SMF Challenge November 2021 - Rainbows

[Johnez]

(No, don't even try to convince me otherwise.)

Dang and I was just reviewing your soap dough coloring experiments looking for a good natural green and blue. Are you *suuuure*?

1. CatandOak-ooooooo guys! This one is going to be fun!
2. Peachy Clean Soap
3. dibbles - I could use a bit of rainbow in my life
4. Primrose - fabulous!
5. Vicki C - yes
6. melonpan - so many ideas!
7. earlene - I've chosen my inspiration photo from a trip with friends in 2013
8. Violets2217- I forgot my screen name for a second!
9. Guspuppy - I need to make soap anyway!
10. TheGecko - Why not.
11. linne1gi - I love rainbows!
12. glendam - Just the push I needed to finally attempt this
13. Martha - This will be my first challenge. So intimidated by you guys! And I’m #13!
14. Cpndouchette - i have a lot going on right now so not sure I'm going to have time but i'll throw my hat in the ring!
15. Johnez- How many new (to me) techniques can I roll into one challenge?

 

[TheGecko]

So I just remade the soap. I made a fresh Lye Solution, verified the temperature was correct (212F), used it to melt my MB Oils, blended it to emulsion, no FO, poured equally in all my cups with dispersed colorants, mixed, poured my layers, cleaned up my dishes, molds are in the garage.

Well...that is how I wanted it to go, reality was much, much different. Yeah I made a fresh lye solution, checked the temp and it said nothing wrong with my lye (see previous disaster), and I did use it to melt my MB'd oils. I was getting ready to SB and realized I hadn't set up my colorants and I was going to use my oils, but now it was too late. So I put the colorants in the cups, gave the batter a quick whisk and then grabbed my melon baller and measured out some of not emulsified batter into the cups and gave them a quick mix. I then went back to the batter, blended to...a light pudding. It wasn't my idea. It had been awhile since I had used a freshly made lye solution and how it tended to accelerate small batches of oils. Not a huge issue if I'm making a single color soap, but.....

I'm usually a tidy soap maker, but not today...too much soap in one cup, not enough in another, turned the bowl because its glopping and missed the cup. Then I get out my electric frother, cuz no way that battery one is going to work and now I have splatters of colored soap. Screw it...gotta fill the molds. Pour the red (it's the only one that 'pours') and smacked the molds, grab the yellow and a spoon...glop some in, twist myself in a pretzel to get it all spread around, grab the orange and start to repeat...except the light bulbs turns on and I turn the molds to spread. Grab the green and realized that I was supposed to pour the orange after the red, not the yellow. Crap. Don't care, batter is like a thick pudding. Stir stir stir the green, plop it in...why don't I have enough green? Stir stir stir stir the blue, plop it it...why do I have too much blue? Grab the purple...the cup is really warm...stir stir stir, stir stir stir, stir stir stir...okay, I can plop it in...get it in the center, smack down the the molds...too much in two, none in the last...grab a knife, scrape off and plop in the last one. I can always cut the soap in half to show the layers.

Put the molds the garage. Wipe up the mess on the counter. Grab the bottle of Kahlua and pour some in my coffee. Take a break.

 

[AliOop]

@TheGecko … so sorry. If it is any comfort, the song “Mama Said There’d Be Days Like This” is now playing in my head.

 

[TheGecko]

@TheGecko … so sorry. If it is any comfort, the song “Mama Said There’d Be Days Like This” is now playing in my head.

It's all good. Really. The grandkids will like it regardless of what it looks like.

 

[Cat&Oak]

It's all good. Really. The grandkids will like it regardless of what it looks like.

I'm sorry it was a rough soaping day!

 

[TheGecko]

I'm sorry it was a rough soaping day!

It's gotten worse. I went to make a new batch of Lye Solution (poured the old down the bathtub drain) and I only have about 1/4 gallon of Distilled Water. Sent daughter to the grocery store, they are out. They every other kind of water, so I told her to pick up a gallon of "purified" and I'll give it a try. Just won't make my usual Master Batch.

On the plus side, I'm doing an inventory on my FOs. I have a crap load of 1oz and 2oz that I am never going to use so I will list them for a buck or two and see if anyone wants them. Also have some molds that I'm not going to use...that I bought and still in original packaging or only used once and didn't work out.

 

[AliOop]

Rats, what a pain! We seem to be going through random shortages of distilled water now and then, as well. I'm seriously considering buying a water distiller, but from everything I read, they only last a year or two at most unless you buy a very expensive one. But it might be worth having around so I could use something when there are shortages. And since my husband uses a CPAP, that's a great justification for why we *need* one.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

What about water softeners with regenerable ion-exchange resin?

 

[AliOop]

What about water softeners with regenerable ion-exchange resin?

sounds expensive...

 

[gww]

alliOop
You might be able to put something like this together pretty cheap but I do not know if it would keep up with your needs.
http://diy-alternative-energy.com/build-a-solar-water-distiller/Cheers
gww

 

[Ladka]

It's all good. Really. The grandkids will like it regardless of what it looks like.

This reminds me of the rebatch I made to use my daughter's residual slices of all kinds of soap she uses, some of my own bits/shavings and a bar or two of my failings. Now, the failed soap I used was "a piece of raw meat", the colour quite intense which was to become lollipop soap. I added some water, warmed and stirred. The materials melted and foamed and bubbled. I somehow got the ugly and sticky batter into individual moulds, pushed in an embed or two, and let all four pieces to dry.
When I guessed the bars were dry enough I gave three to my daughter who just ran out of soap.
Yesterday I babysat boysat my grandsons and saw all three bars in use - they love them so much. Did I say they were ugly? Well, to err is human

 

[TheGecko]

Update. I just unmolded the soap.

The good news: It's soap and it's hard as a frigging rock...suckers practically popped out of the molds all by themselves. Didn't use any Sodium Lactate and since I wasn't using an FO, no Kaolin Clay either. The colors are nice. The shavings I got from planning the bottoms are fantastic...first time I've wanted to make a 'confetti soap'. I think I will take a couple of the bars and plane them down for just that use.

The bad news: The layers are uneven...no surprise. Sadly, most of what you see is just the first three colors...red, yellow and orange...with just a hint of green and blue at the very bottom...no purple unless you turn the bar over and look at the bottom. I cut one of the bars in half, or at least I tried too. Too hard and small so it wasn't perfect (three pieces), but I was able to salvage half and you can clearly see that in my effect to spread the yellow and orange to the edges I had more batter on the edges so when I put the green and blue in, it just pushed those colors further out.

The good news: The soap does does meet the challenge.

The bad news: I'm thinking that maybe...third time is the charm? Only thing is...I'm going to have to dirty a bunch of dishes since I won't be able to use paper cups...unless I just make four bars instead of eight....hmmmm. Part of the problem with the layers is that I used even amounts with a rounded mold. I should have used smaller amounts of the first three colors and larger amounts of the last three. Reduce the red by 15% and add it to the purple, reduce the orange and yellow by 10% and add it to the green and blue. Also need to make each layer separately.

Do you all think those amounts are sufficient or should I go higher/lower? Each cavity holds 3 oz / 6 = 2.03 oz per layer. So the Red would be 1.73 oz, the Orange and Yellow would be 1.83 oz, the Green and Blue would be 2.24 oz and the Purple 2.34 oz.

 

[melonpan]

I'm seriously considering buying a water distiller, but from everything I read, they only last a year or two at most unless you buy a very expensive one. But it might be worth having around so I could use something when there are shortages.

I've been looking into how you could potentially use condensed water from an air conditioner unit (but it seems there's still a potential of bacteria if the pipes and unit are not clean and new, possibly they can start developing mould due to humidity etc) or from a dehumidifier. The latter seems to be a better option than the air conditioner as the water goes through less pipes and if you don't let the water sit in the dehumidifier tank too long it could be potentially be quite clean and similar distilled-grade. So not sure if this could be of help in your case - this is all in theory as I haven't tried it myself yet, but a friend of mine has offered to share their dehumidifier water with me just to test this out and I'm curious to try.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Gosh! You are reminding me that the water shortage topic triggered me:
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/thr...tening-znsc-faux-sea-water-in-one-step.86029/but I forgot to cross-promote this here!

 

[melonpan]

Part of the problem with the layers is that I used even amounts with a rounded mold. I should have used smaller amounts of the first three colors and larger amounts of the last three. Reduce the red by 15% and add it to the purple, reduce the orange and yellow by 10% and add it to the green and blue. Also need to make each layer separately.

Do you all think those amounts are sufficient or should I go higher/lower? Each cavity holds 3 oz / 6 = 2.03 oz per layer. So the Red would be 1.73 oz, the Orange and Yellow would be 1.83 oz, the Green and Blue would be 2.24 oz and the Purple 2.34 oz.

Not knowing how much is the curve/radius in the rounded part compared to the straight part I'm having a hard time visualising it. Would you onow how much is the difference?
(I'm also working with layers and I had to draw a section of the mold to do the math )

I've done my first part of the challenge soap today. It's now CPOPing and I can't wait to unmold to see if it's any good!

Reading @TheGecko's experience and based on my inexperience, I was concerned about running out of time for the layers so I decided to prepare all my oils, split them and then work on each layer separately (weight 1/7 of batter, prepare the lye solution for one part of batter with ice cubes to cut down waiting time, measure the mica, measure EO blend for the 1/7th of the batter, mix well, pour breaking the fall with a spatula). Well, I poured at emulsion and the layers were saponified enough to hold the next layer by the time I was ready to pour, it took much longer than I anticipated! (In my mind I thought 10 mins for layer max, haha)
I stick blended the blue layer too much bu mistake (the batter was so little than 3 burst rather than 2 made the difference) and I don't think that one will be a straight layer.

I'm wondering, which mica/batter proportions are you all using?
I've tried 0.3% grams of mica for oils weight, but the wet soap seemed a deep colour. I could have gone a bit lighter.

 

[Nona'sFarm]

What about water softeners with regenerable ion-exchange resin?

Does that clear out trace metals and other impurities?

 

[TheGecko]

Not knowing how much is the curve/radius in the rounded part compared to the straight part I'm having a hard time visualising it. Would you onow how much is the difference?
(I'm also working with layers and I had to draw a section of the mold to do the math )

These are the Round Molds

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Does that clear out trace metals and other impurities?

Trace metals: yes, that's the whole point of ion exchange, you can get lab-grade purity out of them. Impurities: depends. Uncharged impurities like organic stuff (bacteria) might come through, don't expect the product to be sterile.

 

[Peachy Clean Soap]

So I just remade the soap. I made a fresh Lye Solution, verified the temperature was correct (212F), used it to melt my MB Oils, blended it to emulsion, no FO, poured equally in all my cups with dispersed colorants, mixed, poured my layers, cleaned up my dishes, molds are in the garage.

Well...that is how I wanted it to go, reality was much, much different. Yeah I made a fresh lye solution, checked the temp and it said nothing wrong with my lye (see previous disaster), and I did use it to melt my MB'd oils. I was getting ready to SB and realized I hadn't set up my colorants and I was going to use my oils, but now it was too late. So I put the colorants in the cups, gave the batter a quick whisk and then grabbed my melon baller and measured out some of not emulsified batter into the cups and gave them a quick mix. I then went back to the batter, blended to...a light pudding. It wasn't my idea. It had been awhile since I had used a freshly made lye solution and how it tended to accelerate small batches of oils. Not a huge issue if I'm making a single color soap, but.....

I'm usually a tidy soap maker, but not today...too much soap in one cup, not enough in another, turned the bowl because its glopping and missed the cup. Then I get out my electric frother, cuz no way that battery one is going to work and now I have splatters of colored soap. Screw it...gotta fill the molds. Pour the red (it's the only one that 'pours') and smacked the molds, grab the yellow and a spoon...glop some in, twist myself in a pretzel to get it all spread around, grab the orange and start to repeat...except the light bulbs turns on and I turn the molds to spread. Grab the green and realized that I was supposed to pour the orange after the red, not the yellow. Crap. Don't care, batter is like a thick pudding. Stir stir stir the green, plop it in...why don't I have enough green? Stir stir stir stir the blue, plop it it...why do I have too much blue? Grab the purple...the cup is really warm...stir stir stir, stir stir stir, stir stir stir...okay, I can plop it in...get it in the center, smack down the the molds...too much in two, none in the last...grab a knife, scrape off and plop in the last one. I can always cut the soap in half to show the layers.

Put the molds the garage. Wipe up the mess on the counter. Grab the bottle of Kahlua and pour some in my coffee. Take a break.

Though frustration Im sure your soap will be beautiful & unique as your other creations. cheers ️️

 

[Guspuppy]

Made my one and only try at the challenge soap, very much afeared I did not get it to emulsion before splitting and coloring. Too worried about it thickening up too fast. Arg! So far 14 hours in the mold, not quite liquid but could be just hardened hard oils, which were 85% of the recipe. Here's hoping it's actually soap and a few days sitting will harden it up!