TeriDk
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2011
- Messages
- 256
- Reaction score
- 166
Happy New Year. I have issues that I hope you can help me with. I wanted to make a girly-girl soap for V-day and wanted to try the Celine swirl method (a first for me). Lots of weird things so will try to make this short.
Recipe - Ran through the soap calc:
30% OO
30% CO
20% PO
10% RBO
5% Castor
5% Shea
7% SF
A bit of silk to lye/water and added a bit of sugar to the oils before adding the lye/water.
Wanted to divvy up the soap into 3 containers where I used aquamarine blue, pink, and violet (girly-girl right?). Added . Because I wanted the colors to pop, I warmed the wood log mold on a heating pad while I prepared the soap. Soaped at 104 degrees which I thought would give me plenty of time to add/mix the colors. I mixed each pigment with a bit of the OO to help mix it in (should I have used glycerin or water?). I SB the soap solution until it was emulsified, added NG "China Rain" at 1 oz per lb of oil, and boom it moved to a medium thick trace almost immediately. Was able to mix the pigments into the soap mostly and then plopped it into the mold, then used a SS spoon to try the Celine swirl technique seen on UTube (she makes it look so easy, it's not at least for me). Anyway, I used the same heating pad to help gel so place the mold on the heating pad for 1 hour or so at about 90 degrees (I'm not comfortable placing soap in my gas oven for some reason). So here are my issues:
1) I was expecting the colors to pop but like them less than if the soap did not go through gel. The outside looked great but the cut soap, not so much. Is it appropriate to gel soap made with aquamarine colors? Colors didn't mix in as well as I thought they would as the soap was getting very thick. Should I have mixed the colors with glycerin or water in lieu of OO?
2) Did I experience ricing (see attached pic - steamed a couple of them)? I did change brands of PO while measuring out the ingredients - does that effect soap?
3) To make colors pop better, should you use a light color - either the natural color of the soap or TD white?
4) When I cut the soap this morning (made Sunday), it doesn't smell like China Rain at all. In fact, it smells like hair that was permed the day before. Did I use too much FO? The smell is very strong so hope that it will fade as the soap cures. Will the perm smell go away. I got the FO 2 months ago.
Anyway, your help, thoughts, critique is most welcome.:?:
Recipe - Ran through the soap calc:
30% OO
30% CO
20% PO
10% RBO
5% Castor
5% Shea
7% SF
A bit of silk to lye/water and added a bit of sugar to the oils before adding the lye/water.
Wanted to divvy up the soap into 3 containers where I used aquamarine blue, pink, and violet (girly-girl right?). Added . Because I wanted the colors to pop, I warmed the wood log mold on a heating pad while I prepared the soap. Soaped at 104 degrees which I thought would give me plenty of time to add/mix the colors. I mixed each pigment with a bit of the OO to help mix it in (should I have used glycerin or water?). I SB the soap solution until it was emulsified, added NG "China Rain" at 1 oz per lb of oil, and boom it moved to a medium thick trace almost immediately. Was able to mix the pigments into the soap mostly and then plopped it into the mold, then used a SS spoon to try the Celine swirl technique seen on UTube (she makes it look so easy, it's not at least for me). Anyway, I used the same heating pad to help gel so place the mold on the heating pad for 1 hour or so at about 90 degrees (I'm not comfortable placing soap in my gas oven for some reason). So here are my issues:
1) I was expecting the colors to pop but like them less than if the soap did not go through gel. The outside looked great but the cut soap, not so much. Is it appropriate to gel soap made with aquamarine colors? Colors didn't mix in as well as I thought they would as the soap was getting very thick. Should I have mixed the colors with glycerin or water in lieu of OO?
2) Did I experience ricing (see attached pic - steamed a couple of them)? I did change brands of PO while measuring out the ingredients - does that effect soap?
3) To make colors pop better, should you use a light color - either the natural color of the soap or TD white?
4) When I cut the soap this morning (made Sunday), it doesn't smell like China Rain at all. In fact, it smells like hair that was permed the day before. Did I use too much FO? The smell is very strong so hope that it will fade as the soap cures. Will the perm smell go away. I got the FO 2 months ago.
Anyway, your help, thoughts, critique is most welcome.:?:
