FO, You Bad Boy

[KristaY]

Or "Soaper, You Bad Girl".

Yesterday I made 8 one lb test batches. All were fine until this bad boy came along. It's Midsummer Night from Peak. I honestly think it's mostly my fault and not as much the FO even though I always like to blame misbehaving children, lol.

Usually I add the FO to the warmed oils before I add lye. Since I was testing, I made 2 lb batches of batter, divided in half then added separate FO's to each. Because of that, the FO was pretty cool going into the batter. This one riced quick, fast & in a hurry right when it was added. It also started to speed trace so I blended it in with a whisk moving as fast as I could. I apparently lost the trace race and ended up with this.

This batch is about 16 hours old. You can see the dark spots all over but it's more pronounced around the sides and bottom. (The blue area is color only, no FO). The Peak description of this FO says to expect sl acceleration, no D/C, and possible separation. It's also odd that the edges are a pinkish color, which looks just like the color I get when I use rose clay. I added no color to the main body.

In the last pic you can see the bar that has both sides of my test loaf. The Black Canyon side behaved very well. I have a feeling the dark spots are the result of me adding the FO when it was much colder than the batter and not blending it in well enough. Any other ideas?

 

[cmzaha]

I have had lard soaps pick up that pinkish at times. I sometimes wonder if it is something with the fo

 

[KristaY]

I have had lard soaps pick up that pinkish at times. I sometimes wonder if it is something with the fo

Interesting. This recipe doesn't have lard, just OO, PO, CO & avocado oil. The only other additive is 2% SL in the cooled lye water. Does SL react in odd ways sometimes? It hasn't happened to me before this but there's a first time for everything, lol.

 

[dixiedragon]

Did you use red molds, like the red Essential Depot molds? I have heard stories of those leaching some color into the soap.

 

[KristaY]

Did you use red molds, like the red Essential Depot molds? I have heard stories of those leaching some color into the soap.

Not red, just white silicone molds. I've read that too which is why I haven't gotten any of the red ones. I would have too since red is one of my favorite colors, lol. Good idea thinking of it though!

 

[kharmon320]

I've soaped a few manly scents that give me that weird mauve-ish discoloration to the edges. I think it's the FO. I believe that Midsummer's Night riced and accelerated on me when I used it, but no spots.

 

[newbie]

I've had the pinky color too with some FO's but I don't recall it giving such a rim effect like you have. That Black Canyon- that one will go kind of greenish brown with more time but it sure is a popular scent.

On the spreadsheet, kharmon and another person mentioned the pinking and kharmon mentioned the edges going a magenta color. All three people mentioned that it accelerated quite a bit.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...UVFTXY5M2o4MVRMZm4wdFE&authkey=CMTEtswL#gid=0

 

[KristaY]

Thanks for the input, kharmon & Newbie. Glad to know others have had problems and it's not just me. As I said, I'm pretty sure the spots are my fault because of the ricing and acceleration. If I decide to try it out on a full batch I'll know what to expect. Also, I'll add the FO to my warm oils before lye so that should at least eliminate the spotting issue. I was hoping to use Midsummer Night as a soap for my son's wedding but I have a feeling he won't be happy with the mauve (especially since his wedding colors will be emerald green and silver). I'm going to watch the color morph as it cures and see what happens.

Thanks everyone for the advice!