't hold I suppose I'll still end up with a decent carrot soap that I can use.
It just won't look as pretty as I was hoping for.