Coloring Soap

[JuneP]

Irish Lass, the reason I asked is because a video I was watching on You tube, where the gal has used glycerine to mix her colors, she said she was not going to gel because she wanted to avoid glycerine rivers. So I was curious at what amount of glycerine puts you at risk of ruining your soap.

Interesting technique of covering the soap and putting in an oven and turning off the heat when it reaches 120 degrees. Can I do that with any CP recipe or does the recipe have to be altered? I love the red you're getting, so I will definitely try those colorants in the future.

I'm certainly getting a large file of colors and color combinations to try down the line, and enjoying all these gorgeous soaps you are all sharing with us.

June

 

[IrishLass]

PS: What kind of swirl is this? It's so pretty as is everything else about this soap!

June

It's a hanger swirl that I've nicknamed the 'Ione swirl' (after the soap-maker who's hanger swirl technique inspired me). See Ione's technique here: [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPSn56mdDvQ&list=UU-XsaFN7S6-887kNIUJfqQA[/ame]

Basically what I did first was pour about 2/3rds of my white batter into my log mold.

Next, I lifted my cup of red batter up to a height of about 12" to 18" above my mold and poured most of it (except for a tablespoon or so) into the mold in a thin-streamed, back-and-forth, snake-like pattern from one long end of the mold to the other long end. (you'll see Ione do this in the above video)

Next, I poured all but a tablespoon of my black batter into my mold in the same manner as the red, except that instead of pouring it from one long end to the other in snake-like fashion, I poured it in the opposite direction, i.e., back and forth in snake-like fashion from short-side to short side all along the length of my mold, like how you see Ione do it in the video, only she takes it a step further than I did by changing directions near the end. I pretty much stuck to only pouring the black from side to side without changing directions.

Next, I took my hanger (I use the same kind of regular, unmodified metal hanger that Ione uses in the video) and I maneuvered it through my batter exactly like Ione does in her video, no more, no less.

Next, I poured the remainder of my white batter into the mold in a snake-like pattern from one long end to the other, and then I drizzled the black and red on top in no particular pattern (I just basically glopped them on top in random fashion.)

Finally, I took a chopstick like you see Ione do near the end of her video, and I swirled on top with it in the same exact way as Ione does in her video, no more, no less.

And that was it!

Irish Lass, the reason I asked is because a video I was watching on You tube, where the gal has used glycerine to mix her colors, she said she was not going to gel because she wanted to avoid glycerine rivers. So I was curious at what amount of glycerine puts you at risk of ruining your soap.

Ah, I see. Although I do get glycerin rivers from time to time, it's a very rare occurrence for me. The few times I have gotten them seemed to be caused more by my soap over-heating from a specific FO than by how much or how little water or glycerin I used. For what it's worth, though, I only use enough glycerin to liquefy my powdered colorants 'just so', usually anywhere from 1/2 tsp. to 1 tablespoon, depending on how much colorant I'm using.

Interesting technique of covering the soap and putting in an oven and turning off the heat when it reaches 120 degrees. Can I do that with any CP recipe or does the recipe have to be altered? I love the red you're getting, so I will definitely try those colorants in the future.

You can do that with any CP recipe. The reason why I only go as high as 120F on the oven before turning it off is because I usually soap pretty warm to begin with (anywhere from 110F to 120F), and I don't want the soap to overheat during gel. I just add enough initial heat to get the ball rolling, so to speak.


IrishLass

 

[DeeAnna]

Glycerin rivers don't have much to do with the glycerin in soap. A batch of soap isn't just one uniform thing, even though it might look that way. Instead, it is a mixture of different types of soap -- oleic, stearic, lauric, palmitic, etc. mixed with water, etc.

As soap in a mold cools down slowly, the soaps that solidify at the highest temperatures will harden first -- this would be the stearic and palmitic soaps. These soaps make the whiter layers because any colorant is pushed out of the solidifying soap into areas that are still liquid. As the temperature goes still cooler, the still-liquid layers eventually harden trapping the colorant inside those layers.

This streaking or mottling or river-ing is more likely to happen when the soap is a high-water ("full" water) recipe, when the batter is poured into the mold at emulsification when the batter is very fluid, and when the molded soap is allowed to cool slowly.

Although the common thinking is that allowing a soap to gel is the main cause of streaking, this isn't necessarily true. A soap that is poured at medium or heavy trace and allowed to gel most likely will not show any streaking.

Colorants -- titanium dioxide (TD), etc. -- will make the streaking/mottling more obvious. Streaking can and does happen without colorants, however, but the pattern just won't be as visible.

I did a nice beer soap recently using a technique and recipe that I've used before. Only difference is that I was experimenting with higher water content in the soap -- I used a 30% lye solution concentration vs. my usual 33% solution concentration. I didn't do CPOP, but the soap did gel, which often happens and that was fine with me. The whole soap shows streaking.

 

[reinbeau]

According to Auntie Clara, it has more to do with water discounting http://auntieclaras.com/2014/05/glycerine-rivers-secret-revealed/

 

[girlishcharm2004]

According to Auntie Clara, it has more to do with water discounting http://auntieclaras.com/2014/05/glycerine-rivers-secret-revealed/

That was fascinating! I have never had glycerin rivers and was confused when people talked about them. I'm guessing it's because I've never added a ton of water to my soap. I assume people who are adding a lot of water are trying to slow down trace to work with fancy swirling techniques.

 

[IrishLass]

Although the common thinking is that allowing a soap to gel is the main cause of streaking, this isn't necessarily true. A soap that is poured at medium or heavy trace and allowed to gel most likely will not show any streaking.

That may be a major factor in why I hardly ever see glycerin rivers in my soap, then. My usual M.O. is to pour at medium-to-heavy trace and to encourage gel. But it's also a very rare occurrence in my higher-water soaps, too (28% - 31% lye solution), which makes me think that FO might have a part to play as well.


IrishLass

 

[shunt2011]

I must be one of the lucky ones. I frequently use higher water and pour at emusification. I also soap RT and gel all my soaps and rarely get rivers. Then only time I get rivers is if I use too much TD. I hope the soaping gods keep it that way....

 

[denisedh]

Love all the example soaps!

Gorgeous soap!!!

I am a brand new soaper and just want to thank all of you who contributed to this thread - especially sharing your tried and tested safe recipes. It is a maze of soap out there when you're clueless like me!!

Thank you all!

Denise

 

[DeeAnna]

I'm pretty shy about sharing pics of my soaps, but here goes:

The first picture shows a beer soap with pencil lines made with cocoa and accents of gold mica. I was trying to imitate rock with gold ore in it. The bottom of the soap is lighter than the rest because I remembered to add my FO after I'd poured the first layer of "rock". Rather than scrape it out and start again, I just mixed the FO into the rest of the batter and kept going. The FO has vanillin in it, so it turns the soap a darker tan -- and now I know by how much!

Second one is my first fancy hanger swirl that actually went more or less as planned. The pinky color is rose (or pink) kaolin clay. The brown is cocoa. To get these colors, I added about 5 g (maybe 1/2 to 1 tsp) of each colorant to about 200 g of soap batter. I'd want to practice more before I could say I really know how to this kind of stuff. I still feel like a kid just barely able to ride a bicycle without training wheels.

The third picture is my gardener's soap. It's all one recipe of soap. Half of the batter got fine coffee grounds stirred in. That is the bottom layer. I followed that with a cocoa pencil line, and finished the soap by adding with plain batter on top. I really like this one. It works pretty well for grubby hands -- you can scrub with the coffee side or not as you wish.

The last picture is the only batch of salt bars I made early on in my soaping misadventures. The orange color is ground paprika dusted over the soap batter. This picture shows the bottom of the bar -- I like this tone-on-tone look, but it was pure accident. The light speckles are salt grains and the smaller dark speckles are paprika. The top looks more like deviled eggs with too much paprika -- I got a little heavy handed with the decorating. Less is more, DeeAnna ... less is more!

 

[JustBeachy]

Typical engineer. Probably had a magnifying glass out looking for structural defects.

Not sure why you're being shy DeeAnna. Those are great looking soaps. I really like the Gardeners soap and, of course, the salt soap.

 

[DeeAnna]

"...typical engineer..."

Yeah, you nailed it, pardner. Too many unknown variables, too much randomness, too much Murphy's law. Stuff like that....!

But it's good for me. And I'm learning to like "going with the flow" more than I usually do. Soaping, like most good hobbies, teaches a person about more than just how to soap.

 

[CaraBou]

The gold ore soap is really cool! I wouldn't have guessed it's a beer soap with how light it is. Must be a light beer, eh? :razz: And from a big scale commercial brewery (Bud Light, Miller Lite, etc), as opposed to a microbrew?

 

[osso]

DeeAnna, I love your soaps, especially the gold rush. Neat effect.

I have also found the glycerin rivers to occur mostly with a heavy hand on the TD.

 

[DeeAnna]

Hey, CaraBou -- The beer was cheep stuff, but def not "lite" since DH won't allow that junk in the house. I used regular Miller, Bud, Hamm's, or something like that. I simmer it down to about 1/2 the original amount and use it for 100% of the water, but the light-colored stuff still stays light even when boiled down. I've used heavier beers in other batches. The soap is darker and has a more obvious hoppy smell. I'd think a "gold ore" soap would get some interest in your neck of the woods, maybe?

I like the "rock" design -- it's very forgiving and works great when my soap is getting thick and pudding-y. As it often is when I'm not really, really, really careful. :shifty:

Osso -- Actually the Gold Rush (rock) soap has a fine pattern of "rivers" in it, but you can't see them unless you look really close in the right light. It's more of a textural thing in this soap. No TD -- just beer.

 

[JuneP]

Thanks to everyone contributing to this thread. My computer's been acting up the past two days (just crawling along badly!). But I have checked out the videos posted. The one link didn't work, but I found more of her videos to watch the technique. I also appreciated the link about the glycerin rivers being caused by too much water; and found that very interesting.
It's been hard finding time to post the last couple of days, but I have been reading the posts and watching more swirling videos and doing some other soap related things like doing a bit more organizing of my materials which meant moving some kitchen things to other areas. My last order of scents has arrived, so now I just have to make the time to get another soap made. I've decided to try a mantra swirl next and today I got some cardboard cut out to make and brace sections in the mold. Instead of the lavender soap I wanted to make next, I think I may go with the amazing mango papaya fragrance that just arrived. It smells good enough to eat; but first, I have to re-check on what if any vanilla is in there and see if it will work to give me a light colored soap that would work with some tropical colors like peach/apricot, a bit of light, warm green and maybe some yellow. I'll do more homework in the morning and see if I have the colors to get what I want and if that fragrance will work without an discoloration. Otherwise, I'll go back to square one and do the lavender soap, since I do have the colorants for that one. So many ideas and so much to learn!

 

[CaraBou]

I used regular Miller, Bud, Hamm's, or something like that... I'd think a "gold ore" soap would get some interest in your neck of the woods, maybe?

Hamms? Land-of-sky-blue-water Hamms?? With the black bear??? I didn't know it still existed! I remember my dad drinking it when I was a kid growing up in South Dakota. We had a couple "scenic" metal serving trays that would likely be collector's items today. My DH, who is now a pretty serious homebrewer, grew up in PA and has never even heard of it. DeeAnna, you are likely right, Hamm's (or other) gold ore beer soap would sell like hot cakes up here in Alaska! I like that whatever beer you used doesn't discolor the batter -- or the taint the fragrance.

JuneP ~ sorry for the sidetrack

I'm partial to natural colorants (like many beers), though recently I've branched out with micas and other great colorants. But since we've touched the subject of beer, I'll mention that they give shades of browns that are more-or-less tied to the shade of the beer. So light colored beers give light colored soaps, while darker beers yield correspondingly darker soaps. And here's a useful tip: when you use dark beer in a soap, it is a great opportunity to use a fragrance oil containing a relatively high amount of vanillin (vanilla), which will discolor your soap to some shade of brown anyway. It's an old soaper's trick of working with your ingredients rather than against them. Here's a golden-ish colored "bitter ale" that I soaped last spring to show a nice shade you can get:

 

[Captain_Potbelly]

HEY! I NEED TO TELL THE WORLD! :wave:

I managed to mix the most amazing purple by mistake! I accidentally dropped some red mica in my ultramarine mix.

I usually mix 3 ml of ultramarine violet with 0,05 ml of ultramarine blue and this gives a nice lilac color. Mixing this blend with red mica and about about 2*0,05 ml more of ultramarine blue produced the perfect purple in my book!! The one i've been whining about. (IE 0,5ml red mica + 3 ml of ultramarine violet + 3*0,05 ml of ultramarine blue)

I was soooo happy i started jumping up and down! Unfortunately this happened when i had finished pouring my main batter, so i over-filled the mold with the new color and went completely mental!

I will not rest until i have re-created this.

 

[jules92207]

That looks beautiful!

 

[CaraBou]

I will not rest until i have re-created this.

I never really know whether to be happy or sad when I see this happen to a fellow addict, but in this case (for the Perfect Purple) I am happy

 

[JuneP]

HEY! I NEED TO TELL THE WORLD! :wave:

I managed to mix the most amazing purple by mistake! I accidentally dropped some red mica in my ultramarine mix.

I usually mix 3 ml of ultramarine violet with 0,05 ml of ultramarine blue and this gives a nice lilac color. Mixing this blend with red mica and about about 2*0,05 ml more of ultramarine blue produced the perfect purple in my book!! The one i've been whining about. (IE 0,5ml red mica + 3 ml of ultramarine violet + 3*0,05 ml of ultramarine blue)

Can you explain what 2*9,05 means? I'm making my first lavender EO soap later this morning using, I hope, the feathered mantra swirl technique, and I want it to have white, lilac, and a purple I have both the ultramarine colors you mentioned and I may have some red mica; but I have no idea what those figures mean. There are so man abbreviations that experienced soapers use that we newbies are clueless about figuring them out! Maybe we need someone to post something in a permanent files of all of these abbreviations. Any volunteers?