Brown bubbles from vanilla in fragrance

[chibilightangel]

Has anyone else gotten brown bubbles from a fragrance with lots of vanilla? I was rather surprised that a no colorant added soap gave me very brown lather.

I used a white soap recipe (made it a few times before so I know it stays nice), with only a maple fragrance (which turned out to be high in vanilla with no color added). Once made and soap gelled, the soap is a very dark brown almost black color. 4 week cure later, lathers beautifully if you disregard the brown color of it. Only thing special with the base recipe was that instead of using my regular oatmilk for water, I used half water and half 35% cream at trace.

So the question is, can I expect most high vanilla fragrances to produce brown bubbles if no other color is used?

 

[soapbuddy]

I find fragrances with a high % of vanilla give me brown suds; like Pink Sugar. I no longer make soap with it.

 

[Jezzy]

Any FO containing vanilla will turn brown or tan (some vanilla FO's don't turn brown but they usually say that)
It wasn't the milk or oatmilk...

I had one once. Pink Cherry Cake. It smelled divine!!! It was one of my first soaps ever. I was horrified to watch this beautiful smelling soap turn an ugly brown.

You could try and use TD to keep it whiter.

 

[falldowngobump]

I love vanilla based scents although I know it's going to make my soap dark to light brown and yes, the bubbles are not white. I try to make the soap a little prettier by taking out a cup or so of the unscented soap batter to do a swirl. I pour the scented into the mold, and then pour in the unscented and swirl. The resulting soap looks brownish with creamish colored swirls. Sort of adds a little interest to an otherwise brown or tan soap. This is my goatsmilk scented with Oatmeal Milk and Honey--it always turns everything dark tan.

 

[reallyrita]

I do the same thing now. I do an ITP swirl with some of the unscented soap and even the dark brown soaps look more appealing with the white swirl. Still get those tan bubbles though.

 

[JackiK]

I received a salt bar from a forum member with a vanilla-based scent. The aroma is divine and I love the bar itself. Even if the suds are tannish-brown, they rinse away quite well. I can see where it's an issue; but, dang, they smell good!!

 

[chibilightangel]

I was expecting the brown color to the soap (ok, not quite to the extent that I got since it started as a dark butterscotch and turned nearly black when exposed to air). The suds being brown was the surprise for me.

I'd made another soap that had a fair amount of vanilla in it (honey and nut fragrance) but had also swirled some of the batter with cocoa powder. I ended up with a light brown and dark brown, which was fine by me. Up until today, I'd assumed that the brown suds were due to the cocoa powder only, but I'm starting to rethink that now.

Unfortunately no soaping for me for 4 days as I'm going on a work trip. Hopefully I'll be able to get a batch or two in when I get back if the garden isn't screaming too loudly for attention.

 

[Dragonkaz]

I love FO's with vanilla and I love the colour of the soap and the bubbles.

With Dragon's Blood I added a gold mica swirl (to unscented soap) and balls coloured with black and raspberry pop mica. I love the dark colour the soap becomes ... it just seems so right with that divine rich smell!