Goats milk soap still turning grey rather than purple using alkanet oil infusion

[LucyCP]

I've been doing lots of test batches but still no success. In the photo, the middle big slab labelled A has 30g infused light Olive oil (20% of total F&Oils) added to other oils before adding lye mix, the mixture went a lovely purple then I realised I hadn't blended it and brought it to trace, doh! As soon as I did this it went green/grey. Slab B is the same as A apart from I tried adding 1g of neat Alkanet root powder at trace. The slab on the right was the same recipe only I made it at a lower temp just to make sure it wasn't the goat's milk&lye mix getting too hot and therefore too yellow, but this doesn't seem to have altered anything. They've all been curing for 6 days and have gone from green to different shades of grey, anyone have any ideas what I'm doing wrong, it driving me crazy as well as wasting ingredients!! I had already tried trial batches with less alkanet but they just stayed very light green!! Thanks Guys

 

[Dawni]

I'm no expert on alkanet coz I've never used it, but I have used a very similar one, ratanjot, several times and I've gotten blues and greys with it, so far never a true purple. The closest I've gotten to purple was when I HPed it. I wrote about it here.

For the dark one, maybe it was too much added at trace? Are you also unwilling to test without goat's milk?

From my research the tips I've gathered are:
1. Use the lightest oils possible (my next try will be lard and no extra sugars from milks)
2. Use an ok amount of a strong infusion (my infusion was several months old)
3. Gel your soap, if you CP (in my case, since I HP, you'll see in my post above what color changes my soap went through)

Some say it goes back to purple over time as it's curing.

Since everywhere I read either interchanged ratanjot and alkanet, or said they were very similar, I assume the points above could be applicable to alkanet too.

Also, I'm convinced what I'm getting (which are either raw, pure forms or food stuff) as colorants are very different from what's sold in soap supply places, which maybe either have added stuff or their extraction process is different. Even my turmeric rarely gives a yellow like I've seen with others.

But, as is the case with almost all natural colorants, you just never know sometimes lol

 

[szaza]

My experience with alkanet is also rather limited, but I know it always starts out grey and only turns purple after waiting at least a week, so 6days might be a bit short..
Second, gelling is rather important to get a good color, which you want to avoid with the goat's milk because it will turn tan and eliminate the purple.
I'm honestly not sure if an alkanet purple goat's milk soap is possible. You could try soaping very cool and using a very high amount of alkanet infused oil (adding powder never gave me purple, only brown). Maybe try alkanet infused oil at 50% of total oils? I'm not sure if there are any safety issues for such a high amount of infused oil.. I don't expect there to be and the one time I tried it seemed ok, but caution is always best[emoji6]

 

[soaplady30]

My experience with alkanet is also rather limited, but I know it always starts out grey and only turns purple after waiting at least a week, so 6days might be a bit short..
Second, gelling is rather important to get a good color, which you want to avoid with the goat's milk because it will turn tan and eliminate the purple.
I'm honestly not sure if an alkanet purple goat's milk soap is possible. You could try soaping very cool and using a very high amount of alkanet infused oil (adding powder never gave me purple, only brown). Maybe try alkanet infused oil at 50% of total oils? I'm not sure if there are any safety issues for such a high amount of infused oil.. I don't expect there to be and the one time I tried it seemed ok, but caution is always best[emoji6]

It's been a long time since I used alkanet I fusion but I do believe it started out gray and turned purple during curing. I hope that is the case for you.

 

[LucyCP]

thanks for this, maybe I need to wait a bit longer, i'll see what it looks like after 2 weeks! One thing I did wonder is does it effect the colour of the soap if you add the alkanet infused oil to the other oils before you add the milk/lye mix or would it be best to add it say at light trace? Thanks

 

[soaplady30]

Quite sure I added to oils. Am thinking that 2 weeks may be too soon to see color change.

 

[amd]

From a bit of playing I have done with alkanet infusions: I can't add any "white" additives. So my first time, I added kaolin clay and it was gray. My IRL soap friend who showed me how to do alkanet infusions (we made the one pictured below together) makes soap with no clay or milk and her purple is lovely. I would try your infusion with a water only recipe first, to make sure your infusion is strong enough.

This is the first soap I made with the kaolin clay added. I made my infusion by microwaving my infusion in 30 second bursts in the microwave, for a total of 5 minutes. (In comparison, the yellow is from annatto infusion which I only infused for a total of 1-1/2 minutes.)

 

[earlene]

My alkanet experience is also limited, but I did get a deep dark purple with it using it both added to lye solution and with oil infusion. My oil infusion was via heat enhanced infusion (placing jar into a pot of simmering hot water - the jar contained the oil & alkanet powder). I also used a lot of the powder; it remained in the simmer for at least 20 - 30 minutes; then sat for several more days, perhaps 1 -2 weeks before use.

To see how the alkanet purple looks and my description of the process see this post and my photo album here, where there are some other examples of the purple I got from alkanet.

Of course I did not use goats milk, but I don't know if it really would have an impact. The only other time I tried alkanet I got grey, too, so I was super happy with my results where I got a deep purple. One of these days, I'll try again and attempt a paler purple.

 

[Mlroun]

My two Alkanet Root soaps.
The top one was made on 4/4/19, I mixed Alkanet Root powder with water and added it into my oils.
The bottom soap was made on 6/7/19, I used lighter colored oils and let the Alkanet Root powder sit in my coconut oil overnight, also I added poppy seeds just to make the color look more even.
The photos below are on 6/7 and 6/8

 

[Primrose]

I make exclusively GM Soap, with a fairly light base to start with (lots of lard and tallow) and although I've never tried alkanet, I did have quite a bit of trial and error getting a purple using clay. I have found to get a good result i first need to lighten the mix with TD and then I get a lovely purple from the clay. I haven't tried zinc oxide yet to see if that will give me the same results. Also yet to manage as good a result with green clays.

 

[Mellicious]

Hi! I think I might have the same problem. A few days ago I tried a facial soap recipe using olive oil infused with alkanet root. I added the infused oil at trace and it looked pretty grey. But as far as I know that’s normal. After 24 hours it was a dark turquoise and actually looked stunning even though I was going for purple. Now three days in, it’s a green-gray.
I have a theory though... I made my facial soap with baby formula and I really think that the grey color has to do with the milk. I will wait a while longer and see if it changes. While I wait, I’m gonna try the same recipe using water and see what happens. Will keep you posted.

 

[CatahoulaBubble]

I've never been able to get a good purple with alkanet in milk soap. I've tried too many times to count. I use Alkanet now when I want to make soap rocks. it makes a nice granite or slate color.