Has anyone ever been afraid to use Mica?

[Nanooo48]

I’m blushing embarrassed to even ask this question right now but I don’t even care because I need help LOL. So I’ve acquired a collection of these similar Micas of the “magic” kind, and well, I just don’t know what the heck I’m supposed to do with them lol. I think I’ve attempted in cold process before and didn’t see much of anything going on. But I can’t remember now do they have a specific use?? What’s the MAGIC?? I see the hue and all but.. Am I not in on the secret guys? What products can I play with, with magic mica lol.
Also, I have this Coffee mica. It seems to have this greenish hue to it. I’m not sure if that will morph the brown after cure, or if I should add another color with it to outright curve that green hue a bit. Or if it will show at all. It’s hard to capture the darn hue in a picture lol.

 

[artemis]

Where did you get them? I've never heard of "magical" micas. They might not be intended for soaping. If the "magic" is that they change color, then it might be meant for bath bombs, or something?

If you're sure they are skin safe, why not make a few 16 oz batches and see what happens?

 

[Kamahido]

I too worry that they are not soap stable and will morph horribly. I have made that mistake in the past.

 

[Clarice]

this might be what you have

Description
Pigment powders with a "KICK"! Add to any medium, water, or water soluble products to tint them to match your Starbursts! Add a little for softer versions of the color and a lot for deep vibrant tinting.

MICAS ON "STEROIDS"!!

Magicals are a unique product containing a powdered pigment stain that activates with water, with a burst of mica shimmer for ooomph!!

etsy shop

 

[shunt2011]

I’m thinking they aren’t for soap, bath and body. I wouldn’t use them. I only purchase from reputable companies who test their micas in high ph products.

 

[newbie]

I've seen those. They look white in the bag but once brushed on the skin or rubbed on paper, they will show different colors, thus looking "magic." They may be CP safe but because CP soap is opaque, I doubt you would see the color shift much at all. They might if you used them in oil on top of soap for decoration but micas really don't show their depth that well in CP. For makeup, they are probably fantastic.

I think they are essentially the same as these products (look at Sparkle Turquoise and Miranda Star):
https://tkbtrading.com/search?page=4&q=mica*&type=article,page,product

 

[Rune]

I found them online. They are marked as safe for soap and they have pictures of it used in soap. Made by Decorrom, and sold on Ebay and Amazon, which is not a safe place to buy cosmetic ingredients from. I think it must come from China. If it was a known brand, they would have a website which would pop up quite early in Google search results. When that said, I have bought some pigments from Aliexpress in China, definately not a safe place. But it was so difficult for me to get neon colors otherwise, so I did it. Soap is after all a wash-off product. But it is not safe to buy from such places. Ebay and Amazon are not much safer, especially not Ebay.

But, soap making supply stores might have got their micas directly from China and have not tested them for heavy metal, illegal colors and such. Nobody really knows what they get these days. Even reputable companies produce micas or pigments that are not safe. BASF used illegal colors, for example. I found a letter from FDA saying that, when I was searching for something else.

I think I would have used the micas you have in soaps, even if it might be suspect. Most will be washed off, and skin does not absorb everything either. If you have easy access to micas that are tested or approved in one way or another, I would have bought that next time.

What you have seems to be a special mica that changes color or does something funny, but since it is almost white in color, it might not work in soaps but are intented to mix in something clear. Try it mixed in with clear nail polish and see what happens, and then try it mixed in some body lotion. If it does not work in body lotion, I don't think it will work in soaps either.

I would not use those micas in products intended for staying on the skin, like make-up or creams. Only wash-off products. They are after all sold as cosmetic-grade. And they might be perfectly safe, who knows.

 

[earlene]

Can you contact the Esty seller and ask if they know or have been informed by a recent purchaser if they have ever survived in soap? I would also ask about skin safety. I would also ask for an MSDS for those micas, just to be on the safe side. And I'd ask who the manufacturer was if they can't answer those questions, so you could contact them yourself. If they can't answer those questions to your satisfaction, I would suggest that they would be suitable for small tests, but perhaps risky.

Perhaps they would work in Melt & Pour soap, since the lye is no longer active, the risk of lye causing the pigment to morph is less of an issue.

Rune posted while I was writing, so I didn't see his response.

 

[cmzaha]

I love how they state "Cold Press" soap on Amazon . I would not use them

 

[Lin19687]

I tried this kind in a soap. It didn't even color it. Certainly was not a Purple shimmer or shine of any sort, nor even a purple hue .

They do not work for soap, maybe just like eye shadow or something

 

[Rune]

Cold Press, where on earth do that come from? I have heard it several times on Youtube as well. Very strange.

 

[earlene]

I wonder the same, but perhaps it is a mix-up of terms from Cold-Pressed oils and Cold Process, which we know is for soap. If someone has difficulty using a correct or accepted term when under pressure or for whatever reason (Not knowing is another reason it can happen), then it gets posted online and others (especially people with little experience in the soaping world) watch it, the term can become more wide-spread. It could also come from a cultural language difference that we don't understand.

 

[Nanooo48]

I found them online. They are marked as safe for soap and they have pictures of it used in soap. Made by Decorrom, and sold on Ebay and Amazon, which is not a safe place to buy cosmetic ingredients from. I think it must come from China. If it was a known brand, they would have a website which would pop up quite early in Google search results. When that said, I have bought some pigments from Aliexpress in China, definately not a safe place. But it was so difficult for me to get neon colors otherwise, so I did it. Soap is after all a wash-off product. But it is not safe to buy from such places. Ebay and Amazon are not much safer, especially not Ebay.

But, soap making supply stores might have got their micas directly from China and have not tested them for heavy metal, illegal colors and such. Nobody really knows what they get these days. Even reputable companies produce micas or pigments that are not safe. BASF used illegal colors, for example. I found a letter from FDA saying that, when I was searching for something else.

I think I would have used the micas you have in soaps, even if it might be suspect. Most will be washed off, and skin does not absorb everything either. If you have easy access to micas that are tested or approved in one way or another, I would have bought that next time.

What you have seems to be a special mica that changes color or does something funny, but since it is almost white in color, it might not work in soaps but are intented to mix in something clear. Try it mixed in with clear nail polish and see what happens, and then try it mixed in some body lotion. If it does not work in body lotion, I don't think it will work in soaps either.

I would not use those micas in products intended for staying on the skin, like make-up or creams. Only wash-off products. They are after all sold as cosmetic-grade. And they might be perfectly safe, who knows.

Yea I mostly use natural colorants and clays in my soaps but sometimes I get in the mood to be a little crazy lol. I needed a couple colors to finish off a fruit loops soap so I ordered a quick set on amazon that said all the right things and had reputable ratings, the best I could do in a jam and prime of course lol. I did try to look up their website myself too. I was a bit nervous ordering from there. But had in the past when I played around with melt and pour. I have yet to try pigments in my soaps. I’m a little nervous about it for some odd reason lol. The magic stuff makes a pretty shimmer on skin but I have super sensitive skin so I think these bad boys will end up in the trash eventually lol.

 

[Megan]

Okay, so what it looks like is an interference mica. It shifts from white to blue or white to red etc. I just yesterday used interference mica in a CP soap for the first time...and I love it, but with a caveat. It depends on the particle size of the mica itself. I don't think such a fine mica powder will look like much in CP, but if you get a larger particle, like an ecoglitter type, it looks amazing in the light! I will probably post a pic of mine in a few days (if I can remember how, it's been a while), I have another experiment I will be trying first.

 

[earlene]

I have not heard of interference mica before, so I looked it up. Interesting. I had not seen that before. I wonder how it performs in soap.

But I have used iridescent mica in soap, and I believe it depends a lot on the recipe and the translucence of the soap itself, but it can create a sort of shiny iridescence when the light hits it just right. In a poorly lit area, there is no shiny iridescence, however while it sat sink-side in my kitchen window with the sun shining brightly, I loved the sparkles it created. Unfortunately the soap recipe had to produce a fairly translucent soap for it to really be visible, otherwise, in a recipe that produced a more opaque soap it worked just like any other mica and provided no shiny particles.