A flexible magnet I had would stick to the bottom but not the sides....And the discoloration was only in the bottom of the bowl.
Here's what happened that made me raise an eyebrow and wonder what was going on here.
I had 75 ounces of oatmeal milk at room temp (made the day before). I added my lye to it as well as 1 tbs lavender oxide. The temp shot up to 212 or so but did not boil. At first it had a nice lavender color to it. Once it cooled down to 145 I re-stirred it one last time and my lavender disappeared. I then went to pour the mixture into my large stainless mixing pot and then was when I noticed the black on the bottom. But it blended well and looked like an opaque tan, like any other oatmeal soap I've made.
After I transferred it to my slow cookers and began cooking it I noticed it got really dark and it seemed like it was rising to the surface. It continued to be dark throughout the cook. Then I scented and molded it and once it hardened it no longer appeared dark. Looks pretty normal, minus the lavender hue I hoping for. So not sure what exactly transpired here. I am going to un-mold it and cut it up in a bit so I'm hoping I don't get any more surprises inside the loaves. But my leftovers that I put in paper cups then stick in the fridge look fine and there's no problem with them.
So someone tell me, I am adding the oxides at the wrong point? I thought oxides were safe and advisable to add to lye solutions. Most of the time I use natural food-based colorants that I either oil-extract or add late in the cook to retain coloring.
