Did you try “activating” your unprocessed indigo with hot water and salt, like you would for coloring hair? It only takes 10-15 minutes for it to change from green to the dark indigo color. You do have to use it immediately at that point.
What soapy thing have you done today?
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Is it how it is done ? I thought the process was way more tedious (like, oxydizing, fermenting...). I will try then ! Do you have any idea how much salt would be needed ?
The amount of hot water is just enough to make a spreadable paste that isn't too runny. But it's been so long since I colored my hair with indigo (and used some of it in soap) that I don't recall the amount of salt, sorry. If you search the 'Net for instructions on using indigo to color hair, that should give you a range for the amount of salt. It doesn't take much.
Thank you ! I used to color my hair with indigo too, but back then the instructions I found said to add a bit of sodium bicarbonate. I never notice the paste turning blue and I was not looking for blue but only wanted to darken my brown hair. I'll try the salt and let you know how it turned out in soap (I reckon you never tried this method for soap making ?)
My paste always turned very dark, almost black, but with some blue undertones. I'm sure bicarb would work too, since it is a salt (sodium bicarbonate), but I've never tried that. It's been ages since I used it in soap, but I did get a bluish grey out of it. When I used unactivated indigo, my soap was green.
Side note: try searching YouTube for using indigo in soap. I seem to recall a video where a lady showed different ways to process indigo to get different hues but I don't recall who it was. If I find it again I'll post a link
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The original question arises from a different issue than what Holly addresses in her videos.
What Elise experienced is the difference between using processed and unprocessed indigo. What you buy from a soap supplier is processed, and that is all that Holly used in her videos.
Unprocessed indigo (what one uses to color hair) will produce green or tan soap - never blue or pink.
Ooooooh! I hadn't realized the difference ~ I've been a chicken about trying it because it does seem like a lot of work to get the color from indigo ~ and now I find out that difference
I definitely would have bought the wrong thing, or would have tried to process it the wrong way
I guess I will do more research! 
That's the video that made me want to try indigo in the first place ! Her soaps are so lovely. But I didn't really pay attention to the kind of powder she used and that's not what I gotOoooooh! I hadn't realized the difference ~ I've been a chicken about trying it because it does seem like a lot of work to get the color from indigo ~ and now I find out that difference
I definitely would have bought the wrong thing, or would have tried to process it the wrong way
. She just have to infuse her powder.
Unmolded yesterday's catastrophy. It's an Aleppo style soap (70% olive, 30% laurel berry oil).
I wanted to make it with salt to help harden it and thought it would be fun to use sea water. I don't have seawater on hand so I looked it up and tried to replicate it (I didn't have magnesium so it is actually far from the real thing). I mixed pure table salt (3%) and sodium bicarbonate (1%) in my water. I knew that @Zany_in_CO has a recipe for sea water, I don't know why I didn't bother to check it, and that's on me. My version made a soap that behave so badly. The batter thickened immediately and I had difficulties to get it to an even consistency. I still had to blend a lot... I tried to add a tad more water to loosen it and I still tried to make the secret swirl I planned to do. It will probably look very bad when I'll cut it, my batter was so thick...
It didn't unmold clean, the top is very hard less than 18 hours after pouring. Some parts in the middle are still soft, I may have added too much water in the swirl batter. I'm waiting a couple of hours to cut it...
I also used acid citric, I wonder if that played a role reacting with sodium bicarbonate or something... I just checked and Zany actually used the same ingredients, just in different proportions.
I wanted to make it with salt to help harden it and thought it would be fun to use sea water. I don't have seawater on hand so I looked it up and tried to replicate it (I didn't have magnesium so it is actually far from the real thing). I mixed pure table salt (3%) and sodium bicarbonate (1%) in my water. I knew that @Zany_in_CO has a recipe for sea water, I don't know why I didn't bother to check it, and that's on me. My version made a soap that behave so badly. The batter thickened immediately and I had difficulties to get it to an even consistency. I still had to blend a lot... I tried to add a tad more water to loosen it and I still tried to make the secret swirl I planned to do. It will probably look very bad when I'll cut it, my batter was so thick...
It didn't unmold clean, the top is very hard less than 18 hours after pouring. Some parts in the middle are still soft, I may have added too much water in the swirl batter. I'm waiting a couple of hours to cut it...
I also used acid citric, I wonder if that played a role reacting with sodium bicarbonate or something... I just checked and Zany actually used the same ingredients, just in different proportions.
Opinions?
I just cut it. The swirl isn't that bad on some of the soaps. But the result isn't the subtle look I was looking for. The soaps look a bit rustic and the uncolored part isn't even. Maybe some sort of glycerin rivers knowing I added water to my paste. I hope the part colored with turmeric will lighten with the PH lowering when curing, I was hoping for a color just slightly different from the uncolored part.
So... I'm glad my soap doesn't look half as bad as I was expecting, but I still feel I'll have to carefully zap test them as I am not confident in my process.
That said, I'm please with the bubbles I got when washing my silicon mold with nothing else but the soap scraps that remained stuck on it
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Always a silver (bubbly) lining!View attachment 78448View attachment 78449
I just cut it. The swirl isn't that bad on some of the soaps. But the result isn't the subtle look I was looking for. The soaps look a bit rustic and the uncolored part isn't even. Maybe some sort of glycerin rivers knowing I added water to my paste. I hope the part colored with turmeric will lighten with the PH lowering when curing, I was hoping for a color just slightly different from the uncolored part.
So... I'm glad my soap don't look half as bad as I was expecting, but I still feel I'll have to carefully zap test them as I am not confident in my process.
View attachment 78450
That said, I'm please with the bubbles I got when washing my silicon mold with nothing else but the soap scraps that remained stuck on it
These look great!
Blue1969
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Did you make it? It is gorgeous!
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Popping in to share that I'm finally done with my new workbench, almost exactly a month after starting. Here are a couple of snapshots. I'm about to make a small batch of peach-scented soap to inaugurate the new bench.
This first shot is 'face on' as seen from about 5 feet away, standing at my computer desk 'office'. The desk is where I work from home, and I also moved my personal desktop machine here (glad to have it out of the dining room).
This side-angle view shows the milk crate drying stacks I'm trying out. I have a few more crates that I need to pressure wash, and those will go in behind the lye buckets.
I like the LED shop lights so much that I'm going to add one to my woodworking bench (my old soap work area), which is diagonally across the room. This room is REALLY crowded, what with the treadmill, shelving, and a vertical freezer, but it's actually coming together as a useful room, not just a conglomeration of clutter.
This first shot is 'face on' as seen from about 5 feet away, standing at my computer desk 'office'. The desk is where I work from home, and I also moved my personal desktop machine here (glad to have it out of the dining room).
This side-angle view shows the milk crate drying stacks I'm trying out. I have a few more crates that I need to pressure wash, and those will go in behind the lye buckets.
I like the LED shop lights so much that I'm going to add one to my woodworking bench (my old soap work area), which is diagonally across the room. This room is REALLY crowded, what with the treadmill, shelving, and a vertical freezer, but it's actually coming together as a useful room, not just a conglomeration of clutter.
It takes getting used to, that's for sure ~ for me, I make mine with coconut oil and a blend of the charcoal, clays and a smidge of baking soda, plus a few drops of EOs, so it was the coconut oil I had to get used to. It was also a switch due to "need" over "want to", as I was having reactions to fluoride and getting rashes around my mouth. I tried natural fluoride free toothpastes from the store but they just didn't taste good or feel good in my mouth. At that point I figured if that's how it's going to be then I'll just make it myself. Now I'm rash free and used to the difference. In fact, I recently tried some "regular" toothpaste just to see how it was and I almost gagged
"Natural" store-bought toothpaste gave me permanent health damage, it look me years of using homemade toothpaste to be able to eat normally again or be able to have a dental procedure.
I make my toothpaste for many years using the same recipe: mix equal parts of clay and calcium carbonate, add some fine table salt and slowly mix it with water, perfect for me.
Arrrgghhh is anyone out there now that can help? Please? Instead of sodium citrate i added citric acid to my batch. Is the recipe dead or can I counteract my mistake?
You will just have a little extra super fat - probably not a big deal unless the recipe already had high SF.
Well first of all the recipe called for 5g and it seems i added a zero and added 50 g 
.
I used a 3% superfat with no extra.
.I used a 3% superfat with no extra.
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