Ombré Liquid Soap

[ResolvableOwl]

Of course I couldn't leave my idea for rainbow LS without at least trying out some of its (less troublesome) aspects in some way! So here is, at least, a proof-of-concept simple two-colour gradient ombré “swirl” within an LS bottle.



The other day, I had pre-dissolved a ridiculously tiny amount of indigo carmine (E132 food colouring) into some of the LS. It dissolved slowly, but nicely, and gave a very dark blue solution. The ombré technique itself then was no different from how you'd do it in CP. Just that I ran out of medium-coloured LS, and had to eyeball the next dilution steps, so the initial gradient had some staircase look. Some air bubbles were inevitable, but they rose quite quickly to the top.

This wouldn't have qualified for the monthly challenge, alone since I just grabbed some random, light-coloured LS with a nice viscosity out of my stash, made several months ago.


I'm super curious what diffusion will do to the dye over time. I have no reason to not store that bottle as-is for a few days/weeks/months and see how first the ragged gradient evens out, and eventually the whole volume will be uniformly medium blue. Stay tuned!

 

[ResolvableOwl]

That went quicker than I thought.
(backlit photo)

Some eight hours in, I looked again: the ombré has “collapsed”, and streaks of blue LS have sunken to the bottom.

No wonder that nobody wants to make ombré LS, when this is such a fleeting, unstable thing, and so sensitive even against the smallest density differences (let alone vibrations, temperature differences). Lol, I should have known better.

It's not fully mixed, I guess this will take a few more days. I'll update.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Quick update after 10 days


The settling has progressed further. Some unsightly greyish-blue flocculation has taken place, though I'm not sure if it is the indigo carmine that is slowly deciding against staying in solution, or it's the LS that has had some minor clarity issues before.
The top portion has kept only a slight greenish tinge. At the very bottom there is something that appears like a fluffy bluish sediment. The stuff in between is grey rather than blue and looks like the flakes of soap scum that form when you dissolve a bit of soap in hard water.

I've now shaken it up (as good as possible with its honey-thick consistency). The flakes have broken up (for how long? We'll see…), and the LS has a mostly uniform, dirty turquoise colour now.