Getting started with oxides

[SoapSisters]

@Mobjack Bay Thanks so much for your insights! I'm going to try again.

Interesting about the turquoise color on your ipad!

 

[ResolvableOwl]

I think the very small size of oxide pigment particles could be playing a role in how the color looks/light reflects at the edges between colored and white soap. Maybe @ResolvableOwl can weigh in on this.

Oof, that pressure Let's see if I can improvise over it:

I bought oxide called quinizarine green CI 61565

I don't quite understand? Quinizarine green is an organic dye, not an oxide as in “iron/zinc/titanium oxide”. I don't get why they sell it as “oxide” – maybe they use a neutral (white) carrier oxide to make the organic pigment easier to disperse (and/or give it am more opaque appearance).
Anyhow, that substance also has the descriptive name “Solvent Green 3”. My best guess, from looking at your pics, is that it dissolves into the soap and diffuses (wanders around by itself). This would explain why the separations aren't distinct, and the same is known from quite a few other colourants (think of carotenoids from red palm oil, annatto, paprika, tomato…).
If this is indeed the case, then the pigment is unfortunately only useful for uniformly coloured soap, not for swirls. But working at thicker trace couldn't hurt either when it helps to keep the soap layers in better shape.

BTW, I find both batches very beautiful, and I love the colour! I don't care what they call it (people tend to disagree over naming of colours in this region of the colour wheel anyway ). It's amazing how it gives you different hues, not only different depth/saturation . Barring barriers of language and monitor colour calibration, I'd call the first azure (with tendencies to shade into ultramarine or indigo even) + bluish turquoise; the second batch: sky blue or coelin blue.

Slowly sliding off-topic: Color Survey Results

 

[SoapSisters]

@ResolvableOwl Thank you for this!!!

After reading what you wrote about Quinizarine green, I went back and read the label. It just says "oil soluble color/dye". So it was my mistake to assume it is an oxide.

I think your best guess is right. Your description of the dye dissolving into the soap and diffusing is a perfect description for how the color behaved. That first soap also turned greenish throughout the bar during use, which I think means that the particles continued to wander around.

Thanks for your comments on my batches. I really love the color too! And I guess it's not so terrible to use it for uniformly colored soap.

 

[TheGecko]

I’m getting are a bit more WYSWYG than with some of the micas I’ve been using.

Yeah, I see the same. Really noticeable when you add you Mica to your oils, the add your Lye Solution and you go from a really vibrant color to someone sticking a 50% filter over it.

I have found with working with various clays, oxides, pigments, etc that 1) they work better with extra liquid as opposed to batch liquid, 2) you want to disperse them ahead of time, and 3) you need to mix them more. I made the mistake of getting in a hurry a couple of weeks back on item #3 and when I unmolded my soaps, there was oxides sitting on the bottom. Had it just been bars, I could have planed it off, but these were animal soaps for the grandkids with lots of details and so I just bagged them for soap dough.

 

[Tara_H]

And I guess it's not so terrible to use it for uniformly colored soap.

Could maybe be a useful tool if attempting an ombre effect...

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Oh gosh, you're soooo lazy!

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Could maybe be a useful tool if attempting an ombre effect...

Emily Shieh shows a comparison of bleeding and non-bleeding colorants on her this website:

http://thesoapbar.blogspot.com/2012/07/gradient-soap-tutorial-emily-shieh.html?m=1
So, it turns out that quinizarine green is FD&C green 6 (In US only?). All of the green dyes I can find for sale on the soap and candle supplier sites are blends, like FD&C blue #1 and FD&C yellow #5 and not recommended for hot or cold process soap due to color morphing, e.g.

https://www.candlescience.com/soap-colorants/kelly-green-liquid-soap-dye
@TheGecko yes to the mixing. Even when I disperse oxides and ultramarines into water or glycerin using a frother or a mini-paint mixer attachment, the colors added to batter intensify significantly with a quick pulse of the stick blender. I haven’t tried dispersing oxides in oil as suggested by @Vicki C , but will the next time I mix colorants. Vicki, have you tried the ultramarines in oil? As far as I can tell, Yvonne (youtube) mixes oxides and ultramarines in oil.

 

[SoapSisters]

@Mobjack Bay Thanks for this information! I can definitely relate to color bleeding and morphing after using this dye!

I actually did try a gradient with this dye, but it came out so ugly I didn't include it in my original post. But what the heck . . .

 

[ResolvableOwl]

@SoapSisters Can you please point us to what's wrong with these soaps? I definitely see nothing ugly there.

 

[SoapSisters]

@SoapSisters Can you please point us to what's wrong with these soaps? I definitely see nothing ugly there.

Very kind of you! Thanks!

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Not (only) kindness. I really don't get it. A reminder that people at times are just too self-critical, and are bad at a balanced view on the qualities of their works.

 

[earlene]

Glad you Identified that it wasn't an oxide at all. That's not how oxides work when I use them. They can color quite heavily and in fact bleed color when you use a lot. Well, except for TD, which doesn't really bleed, or if it were to, would not necessarily show up as bleeding.

 

[SoapLover1]

Hi! Try mixing your Oxides in a little bit of Distilled Water. It works great for me!

 

[LynetteO]

@ResolvableOwl THANK YOU SO MUCH for adding that color survey results link above (post #22). It was both informative & HILARIOUS @ the same time. My cuppa tea!

 

[Cat&Oak]

I had a soapalooza kind of day yesterday, mostly playing around with oxides to get pastel colors. I had dabbled a little last fall, but then saw something shiny (probably a challenge...) and went off in another direction. It looks like chromium green oxide with a tiny pinch of brown (or a discoloring FO, or an otherwise tannish base) could be the way to achieve my favorite green without using a matcha tea infusion. I’ve also had a hard time getting a cool-tinted blue, but like the color from ultramarine blue with a pinch of black oxide in a very white base (nothing was added to the base, which is tallow, lard, RBO, EVOO, CO and castor). With mica I tend to end up with the blue being too grey or turning green from a yellowish FO unless I use a ridiculous amount of mica and TD, which I tend to avoid. I ordered the pigments in a set, so I also made a lavender soap using violet ultramarine, with a little Ultra Violet mica (Nurture, discontinued) added in for the top layer. It’s nice enough, but the violet pigment is a bit dull on its own. Luckily, I have a large enough bag of the mica to last forever.

I started with about 1/4 - 1/2 tsp of each color (scooped with a palette knife), dispersed it in water, and then added enough to get the color I wanted. My batches were 1000 - 1200 g oils.

View attachment 51573

Very pleasing colors!

 

[TheGecko]

@TheGecko yes to the mixing. Even when I disperse oxides and ultramarines into water or glycerin using a frother or a mini-paint mixer attachment, the colors added to batter intensify significantly with a quick pulse of the stick blender. I haven’t tried dispersing oxides in oil as suggested by @Vicki C , but will the next time I mix colorants. Vicki, have you tried the ultramarines in oil? As far as I can tell, Yvonne (youtube) mixes oxides and ultramarines in oil.

I've just been using water to mix mine at 3 to 1. I recently started mixing my TD with oil like Lisa at I Dream in Soap and I am liking the results. It incorporates easier into your batter, you can easily stir or whisk in. I haven't had any streaking or rivers since I started using it. Now TD in oil doesn't 'whiten' your batter the way that TD in water does...the first time I used it I was going for a pastel pink, but ended up with a white soap with just a hint of pink instead.

I'm going to be doing some R&D today...I want to try Todd's vanilla stabilizer with Autumn Harvest (Elements Bath & Body), I absolutely love the FO, but it discolors to a very dark brown. I normally embrace the brown, but this FO just screams autumn color and I have some Oxides that I can test at the same time. I also want to change up a couple of current designs...Chocolate Espresso and 1920s Barbershop and try a new (to me) technique...One Pot Wonder. I also use non-Mica colorants with them.