Question about Trace

[GreenEggsAndPam]

Thank you, Cmzaha, DeeAnna and Hazel for your invaluable information.

I have been reading for weeks now, preparing for my next batch of soap. I took everything I've read online and your input/suggestions, and put it into action this afternoon. (yeah!)

I did my standard 30/30/30/10 base soap recipe (as previously described) with the goal of making a pumpkin spice soap. My husband and I discussed the ingredients and procedures at great length and came up with using tea as my liquid and a colorant, and some turmeric powder for color. We wanted a pumpkin-y type of color with some dark flecks for interest/exfoliant (I used the tea grounds in the soap). And the fragrance is a Pumpkin Spice FO.

Everything went well, and by the time the soap was poured into the mold, it was the perfect pumpkin color - an orange-y brown with flecks of brown/black. It smelled great! I brought it to a medium trace before pouring in the hope that the tea grinds wouldn't settle in a thicker density.
My mold is a cardboard box with plastic wrap as a liner (hey, it was the perfect size for the bars that we want). I enclosed the box mold in two metal lasagna pans to retain some of the heat that the box won't, and wrapped it towels. Yes, I wanted it to gel.

Here is a pic of the soap about 5 hours afterwards. (attempting my first photo insert)




As you (hopefully) can see, the soap is no longer pumpkin orange. The piece I put on the top is a scraping of the original soap color.

Sooo... we'll see what we end up with. It still smells great, and it is still pretty warm. I think it probably did gel.

Uh-oh, the photo didn't show up in Preview Post. Is there a way to directly attach it instead of having to host the image somewhere?

 

[Ruthie]

Your soap sounds delish! I think you do have to host the image before it shows here. At least that is my experience.

I'm thinkiing I need to make some pumpkin soap. There is a pumpkin patch nearby with a gift shop.....

 

[DeeAnna]

Gelling will darken the color somewhat. Also if your FO has any vanilla/vanillin content, that will definitely darken the soap, sometimes to a dark brown. I don't know about the liquid tea -- it is a wild card that might affect the color, but hard to say, although I do like the idea of adding tea leaves as dark flecks -- nice touch!

I know sweet paprika gives a clear orange color that does not morph. I have used a little of the spice directly in a portion of my batter as an accent color and have been pleased. I have heard that adding paprika directly to the soap as a main colorant can make the soap a little scratchy, however. But paprika can be infused in oil, the particles filtered out, and the colored oil used in soap to get the color without any scratchiness.

 

[houseofwool]

You may find that the color will change again as the soap cools - it is all such a crap shoot the first time trying a new combination of things.

 

[GreenEggsAndPam]

I was expecting the gelling to darken the color up somewhat from the pictures I've looked at, but I was very surprised the first time I checked on the soap to find it had changed to a dark brown! It has lightened up a bit, and is more of a mocha brown now. I have already taken the soap out of the mold and cut it, as it is already fairly hard.

The good news is that the color does match the scent, as it is pretty spicy. The tea I used was Stash Chai Tea, and it is a pretty strong tea. I think if I use tea again I will use something a little milder, unless I am specifically looking for a dark brown color.

The tea grinds were an idea born out of seeing my husband's morning tea / orange juice combo, which usually leaks the grinds into his drink. I'd read of people using coffee grinds, so... thought we would give it a try. It probably made the color much darker since they stayed in the tea and steeped a lot longer then you usually would leave a tea bag in for. I used one tea bag for my 2 lb batch.

So while this batch came out pretty cool, it's not exactly what I was aiming for color-wise. Golly, I'll just have to make another batch..... or two...

This is fun.