It didn't go to plan...

[spenny92]

I haven't had many surprises with my soap-making so far, and everything has turned out or more less as I expected. Until today!

I used green tea in a recipe a while ago, and I couldn't remember if I had it frozen and mixed with lye, or if I added at trace, or if I did something else with it - I am taking extensive notes now! :smile: So I've been planning on making a raspberry soap as I'd been eyeing up some freeze dried pure raspberry powder in a local store. It was a beautiful colour and I hoped that it might add a reddish tinge to my soap, however I was prepared for it turning darker and muddier. On a whim, I decided to also buy some raspberry/strawberry flavoured herbal tea. I figured I could mix my lye with this beautiful smelling, pink liquid and it would help the raspberry powder to colour my soap.

I can safely report back that it did not work. Not one bit. I let the tea cool down until it was almost slushy ice, and slowly sprinkled a tiny bit of lye over it. Instantly, it turned bright, luminous green. I was actually impressed and thought it would be great if I was making a green soap! I continued adding the lye, and the tea got darker and muddier and browner. It stank. I've never had lye do this, even with goat's milk and other teas - could it be the fruit tea being too sugary and scorching, maybe?

So at this point, I thought hmm okay, it's raspberry TEA soap, the brown-ness can be the tea part. I sprinkled a heaped tablespoon of the raspberry powder into the pot, SB'ed the hell out of it and nothing changed. I now have a muddy, orangey very ugly soap. I even tried to sprinkle some raspberry powder over the top of the loaf, but it turned instantly purple/brown.

What I'm wondering from today's failworthy soap experiment is what caused the lye to turn this luminous green? I had a little bit of raspberry tea on a plate, and I sat my whisk down on it to rest after mixing the oils and lye to trace, and it instantly turned bright green! It's a nice colour, but once I add all of the lye, it's brown and ugly. I wonder if I should freeze the tea next time, or if that's just the nature of using tea with lye. I'm racking my brains trying to think of what I did last time with the green tea, it didn't turn so ugly. Do you think it's because it's a fruit tea?

I do have photos, but I'm reluctant to share as it really isn't pretty. But it smells good! :wtf:

 

[Retropixie]

We have all been there. You can always rebatch it. I made soap cupcakes today...they started out beautiful, until the batter overheated...I feel your heartbreak.

 

[not_ally]

I wonder if it will morph during cure?

 

[spenny92]

I wonder if it will morph during cure?

Hmm, I kind-of hope it does. I've had a peek at it in the mould and the colour isn't as ugly as I first anticipated. It's turning into an orange colour - not quite raspberry, but better than mud brown!

Here's a photo of the loaf unmoulded. It weirdly reminds me of pizza - tomato sauce, pesto, cheese... can you see it?! Not a good thing for soap hah. It smells good, though. I wonder if I mixed the raspberry scent with orange, the colour might work better. I just feel like if someone sees an orange coloured soap, they will expect the smell to match somehow.

I've also attached a photo of the bright green colour which the raw soap batter turned my tea on the plate. You can see the pretty red tea at the bottom of the plate.

 

[not_ally]

It *does* look like pizza! I've never used tea for the liquid in a batter, so not sure if it might morph into a color which you feel better about? I hope so. It is frustrating when the soap doesn't match what you started w/in your head. But that is the great thing, you can always do it again tomorrow ...

 

[spenny92]

It *does* look like pizza! I've never used tea for the liquid in a batter, so not sure if it might morph into a color which you feel better about? I hope so. It is frustrating when the soap doesn't match what you started w/in your head. But that is the great thing, you can always do it again tomorrow ...

Pizza soap? Could be the new in thing, right? :wtf:

I've used green tea before and it came out nicely, a beigey green which suits the scent. If this one stays the orange colour, I think I'll order some orange scent, mix with the raspberry and lay off sprinkling the raspberry powder on top - no more pizza toppings. Typical, as I've just made 2 big orders of supplies last night and didn't order any orange scents! Maybe Bergamot could work...

My head is constantly spinning with ideas hah, soap is doing crazy things to me!

 

[umeali]

Nice soap even better than my first soap .

 

[Obsidian]

Many botanicals will turn brown in soap. The only natural pinks you can use is madder root powder or rose clay. Before adding in any herb/fruit or juice, check here first.
For nice greens, spirulina works really well. You can also use nettle or parsley. Annatto seeds give a very nice orange, for more golden, try tumeric. Natural blue or purple can be extremely difficult.

 

[spenny92]

Many botanicals will turn brown in soap. The only natural pinks you can use is madder root powder or rose clay. Before adding in any herb/fruit or juice, check here first.
For nice greens, spirulina works really well. You can also use nettle or parsley. Annatto seeds give a very nice orange, for more golden, try tumeric. Natural blue or purple can be extremely difficult.

Thanks. I wasn't terribly set on making sure it was red/pink, I just thought that maybe the raspberry powder would help. I don't hate the colour, it's lightened up more now so it's light orange, rather than muddy brown. Just doesn't suit the scent!

I've got some green kaolin clay ordered, and I'll probably try some rose clay next time!

 

[nsmar4211]

And here I was eying my hibiscus tea.........well, I do need a brown LOL. Playing is fun though!

 

[galaxyMLP]

Before I made any soap with additives for color I scoured the interwebs. I discovered that, unfortunately there are veeery few things that don't go mucky in soap. I did try parsley in my HP soap once and that was a nice pale green. Smelled something awful for a few days but then it went away completely!