Purple potato soap

[honeysuds]

So I have read a few threads here about potato soap. I didn't pay much attention to it...until I was making mashed potatoes last night with purple potatoes from my local co-op! I thought the color was fabulous and if I could get some of that to come through in the final soap I would be thrilled. I measured out the water and 1 ounce of mashed potato, put them in the fridge to chill and went to bed with happy soap thoughts. Got to work after lunch, added the lye to my potato water...and my shoulders slumped with disappointment. The pretty deep purple turned orange :shock: I kept going, added the mash which also turned orange. I thought to put indigo in it but then realized that plus orange wouldn't turn out so nice. In the end I added a small amount of charcoal to add contrast on top.

Top pic is mashed purple potatoes and water. Bottom pic is potato water after adding lye :cry: Cut pics tomorrow.

 

[seven]

lol, that is exactly the same reaction i had when i soaped with red dragon fruit puree. was getting really excited at the prospect of having such a bright red-purplish color, but once the lye was in... POOF! GONE! you were slightly luckier that you still ended up with a color: orange. mine was none, nothing, nada.

 

[SoapMakingTommy]

lol sorry you didn't get the purple, but i think the orange looks awesome, like a orange creamsicle.
Hope to see the cut soon.

 

[Obsidian]

I wonder if the orange will fade some? Did you save any uncolored batter for a color test? I had thought about using purple potatoes too but I figured it would turn ugly brown, the orange is nice.

 

[honeysuds]

Most of the loaf is uncolored with the exception of the bit of charcoal on top so tomorrow will tell what color it will be. I realize it will change more as it finished curing, my banana coconut milk soap was super dark brown but is now lightening up. Sigh...still disappointed.

 

[soap_rat]

Aww, that's too bad! Almost all pinks, reds and purples will turn brown, but I had hopes for your soap! Most of those colors are due to anthocyanins, which change color in different pH.

 

[boyago]

I am eagerly awaiting pics of the finished soap. Very curious to see how the color turns out.

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Just realized that SMF is pretty much my soap opera.

 

[judymoody]

The orange is pretty. Can't wait to see the final result!

 

[honeysuds]

Sooooo I cut my soap this morning, and I felt a smidge of hope. I saw that the outside of the soap had a purplish tinge to it! It may just show some of the purple potato colors after all :clap:

 

[Obsidian]

wow, big color change. I think it looks nice and now you know that you can add purple color next time.

 

[cmzaha]

I have never found a puree that will survive lye, I have had some color survive, not all the color, when I add my puree in after adding my 50/50 lye solution to my batter, which is a 2:1 water to lye ratio, if I do not have a lot of overheaters such as gm and honey in the batter. After mixing the lye in well I slowly add in the balance of liquid followed by the puree. It does seem to help, but not always. Purees and botanicals just like to go all shades of yellows and browns once the lye meets up with it

 

[boyago]

Nice, I'm hoping as the PH drops more purple will come out to play. Do you have Pheno or PH strips? Some colors do come back with the when PH shifts.
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FYI - Mashed Potatoes have a PH of 5.1 according to the food canning website I found. That's a pretty big spread to the PH of soap though. But I'm not even sure if my line of thinking makes any sense so...

 

[judymoody]

I have never found a puree that will survive lye, I have had some color survive, not all the color, when I add my puree in after adding my 50/50 lye solution to my batter, which is a 2:1 water to lye ratio, if I do not have a lot of overheaters such as gm and honey in the batter. After mixing the lye in well I slowly add in the balance of liquid followed by the puree. It does seem to help, but not always. Purees and botanicals just like to go all shades of yellows and browns once the lye meets up with it

I have had decent luck with carrot and pumpkin. Avocado turns more of an olive green but is still pretty.

 

[honeysuds]

No pH strips, but it is definitely looking more pinkish purple so fingers still crossed! I have also had luck with pumpkin and tomato purees, but they fall into the yellow/oranges shades naturally anyway. To go from deep purple to bright orange was quite an unexpected change, at least for me it was.

 

[boyago]

I am taking an intro to chem class and we had a lab where we added a drop of phenolthalein to a few drops of Sodium hydroxide (this turns bright pink) then added a few drops of hydrochloric acid, which turned the solution back to clear. I'm hoping what ever turned your purple orange was doing so as an indication of the PH and when the soap cures and gets closer to neutral you will get more purple back. If you do you have kind of invented a self PH testing soap!

 

[FlybyStardancer]

I am taking an intro to chem class and we had a lab where we added a drop of phenolthalein to a few drops of Sodium hydroxide (this turns bright pink) then added a few drops of hydrochloric acid, which turned the solution back to clear.

So now you're ready to make liquid soap!

And on a similar note, red velvet cake came from bakers noticing that (natural) cocoa powder turns reddish in acidic batters. Dutch cocoa comes from cocoa nibs that have been treated with alkali before being turned into cocoa powder, with the darker the cocoa the more alkaline it became. Also red cabbage will change between red and blue depending on the pH of the cookwater. All anthocyanins!

 

[cmzaha]

I have had decent luck with carrot and pumpkin. Avocado turns more of an olive green but is still pretty.

Yep you're your perfectly correct about pumpkin and carrots they usually do stay a nice color if used with nice light oils colors. I can say that carrots and darker olive oils do not work. I did that once and ended up with a soap I called baby peas, it was the perfect pea color! Avocado never stays green on it's own for me. Cucumber I have had stay a light green. Not sure how I forgot these other than old age... Thanks for the correction Judy

 

[true blue]

Yep - I tried using red cabbage water once ... it turned a weird lightish brown ... and lent an interesting smell to the finished soap. Of course, it didn't help that the cooking soap (done HP) smelled similar to cooking cabbage ... but worse!

 

[TheVelvetLeopard]

I had a similar thing happen with a fresh strawberry soap I made last week. It was a deep red until I added it to the raw soap - then it turned brown. Tried adding a little alkanet root powder, but it didn't do much to alter the color. I know I could add red dye, but wanted the soap to be entirely natural. Btw, what are the benefits of potato in soap? This is the first time I've heard of using potato. I've been focusing a lot on alternative type ingredients in my new soaps, so I'm intrigued at the idea of potato.