I have been making soap for a little while but I recently made a soap that has dark discoloration even after adding TD. When I left for vacation a week ago it was beautiful. I'm not sure what happened or if it's molded inside.
Discolored soap
- Thread starter DebFiel3
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It looks like vanillin discoloration. It is still beautiful soap.
I used a forever yours dupe. I think it does have vanillin but I added TD. Maybe just not enough. I will wait for the final cure before I panic! Thanks for you input. I just don't want it to look like it's been dropped in the dirt. Ugh
Maple_Street_Bath
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Depending on the vanillin content, no matter how much TD you add it may not be enough. It varies a bit how much TD will lighten the soap - I have an FO that is 2% vanillin and no matter what I do [VCS, TD, unfragranced portions] it always turns brown, so I do that soap in black. On the flip side, I have a 5.5% vanillin that TD works wonderfully to create contrast. It's best to check the supplier notes for discoloration, and judge from there what you can do with coloring the FO.
artemis
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I don't think TD is going to help. You can plan the tan color into your design, though. Reserve some of the batter to add your color to. Then, add the FO to th breast of the batter. The colored portion will stay nice while the rest discolors. Unless you have a particularly difficult FO that bleeds into the colored portion.
Thank you
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You can try vanilla color stabilizer with FOs that contain vanilla. It works for a while.
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No there is a vanilla stabilizer for regular soap and even for lotion.
The Bitter Creek VCS works for my CP soaps.
Maple_Street_Bath
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I believe Bitter Creek semi-closed up shop - the website is still up, but last time I tried to order VCS I put five 16oz bottles in my cart and the shipping at checkout was $70+ so I said "No thank you" and didn't
Edited for a bit of clarity.
I had just purchased my stash of BC VCS when we started the homemade VCS thread here some time ago. I don’t use it often, so it’s taken me a long time to even get close to finishing what I had ordered (which was a lot, so maximize the shipping fees, IIRC).
Once this last bit is gone, based on the testing notes from Todd, I plan to follow his recipe in that thread.
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It has worked for me; but short term. Eventually the soap does begin to discolor.
I’ve never had any discoloration long term with the Bitter Creek VCS. It’s the only one I’ve ever used, so I can’t compare to anything else. And I’ve only used it in soap.
You also have glycerin rivers that seem to have caused the discoloration to concentrate in some areas of the soap. It's interesting that the discoloration looks like particles, as opposed to diffuse color changes. I can't recall seeing that effect before. As interesting as it is, I understand why you might be disappointed, but maybe you can think of it as a new method in your creative soap making repertoire. I would love to see future photos of the soap as it does or does not change.
