Lost the candy to my corn

[Karmic]

My third batch of soap has turned into my first bit of a disappointment. Not because of any real problems but more from color not behaving. Got myself really excited for this one because I found a Candy Corn FO that is 100% spot on and since a lot of places are doing Halloween themed soaps I thought I'd do this one. It'd be a simple project for a newb like me and I could practice my layers.

Colors at pour:

Perfect. I was so happy.

Colors out of the mold:

I weep for my yellow

I think it might have been the FO (has 6% Vanillin). The orange stayed pretty decent but the yellow and white suffered. I have enough fragrance to make a second batch. Should I add in some Titanium Dioxide to try and get those bright candy colors to stick?

 

[jcandleattic]

I think it might have been the FO (has 6% Vanillin). The orange stayed pretty decent but the yellow and white suffered. I have enough fragrance to make a second batch. Should I add in some Titanium Dioxide to try and get those bright candy colors to stick?

With that much vanilla, TD will probably not work. You either need a different FO, or a vanilla stabilizer.

 

[amd]

With 6% Vanillin in the FO, the soap will turn brown. Your orange might be noticeable but a dusky brown orange rather than the bright orange that it is, but the white and yellow will turn brown. To use an FO with that much vanillan you will need a vanilla stabilizer.

 

[Karmic]

Hmmm... I don't think I've read anywhere about a vanilla stabilizer. Got any articles or recommendations for what to use?

 

[jcandleattic]

Hmmm... I don't think I've read anywhere about a vanilla stabilizer. Got any articles or recommendations for what to use?

Tons of posts about it on this forum with a quick search, but the most recommended and the one that I personally think is worth it is the VS from BCN.

 

[amd]

The most recommended one is this:
https://cart.candlesupply.com/Vanilla-Stabilizer-for-soap-pr-20326.html

I will tell you that the one from WSP does not work. Not even a little bit.

 

[jcandleattic]

I will tell you that the one from WSP does not work. Not even a little bit.

Neither does Natures Garden's nor BrambleBerry's. In my experience anyway...

 

[Karmic]

That is some good quality advise. Thank you! I'll order some of that before I try again

 

[Dawni]

For what it's worth... Good job on the layers

 

[Relle]

Great for your third batch . Woohoo.

 

[Karmic]

For what it's worth... Good job on the layers

Ha ha! Thanks. Since there were no notes on what the FO might do I split the ingredients 3 ways and soaped each layer individually so that #1 I could abort and save some of my oils if things started accelerating too much too fast and #2 to give the bottom layer time to set up before the next one went on. Despite the discoloration, I am still really pleased with how it came out.

If worse comes to worse I might chunk these ones up once they're cured and either rebatch or use them as some kind of embeds. They're still pretty soft maybe I could take some cookie cutters to them before they harden up

 

[Dawni]

Ha ha! Thanks. Since there were no notes on what the FO might do I split the ingredients 3 ways and soaped each layer individually so that #1 I could abort and save some of my oils if things started accelerating too much too fast and #2 to give the bottom layer time to set up before the next one went on. Despite the discoloration, I am still really pleased with how it came out.

If worse comes to worse I might chunk these ones up once they're cured and either rebatch or use them as some kind of embeds. They're still pretty soft maybe I could take some cookie cutters to them before they harden up

Great ideas! Show us whatever you decide

 

[shunt2011]

I too use the Vanilla Stabilizer from BCN and it's the best I've used and I've tried most of them like above. Mine holds back the discoloring for 8 months or longer depending on how much vanilla is in the FO. I do like how your soap turned out though.

 

[Marilyn Norgart]

I think you did a great job on the layers. and the soap is pretty.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Lost the candy to my corn

That cracked me up! Thanks for the giggle!

I agree with everyone else... nice layers! But here's my thought... candy corn is mostly orange with a bit of white on top and yellow on the bottom. The orange looks strong, so for your next effort, try a short white and yellow layer, and lotsa orange in between.

Should I add in some Titanium Dioxide to try and get those bright candy colors to stick?

Bump the yellow with more or a brighter colorant; don't fragrance the white so it isn't affected by the vanilla. You could also add a bit of China White (Kaolin) Clay to the white to brighten it.

If worse comes to worse I might chunk these ones up once they're cured and either rebatch or use them as some kind of embeds. They're still pretty soft maybe I could take some cookie cutters to them before they harden up

I wouldn't do anything until after a full 4-6 week cure to see whether or not I like them. Quite frankly, even now, they look just fine to me and if that FO comes through... YUM!

Best to check in with your friends here once they are cured to help decide what to do. We are always so critical of the soaps we make, let better judgment prevail.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Like this:

 

[Karmic]

Lost the candy to my corn View attachment 41751 That cracked me up! Thanks for the giggle!

I agree with everyone else... nice layers! But here's my thought... candy corn is mostly orange with a bit of white on top and yellow on the bottom. The orange looks strong, so for your next effort, try a short white and yellow layer, and lotsa orange in between.

You're welcome! I'm of the firm belief that it's better to laugh at my mistakes and learn from them then get myself too upset over them. And, well, it was true. So long bright candy colors. I hardly knew ye.

As for the less even layers I had thought about that, but since I had split all of my supplies and soaped each from scratch because I was dealing with an unpredictable FO that I wasn't sure would accelerate or not, it had seemed easier to just divide it into thirds and work with those numbers for this trial. Next time maybe devote half the batch to the orange and give a quarter each for the white and yellow?


***UPDATE***

I'm still puzzling over this batch. The bars got a bit darker/browner since the first post but the color has stabilized at this point. However, it's not hardening. My other two batches seemed to firm up very nicely within a day or two of cutting, but the Candy Corn is still soft enough that I can press my fingers/nails easily into it almost a week later. It's the exact same recipe as my other batches (and at 16 lbs of oils in my stocks probably going to be the only recipe I use for the foreseeable future lol) with the oil being the only new variant.

I do have some "guest sized" molds I got on clearance. Once I get the stabilizer I might make a small test batch, split it three ways and try one with just the FO, one with the FO + stabilizer, and one with FO + stabilizer + sodium lactate to see if it does this again and if anything helps it.

 

[amd]

I was so hoping you would post an update, I have been very curious how the vanillan content in this one played out.

I would guess a mis-measurement in the oils or lye? I don't think I've ever heard of an FO leaving a soap soft. I know you said it's the same recipe, but did you change water content at all? Sometimes we see that as a "not a recipe change" but it has an affect to the soap.

 

[Karmic]

I was so hoping you would post an update, I have been very curious how the vanillan content in this one played out.

I would guess a mis-measurement in the oils or lye? I don't think I've ever heard of an FO leaving a soap soft. I know you said it's the same recipe, but did you change water content at all? Sometimes we see that as a "not a recipe change" but it has an affect to the soap.

If I did it was not intentional, but admittedly it might be a possibility. I have noticed that my scale occasionally will blip after it's been zeroed reducing things by -.04, but most of the time I can catch it by re-weighing to make sure the two numbers match. I can't remember if I did this time or not (god there was so much weighing that night...). The scale came in a kit from BB so it was kind of cheapy to begin with, and I can't return it alone for a replacement. I'll be getting a bonus check at the end of Nov and I'm considering getting a better quality one so I don't have to do so much second-guessing with it.

 

[amd]

If I did it was not intentional, but admittedly it might be a possibility.

Ha! I can't think of any of us who intentionally mis-measures. It happens to all of us at some point - I made a soap last fall that was gooey soft - I even went back to watch the video to see if I could find where I messed up. A quick pause showed me I had a dyslexic moment with some numbers on the scale. Insert face palm here.