Honey darkens goat milk soap

[MooreThanBags]

Is there any trick to adding honey to my goat milk soap that will keep it from darkening the soap? It does lighten up some as it sets up but would like a lighter color bar. I use the honey with oatmeal.

 

[DeeAnna]

If you don't want dark soap, don't use honey (glucose and fructose). Sugar or maple syrup (both sucrose) will stay lighter. The types of sugars in the honey turn dark when they react with the lye. See: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNVrCG12iNg&list=UU6NFc1XyVdzuyQw-f9HG42g&index=6[/ame]

 

[shunt2011]

Perhaps you are soaping at too hot of a temperature? I get a nice cream color when I use it with my goat's milk OMH. I color half with cocoa powder and leave the other half uncolored and swirl it. Also, if you use too much honey it can cause it to overheat and kind of burn some which will cause it to be darker.

 

[la-rene]

Don't gel it, I've got both ungelled and gelled oatmeal honey soap, the ungelled is much lighter and creamier looking.

 

[MooreThanBags]

Thanks all for your tips. how much cocoa powder do you add per pound of soap? Does it effect the color of the lather?

 

[DeeAnna]

I did a swirl with plain batter and cocoa colored batter. I used about 1 tsp per pound of batter (not oils), and about half of the batter had the cocoa in it.

The colored batter looked much lighter than I wanted when I first mixed it up, but after cutting the finished soap and some exposure to air, the color darkened nicely to a deep cocoa brown.

Against a light washcloth, yes, the lather from this soap is faintly cocoa colored. Not objectionable -- if you had anything other than stark white to compare the lather to, you'd never know.