Soap bleeding problem

[dalewaite48]

I have made a new soap called Cherry Almond and it smells and looks great an lathers good. But when you shower with it it looks like you are bleeding orange. It's nothing that stains you are even your wash cloth but just wondering if I added to much coloring or wrong type. It was Stained Glass Sunflower Orange Powder.

 

[Obsidian]

I would say that you used too much but some darker colors bleed no matter what.

 

[pamielynn]

Yeah, reds tend to bleed out if you hit the tipping point There is totally a market for that, though, LOL

 

[shunt2011]

Yep, I agree just used a bit too much. I have that problem with reds mostly.

 

[eucalypta]

Well, I have to say that not ALL reds bleed.... even if you use much.
CI 12490 (pigment red 5, Rouge Covanor W 3619) is the one you want.

Most of the reds are lakes (dye) - not pigments! They bleed.

(but I'm afraid you overdid it a little)

Some years ago I was in search of the "perfect" red (not the very bright, orangy one, but a nice darker red).
Luckily I made small batches, because it was a diaster. LOL

no bleeding:

and dito

looks good...

but ...

Orange is even more difficult; best is to mix the non bleeding red with a non bleeding yellow. Better even if you use a
neon pink (magenta); it wil give a brighter colour.
The orange pigment that's available is not skin safe: CI 21110 (at least according to the latest EU legislation).

Another option is Orange mica.

 

[pamielynn]

Those are so pretty! I've totally given up on red. When I start swearing at my soap batter, I know it's time to stop

 

[OliveOil2]

If the color is from Wholesale Supplies Plus, they usually say that the stained glass collection is best for Melt & pour. Orange and Red are both difficult, I've had good luck with the liquid Tomato Red from TKB Trading, but I find myself using more of the soft colors.

 

[dalewaite48]

Thanks everyone for your replies.

 

[eucalypta]

Those are so pretty! I've totally given up on red. When I start swearing at my soap batter, I know it's time to stop

Thx, I recognize that feeling

Well here is your chance to repechage!
Just look for the correct CI number on your suppliers site, and your dog days are over. :-D

 

[Bex1982]

I had a purple that did that but it actually did stain the tub , it worked ok if i only used a little bit but then the soap was pink and not purple.

 

[Mollybygolly]

Eycalypta, where do you buy that color of red? I just made some red, white, and blue soap and my red is bleeding into the white and looks too orange for my tastes. Not happy with it at all!

 

[Julia33]

Hello I am a beginner soap maker and I made some soap that is bleeding on towels so how can I save that soap with rebatch to make the soap not bleed anymore? hope some one can help thanks in advance

 

[AliOop]

Hi Julia,

May I ask what you used for colorant? If it was something other than a colorant approved for soap, it may not be fixable. If the colorant was approved for soap, and you just used too much, you have a couple of options:

1. You can shred it and use it as confetti in a new batch. The shreds may still stain, however.

2. You can shred it and use it to make more soap with the ciaglia method; this would probably be less likely to stain since the bits are so small and dispersed into the new batter.

3. You can rebatch it along with other soap scraps so that the color is diluted throughout the larger, combined rebatch. There are ways to rebatch that are very low stress, such as the oven rebatch method that you can read about here.

 

[Julia33]

I used oxides and pigments and I don't want to throw the soap away thanks for your advice

 

[AliOop]

As long as the oxides and pigments were approved for use in the type of soap you made, you should be able to use one of those options to reuse the soap in a new batch. Good luck!

 

[lucycat]

Julia,
Red and some of the brown oxides are very prone to bleeding when you use very much. If you used enough for the soap to be red or reddish brown then it will be difficult to rebatch the soap and not have bleeding. If you only have a small swirl in a plain base then rebatching is a good idea. I would just consider it a hand soap at a sink where a wash cloth isn't used.

 

[earlene]

Weakening the intensity of the colorants via rebatching the soap using the ciaglia method suggested by @AliOop and not adding any new colorant is the most effective way to reduce the bleeding.

I find that red oxide colorant, besides bleeding and producing a dark lather, actually migrated in soap I made with swirls so much so that after a year there were no longer any visible swirls. It looked like a solid red soap at the end.

So if you used a lot of the colorants in the original soap and encourage it to melt into the new uncolored batter as happens in the ciaglia method, you are more likely to promote the colorant to migrate into the uncolored portions of the soap. This would work better with a good amount of water (no water discount) and a good amount of heat (to promote a more thorough melting of the shredded soap). The smaller your shreds are when you shred the soap, the easier it will be to melt into and become a part of the new batter. I would use a food processor with the smallest grater attachment that would produce more of a powder or a finely grated cheese (the finest grate possible is better) because there would be less surface area for the liquid to penetrate. This would result in a mostly one-color soap, of course, and you may not like that if you had a gorgeous swirl with many colors. In some cases the resulting color may be somewhat muddy looking, but if you goal is to not waste the soap and to stop the towel-staining, it's your best bet, IMO.

The lost scent can be annoying however, as can sometimes happen, so if it is scented, then I'd suggest adding more scent (the same or something to complement the original scent) to the new re-batch.

 

[dibbles]

If you want to try the Ciaglia method, this is how I do it. Start by grating/shredding your soap. You can roughly chop the shreds into smaller pieces with a knife. I have found that using the shreds at 25-30% of your oil weight works best for me. Prepare all of your oils and add the shreds. Before adding the lye solution, use your stick blender to break up the shreds into tiny pieces. This may take awhile, so give your stick blender a rest every so often so that you don't burn out the motor. Once the shreds have become speckles in the oils, add the lye solution and bring to trace. Be aware that your batter will thicken very quickly, even before you reach a stable emulsion, so be sure you have reached trace. And keep an eye on it for awhile to make sure the batter isn't separating in the mold. I use my regular recipe with my regular 33% lye concentration and no added heat. Below is a picture of one I made using uncolored batter and mostly dark brown shreds.