Soap Dough Gurus Here ~ Black Soap Dough

[Catscankim]

Just using leftovers from my regular recipe. I have a few balls of soap dough in different colors, none scented. I leave them on the counter all wrapped up. The colors all come out as intended except the black. I have tried leaving it out, cpoping it...I don't know what else to do to get it the color that I want.

Every time I save the black colored batter, it looks gray using AC, even though the actual soap that it came from is nice and black in the finished bar. Do I just simply need to add more ac to the leftover batter? I don't know if the intended dough actually gelled, but I poured this one into a saran wrap lined 1 cup container, and twist the saran wrap on top...cover it up with a towel, and stick it right in with the batch that is cpoping. Again it is just dark gray.

Can I add more ac to the dough to make it blacker, probably a stupid question as I probably know the messy answer lol. Just thought I'd ask.

How do you get a nice pitch black soap dough?

 

[glendam]

I use black oxide pigment to make black soap dough. When I use AC with my recipe, it becomes too hard and impossible to model with it.
I have colored soap dough after the fact with micas and pigments, I would use black pigment if you have any.

 

[Catscankim]

Good idea. Next time. I guess I will just have to make do with the dark gray for now. I already put in my bi-weekly mica order LOL. All I have is ac atm.

Pretty new to this soap dough stuff, so I don't even know how they are gonna turn out, but having fun in the meantime. At least molding the dough doesn't require no drinking as with dealing with lye LOL.

 

[glendam]

Give it a try with AC if that is all you have, I would wear gloves though, AC can be really drying on hands

 

[gww]

A question from the dumb side of the bleachers. What is AC? Thank you in advance.
Cheers
gww

 

[glendam]

A question from the dumb side of the bleachers. What is AC? Thank you in advance.
Cheers
gww

It is Activated Charcoal, sorry, I always try to spelled it out bc I remember how confusing it used to be at the beginning, forgot this time!

 

[gww]

Glendam
Thank you very much.
cheers

 

[Catscankim]

I am trying soy and shea's you tube video for the little snowmen. So adorable..on the video LOL. I can't get the heads to stick onto the body though.

But I think the dark gray will look ok for now if I can get everything to stick.

 

[Cat&Oak]

I just ordered some black soap dough and stencils because I didn't want to run into the same problem you are having right now cause all I have is ac ❤

 

[AliOop]

Glendam
Thank you very much.
cheers

Here is the Acronym sticky thread that can help.

 

[SirSoapsAlot]

I use black oxide pigment to make black soap dough. When I use AC with my recipe, it becomes too hard and impossible to model with it.

Just curious if you tried to remedy first, like adding more water or superfat, or did you just switch to oxide right away for ease?

 

[glendam]

Just curious if you tried to remedy first, like adding more water or superfat, or did you just switch to oxide right away for ease?

I did not try to remedy, as I was using leftover soap from my regular recipe and I liked not having to do a specific recipe for soap dough. I will say this though, when I used Bee's recipe before, with full water, Activated charcoal did work to make it black. In my high humidity area though, using full water makes my soap prone to DOS, and that is why I avoid using full water amounts.

 

[Cheeky Goat]

Black oxide is the only way I ever get mine truly black.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

CMYK process black (the black used in ordinary offset printing) isn't the most faithful black either. A common trick there is “rich black” that has (usually) some cyan blue mixed in, and indeed looks blacker (on paper, not the PC screen, lol) than 100% K black.
Transferred to soap, this means that dark low-opacity colourants can help AC/black oxide to achieve deeper blacks. Ideally, soluble dyes, not pigments (let alone micas). Indigo carmine E132 and caramel colouring come to my mind. An elegant thing about soap dough is that you can add such things afterwards, by just kneading in (takes some elbow grease to get it spread out).

For the soap itself, a lower longevity number, no lactate/acetate, and high water, lauric, linoleic & castor amounts might direct the soap dough itself into a less opaque, more translucent direction – less work to do for pigments to counteract the diffuse light scattering that makes bare soap white.

All without warranty, lol.

 

[Megan]

You are gelling your soap dough? Don't you find it is really hard to work with if it gels?

Also, I agree about the black oxide. Even in my regular AC soaps I use Black Oxide to get it the right black.

 

[Catscankim]

Not usually. Most of my soap doughs are experiments and this is the first time that I have ever actually made anything out of it. I was just trying to see if sticking it in the oven with my cpoping regular batch would help with the color.

But it was nice and pliable, albeit still gray. So maybe it didn't gel after all. I dunno. Soap dough is new to me.