My individual moulds always get ash. I spray IA every time, and cover. Then when i turn out the soaps I spray the other side too. Admittedly I don’t cover at that point and maybe I need to.
What soapy thing have you done today?
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atiz
Well-Known Member
Hm, I might have had my first soap failure with this 4th batch of mine today.
I tried Zany's castile recipe, but introduced a few new additives that I never worked with before. Which obviously wasn't very wise because they behaved a bit, well, unexpectedly.
The plan: have a nice castile soap with alkanet/madder root infusion and lilac/lavender fragrance, for the spring. Sounds good, doesn't it?
The reality:
- I realized I was out of distilled water (also had about 10'' of snow on my drive-way so no, not driving anywhere) so for the first time, substituted aloe liquid for the full water amount. Salt and sodium-bicarbonate dissolved fine; added lye; cooled a bit down in the snow.
- I also got some tussah silk the other day, so why not try a little bit of that too. Added a tiny bit to the lye water; dissolved fine. Cooling down.
- Measured and mixed my oils. Pomace grade OO (never used it before); about 25% of it had been infused with alkanet and madder root. When mixed in the pitcher, beautiful dark burgundy/purple color. Warmed it up. So far so good.
- Brought in the lye solution. A little bit cloudy, but not much; very pale yellowish color. At this point I had the probably foolish idea of adding a little bit of honey. For the lather. Okay, seemingly no major disaster.
- Added lye to the oils. The whole mixture suddenly turned MUD GREEN. Very fast. Pulsed maybe twice with the blender and it was a very thick batter already. Quickly mixed in the fragrance and glopped it into the mold.
So... no idea what happened here. I realize there were at least 3-4 new ingredients I had never used before so could have been any of them. But MUD GREEN?!
Will see tomorrow if it ends up as a usable soap. I zap tested my blender and it's fine. The soap seems to be firming up. But it's definitely not purple
I tried Zany's castile recipe, but introduced a few new additives that I never worked with before. Which obviously wasn't very wise because they behaved a bit, well, unexpectedly.
The plan: have a nice castile soap with alkanet/madder root infusion and lilac/lavender fragrance, for the spring. Sounds good, doesn't it?
The reality:
- I realized I was out of distilled water (also had about 10'' of snow on my drive-way so no, not driving anywhere) so for the first time, substituted aloe liquid for the full water amount. Salt and sodium-bicarbonate dissolved fine; added lye; cooled a bit down in the snow.
- I also got some tussah silk the other day, so why not try a little bit of that too. Added a tiny bit to the lye water; dissolved fine. Cooling down.
- Measured and mixed my oils. Pomace grade OO (never used it before); about 25% of it had been infused with alkanet and madder root. When mixed in the pitcher, beautiful dark burgundy/purple color. Warmed it up. So far so good.
- Brought in the lye solution. A little bit cloudy, but not much; very pale yellowish color. At this point I had the probably foolish idea of adding a little bit of honey. For the lather. Okay, seemingly no major disaster.
- Added lye to the oils. The whole mixture suddenly turned MUD GREEN. Very fast. Pulsed maybe twice with the blender and it was a very thick batter already. Quickly mixed in the fragrance and glopped it into the mold.
So... no idea what happened here. I realize there were at least 3-4 new ingredients I had never used before so could have been any of them. But MUD GREEN?!
Will see tomorrow if it ends up as a usable soap. I zap tested my blender and it's fine. The soap seems to be firming up. But it's definitely not purple
I'm doing step one of my challenge soap today.
Great point. Your Zany's no slime castile in those molds had great detail. May I say again how pretty those came out with the dusting of ash, creating a faded blue jean look as pointed out by ... Salted Fig? Dean? Zing?
Marilyn Norgart
Well-Known Member
I am getting ready to do a batch using a loaf mold so will post pics when done
Hm, I might have had my first soap failure with this 4th batch of mine today. I tried Zany's castile recipe, but introduced a few new additives that I never worked with before. Which obviously wasn't very wise because they behaved a bit, well, unexpectedly.
So... no idea what happened here. I realize there were at least 3-4 new ingredients I had never used before so could have been any of them. But MUD GREEN?!
Will see tomorrow if it ends up as a usable soap. I zap tested my blender and it's fine. The soap seems to be firming up. But it's definitely not purple
View attachment 35233
I think your only 'fail' is your planned color. (Looks lavender-grey on my screen, not bad.) Otherwise, should be very interesting soap to use, by your ingredients list ... and it does look like soap in your mold; so yes, I believe you've made soap as opposed to a separated mess or some other disaster requiring reprocessing or something, right?
As my mother always said, "Be grateful for the little things." ((hug))
Kahakan
New Member
atiz
Well-Known Member
Thanks, MeenaI think your only 'fail' is your planned color. (Looks lavender-grey on my screen, not bad.) Otherwise, should be very interesting soap to use, by your ingredients list ... and it does look like soap in your mold; so yes, I believe you've made soap as opposed to a separated mess or some other disaster requiring reprocessing or something, right?
Update: I unmolded (after 4 hrs!), because it was looking very hard. Yes, it is soap; no, it is not purple at all. Maybe I'll call it my "military soap".
I'm just curious about (1) why the incredibly fast speed (both in the mixing process and also for unmolding); (2) the color. I have some hypotheses for (1) (too much honey? too much salt? -- eyeballed both -- aloe accelerates? silk accelerates?), but no clue about (2). It also looks a bit like oxidization: when I was cutting and beveling the soap, it was like slicing an oxidized avocado: the freshly beveled parts were almost orange, and then they turned green of course.
Anyway, I'm happier with it now, it is soap after all, it does smell lovely, and maybe green will just remind me that it is an olive soap...
These look absolutely gorgeous Atiz - maybe not what you had in mind when you started the project, but gorgeous none-the-less.Thanks, Meena
Update: I unmolded (after 4 hrs!), because it was looking very hard. Yes, it is soap; no, it is not purple at all. Maybe I'll call it my "military soap".
I'm just curious about (1) why the incredibly fast speed (both in the mixing process and also for unmolding); (2) the color. I have some hypotheses for (1) (too much honey? too much salt? -- eyeballed both -- aloe accelerates? silk accelerates?), but no clue about (2). It also looks a bit like oxidization: when I was cutting and beveling the soap, it was like slicing an oxidized avocado: the freshly beveled parts were almost orange, and then they turned green of course.
Anyway, I'm happier with it now, it is soap after all, it does smell lovely, and maybe green will just remind me that it is an olive soap...
View attachment 35234
I'm moving to Step Two. Bring it on!!
atiz
Well-Known Member
Aww, thank you, @KiwiMoose
Well, the stamp does help a lot making it look nicer. I'll be curious to see if the color changes at all during the cure.
Yes, when I made Zany's No Slime Castile I used my blue colourant that ALWAYS turns purple in soap. I was using lavender EO, so I thought it would be perfect to have purple soap. However, just to be annoying, it decided to not turn any colour at all ( maybe a vaguely pinky/lavender/cream colour) so I added a bit more blue before i poured - nothing. After 2 days cure they turned pale blue/grey. After two weeks cure they turned BLUE! Who knows what's going to happen eh?Aww, thank you, @KiwiMoose
Here's the photo evidence ( note soda ash @Marilyn Norgart):
Wow, I hadn't seen all 3 stages previously. I wonder how often such extreme color changes occur?
atiz
Well-Known Member
Oh these are so beautiful! In every stage of their color. Maybe castile soap is a chameleon soap, after all...
Thanks, Meena
Update: I unmolded (after 4 hrs!), because it was looking very hard. Yes, it is soap; no, it is not purple at all. Maybe I'll call it my "military soap".
I'm just curious about (1) why the incredibly fast speed (both in the mixing process and also for unmolding); (2) the color. I have some hypotheses for (1) (too much honey? too much salt? -- eyeballed both -- aloe accelerates? silk accelerates?), but no clue about (2). It also looks a bit like oxidization: when I was cutting and beveling the soap, it was like slicing an oxidized avocado: the freshly beveled parts were almost orange, and then they turned green of course.
Anyway, I'm happier with it now, it is soap after all, it does smell lovely, and maybe green will just remind me that it is an olive soap...
View attachment 35234
These are awesome! I like a simple look, like these. Perfect with the design, too. They look totally intentional.
I'm hoping I can get to Step Two tomorrow.I'm moving to Step Two. Bring it on!!
Great job of avoiding any crumbly look. Didn't know salt bars could look quite this smooth!
I'll have to try HP pretty soon. I like the unplanned, amalgamated-type look the cut bars seem to have with that process.
Is it necessary to have a separate crock pot for soaping? What is the consensus on this forum about that?
I did buy a tall SS pot at ARC store recently for HP (either planned or emergency HP fix of a CP disaster, should I have one occur), but many people seem to say HP is safer and perhaps more controllable in a crock pot/slow cooker.
I love my salt bars; I've never had them look crumbly but that could be because I don't put mine in a loaf mold.
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