Help!

[Tina05]

Hi guys, I hope you can help me with this one.
I made a black Himalayan salt soap with Tobacco and bay leave FO blend with black Patchouli EO, everything went well until I cut it!
It created DOS and the smell when I cut it came out AWFUL , first time I experienced something like this. I also need to say I used black Oxide for coloring (first time). I don’t know if that was something that could’ve reacted with the salt? Not sure! Please help! Thanks in advance.

 

[Misschief]

Firstly, it won't be DOS. DOS happens over time, not right after making your soap. Your discolouring may be a result of your FO.

Second, the odor may well disappear over time. I made a batch of Goat Milk & Lavender soap that smelled like ammonia when I cut it. A couple of days later, the lavender was the only thing I could smell. Give your soap a few days and check it again.

 

[cmzaha]

I have never had a Salt Bar go dossy, they just contain too much salt and I have made hundreds and hundreds of salt bars being they are my favorite soaps. Tobacco and Bay leaf is a very strong fragrance and so is Patchouli so I am guessing it is the uncured fragrance you are smelling. I should mellow out with curing and salt bars require a long age plus salt tends to eat up the fragrance. What was your fragrance percentage? I fragrance salt bars up to 8% PPO using a strong Salt Air type fragrance or my Dragon's Blood Fo. Even then the fragrance will fade after my 1 yr cure time.

 

[Tina05]

Firstly, it won't be DOS. DOS happens over time, not right after making your soap. Your discolouring may be a result of your FO.

Second, the odor may well disappear over time. I made a batch of Goat Milk & Lavender soap that smelled like ammonia when I cut it. A couple of days later, the lavender was the only thing I could smell. Give your soap a few days and check it again.

Thank you, I thought about it too, it does not appear right away, but the smell I’m not sure was ammonia, was like I don’t know how to explain it, maybe it was that smell, I felt like vomiting, is it ammonia smell?

I have never had a Salt Bar go dossy, they just contain too much salt and I have made hundreds and hundreds of salt bars being they are my favorite soaps. Tobacco and Bay leaf is a very strong fragrance and so is Patchouli so I am guessing it is the uncured fragrance you are smelling. I should mellow out with curing and salt bars require a long age plus salt tends to eat up the fragrance. What was your fragrance percentage? I fragrance salt bars up to 8% PPO using a strong Salt Air type fragrance or my Dragon's Blood Fo. Even then the fragrance will fade after my 1 yr cure time.

I wasn’t aware of that, so I use the normal 5%

 

[earlene]

I have not used black oxide alone, so am not positive about the odor, but I have read that it can smell sulfuric. I have in fact smelled a sulfuric smell with ultramarine blue and at least one other blue colorant; perhaps a mica mixed with a metallic colorant to obtain a particular shade of blue. Metallic colorants can apparently produce a sulfuric odor (see mention of it at Elements Bath & Body here.) I have also smelled a distinct sulfuric odor in bath bombs colored with some blue colorants, which is another reason why only bath bomb approved colorants should be used for that application.

When black oxide is used as a coating for knives, drill bits, etc., apparently it produces a sulfuric odor, which sometimes lasts a long time. It may depend on the user's sniffer or it may depend on other factors like how much was used, for example. And it has been reported that exposing that kind of coating to acids, like when slicing acidic fruit, the odor is again activated, in some cases transferring the odor to the cut fruit, making eating it unappetizing.

Also of interest is that when iron is mixed with water or fatty acids the odor can be detected, so may not be noticeable prior to making your soap. Oxide colorants are in fact iron oxide.

And salt can accelerate iron corrosion, so perhaps the combination of black oxide and the salt in your salt bar contributed to the odor as well.

 

[Tina05]

I have not used black oxide alone, so am not positive about the odor, but I have read that it can smell sulfuric. I have in fact smelled a sulfuric smell with ultramarine blue and at least one other blue colorant; perhaps a mica mixed with a metallic colorant to obtain a particular shade of blue. Metallic colorants can apparently produce a sulfuric odor (see mention of it at Elements Bath & Body here.) I have also smelled a distinct sulfuric odor in bath bombs colored with some blue colorants, which is another reason why only bath bomb approved colorants should be used for that application.

When black oxide is used as a coating for knives, drill bits, etc., apparently it produces a sulfuric odor, which sometimes lasts a long time. It may depend on the user's sniffer or it may depend on other factors like how much was used, for example. And it has been reported that exposing that kind of coating to acids, like when slicing acidic fruit, the odor is again activated, in some cases transferring the odor to the cut fruit, making eating it unappetizing.

Also of interest is that when iron is mixed with water or fatty acids the odor can be detected, so may not be noticeable prior to making your soap. Oxide colorants are in fact iron oxide.

And salt can accelerate iron corrosion, so perhaps the combination of black oxide and the salt in your salt bar contributed to the odor as well.

OMG! I really appreciate your help! That makes more sense because I normally use mica or clays for coloring, this is my first time using black oxide and the smell was awful, to the point that my husband said you have to throw that away, the smell is unbearable! And of course, I was ignorant at it, so I almost dispose the whole batch, gladly I reach out for help here and left it to cure and wait!
I really appreciate you help!

 

[TheGecko]

Agree with @Misschief about the DOS.

All colorants tend to 'morph' at bit (usually lighter) and Black is the hardest color to achieve as it tends to go grey. A lot of folks use a combination...Activated Charcoal and a Black Mica or Black Oxide, Black Mica and Black Oxide. The thing with working with Oxides is that you want to disperse them really well before adding or you will get speckles.

As for the smell...it happens. I have a few FOs that smell divine in the bottle and even out of the bottle when first mixed in, but then it goes through the saponification process and OH MAN...massive chemical smell. This was especially distressing since I had purchased a pound of a particular FO just from the sample bottle that I had smelled. Four weeks later, the smell was less chemical and more like the "crisp apples, vanilla, nutmeg, sweet pumpkin and cinnamon" in the description. Two weeks after that, I got a whiff of the warm buttery smell that had be buying the huge amount.

 

[Tina05]

Agree with @Misschief about the DOS.

All colorants tend to 'morph' at bit (usually lighter) and Black is the hardest color to achieve as it tends to go grey. A lot of folks use a combination...Activated Charcoal and a Black Mica or Black Oxide, Black Mica and Black Oxide. The thing with working with Oxides is that you want to disperse them really well before adding or you will get speckles.

As for the smell...it happens. I have a few FOs that smell divine in the bottle and even out of the bottle when first mixed in, but then it goes through the saponification process and OH MAN...massive chemical smell. This was especially distressing since I had purchased a pound of a particular FO just from the sample bottle that I had smelled. Four weeks later, the smell was less chemical and more like the "crisp apples, vanilla, nutmeg, sweet pumpkin and cinnamon" in the description. Two weeks after that, I got a whiff of the warm buttery smell that had be buying the huge amount.

Thank you! Lesson learned

 

[fjura]

I have never had a Salt Bar go dossy, they just contain too much salt and I have made hundreds and hundreds of salt bars being they are my favorite soaps. Tobacco and Bay leaf is a very strong fragrance and so is Patchouli so I am guessing it is the uncured fragrance you are smelling. I should mellow out with curing and salt bars require a long age plus salt tends to eat up the fragrance. What was your fragrance percentage? I fragrance salt bars up to 8% PPO using a strong Salt Air type fragrance or my Dragon's Blood Fo. Even then the fragrance will fade after my 1 yr cure time.

Hi! What oils do you like to use for your salt soap? There’s lots of opinions and I’d like to know yours. I’m about to make my first batch and I’ll be using coconut oil and shea butter. Thanks in advance!