Lye Discoloring Liquid?

[topcat]

Hi all and I hope everyone enjoyed their Halloween adventures

Okay, I have searched this forum and cannot find just what I would like to know, so.......

I have only recently started making CP soap (I LOVE it!) and wanted to experiement a little with my ingredients. I will be using a 'Twinings' brand Strawberry & Mango herbal tea infused into my water for my lye mixture. This tea (as a drink) is divinely pinky red and smells gorgeous. My query is will adding the lye to this cold tea discolour it and/or kill any fragrance? If I add liquid TD to the tea before I add the lye, will this help - at least with the discolouring issue?

I hope someone has tried this before and can give me feedback.....any help (even guesses) will be greatly appreciated :? Thanks in advance,

Tanya

 

[beachgurl]

Most likely yes and yes ... I use this peppermint herbal tea that has a beautiful scarlet color ... however once mixed with lye it turns brown and has no scent .. this is just one of the many ... at the very least, expect the color to morph and have no scent ...i've done peppermint, orange, chamomile, green, chai, etc and they've all turned brown with no scent

 

[Becky]

I agree, I have never had the scent come thru from any tea or other beverage.

 

[topcat]

Thanks beachgurl and becky! I had a feeling that might be the case....let me think on it and after I make this soap I will post here with my results :wink:

 

[bassgirl]

So is there any benefit at all to making soap with liquid tea? Is it the heat from the lye mixture that fries it and would that be alleviated by mixing it at room temperature?

 

[topcat]

Hey bassgirl, I am wondering the same thing. I think I will use filtered water for the lye mix but discount it by maybe 1/3 and make a tea with the extra, to add at light trace....? I will let you know how it turns out! :roll:

 

[bassgirl]

See, I did try making some. I brewed some tea and mixed it full strength with the lye instead of water. It reeked to high heaven but I went ahead and soaped it anyway. The whole batch still reeked, so I threw it out. I don't know if the lye or the heat from the lye burned it or what. :?

 

[ilovedoxies]

I've made soap with tea full strength and it didn't stink. I added my lye SLOWLY like over 30 minutes.

 

[carebear]

the stench, in my experience, fades to nothing in a few weeks.

 

[beachgurl]

carebear's right .. it does fade .. and that peppermint tea made for the most beautiful caramel color .. it was gorgeous

 

[bassgirl]

Really?? Because this stuff was nasty! Maybe I shouldn't have thrown it out, but I just couldn't stand it! So by adding the lye to the tea more slowly does that keep it from burning? Or is it just gonna stink anyway?

 

[carebear]

Well apparently others have had different experiences but I got a stench no matter how I did it. But I don't bother any more since all I got out of it was label appeal.

 

[stacy_bareskin]

It won't be the heat that affects the tea/lye mixture. Think about the temperature of the water when you normally make tea .

 

[topcat]

It won't be the heat that affects the tea/lye mixture. Think about the temperature of the water when you normally make tea .

Good point! It must be a product of the contact with the caustic soda/lye then. I will definitely only add the RT tea at trace after discounting my water amount. Thanks

 

[carebear]

Good point! It must be a product of the contact with the caustic soda/lye then. I will definitely only add the RT tea at trace after discounting my water amount. Thanks

yea Chemistry is a bear!

the pH of the solution is clearly going to impact things, and there may be other reactions going on as well

 

[bassgirl]

It won't be the heat that affects the tea/lye mixture. Think about the temperature of the water when you normally make tea .

Good point! It must be a product of the contact with the caustic soda/lye then. I will definitely only add the RT tea at trace after discounting my water amount. Thanks

Please let us know how that works!

 

[topcat]

Okay, I have made my batch and it is now cut and resting in my drying cupboard.

I used filtered water for my lye mixture and reserved 1/3 cup of the weighed water to make the herbal tea. Just before adding the lye mix to my oils I stirred in 1/2 tsp liquid TD. At light trace I added this RT berry tea blended with 2 tablespoons of pureed fresh mango & strawberries ...... and my batter turned bright lime green! :shock: Once blended in well, the batter returned to a more normal creamy yellow

As I had decided from all your posts that the tea's fragrance would not come through I added a blend of FOs my daughter came up with - 2 tsp Mai Tai Twist & 3 tsp Passionfruit Rose. Smells divine!!! Just like creamy fruit salad. You actually really want to eat it

Pics below show the different moulds I used - a butterfly, some 'fairy wings' ovals and a PVC pipe mould for the half circles (I cut them in half...) I brushed the individual shapes with rainbow mica for a nice sheen.

The dark spots are the strawberry seeds......

Thanks again all for your help and advice, Tanya


Click on the thumbnails for a larger pic.

 

[bassgirl]

Those look really nice!

Did you make the tea regular drinking strength? I wonder if you could make it really intense since it would be so diluted?

 

[topcat]

Hey bassgirl - I made it with 1/3 cup water and 1 tea bag - however I left the bag in until it cooled right down - maybe 1 hour? So it was very intense in colour and smell!

 

[bassgirl]

Cool...thanks!