Batch 2&3: Blue Goo and Baby Poo

[GreenDragon]

You might have heard that Texas got a little rain over the weekend. Thankfully we were not in the red zone, only getting 9", but it still made for a wet and lazy weekend. Being bored, I raided the house looking for things to make some more batches of soap out of. I played around with SoapCalc using the ingredients on hand and came up with CP two recipes.

Batch 1: Coconut (30), Crisco (10), Grapeseed (25), Olive (15), Peanut (20). Melted some blue candle wax coloring into the hot oil. Ground some Allspice berries and cloves up and suspended them in a little Gin, added some Sandallwood FO, and set aside. Soaped at 110F using Stick Blender. Beautiful blue/turquoise color at trace. Added fragrances - instant ricing. Tried blending into submission, and poured into a container. After 3 days popped out and cut. Top layer soft and gooey, bottom layer hard and crumbly. Named it "Blue Goo". Assume this is un-salvageable. Note to self - Clove oil is know to cause ricing. :neutral:

Batch 2: Almond (10), Avocado (20), Coconut (25), Grapeseed (20), Lard (25). Soaped at 110F. Added Green Candle wax coloring thinking to accentuate the green oils. Decided to scent with Lemongrass EO and mint. Was out of mint extract so used mint tea instead of water in Lye Mixture (saw several recipes like this). Don't! As soon as the lye hit the tea it turned it cloudy deep brown. Still smelled minty so I decided to use it anyway and hope the brown would fade. Traced well, and set up nicely. Cut easily and the texture is very silky and creamy. Set out to dry / cure. I expect that they will be slightly soft bars, but I'll start tweaking this recipe to fix that. Smells wonderful - mint and lemon grass. My only concern is that it has the color and look of a spinach Baby Poo blow out.

 

[earlene]

I've never had the courage to use melted candle wax coloring. When I was new I bought some wax melts that I thought I'd try, but decided just to use them for their intended purpose and benefit from the fragrance they gave to the room when they melt. I was afraid if I did use the wax tarts it would ruin my soap and now looking at your blue goo, I'm glad I never did that.

But your green soap looks okay to me. I actually like the color, but it looks a little uneven. I suspect perhaps the wax is hard to thoroughly blend into the batter unless you soap at high temperatures.

I guess another concern for me was that the fragrance in the wax tarts I bought was probably not skin safe, so another reason I'm glad I never followed through on that plan. Is the colorant in candle wax body safe?

P.S. I'm glad you are safe from the storm.

 

[Obsidian]

I bet some of the problem with batch #1 was the gin. You can't use alcohol in CP, it reacts with the lye and causes all kinds of trouble.

 

[GreenDragon]

I was afraid if I did use the wax tarts it would ruin my soap and now looking at your blue goo, I'm glad I never did that.

But your green soap looks okay to me. I actually like the color, but it looks a little uneven. I suspect perhaps the wax is hard to thoroughly blend into the batter unless you soap at high temperatures.

I guess another concern for me was that the fragrance in the wax tarts I bought was probably not skin safe, so another reason I'm glad I never followed through on that plan. Is the colorant in candle wax body safe?

P.S. I'm glad you are safe from the storm.

Hi Earline,

Yes, the wax color is skin safe. The reason there are dark spots of green is that I tried to add more to darken up the color right before the poor, but the small amount I melted into some almond oil instantly set when I poured it in the mix and the mixer just ground it up and distributed the chunks! LOL Because it's very concentrated only a tiny amount is needed. I think it would have been really pretty if I hadn't used the Tea as my liquid. Also I think I had a little bit of gelling happen during the set.

I bet some of the problem with batch #1 was the gin. You can't use alcohol in CP, it reacts with the lye and causes all kinds of trouble.

Yep, I thought I could get away with just a small amount, but i guess wrong!

 

[Kittish]

Yep, I thought I could get away with just a small amount, but i guess wrong!

You might be able to get away with using a little bit of alcohol as a carrier adding it into a HP soap after it cooks (which also would neatly sidestep the problems clove is known to cause). After all, alcohol is one of the solvents used to make transparent soap.