Why has the top of my soap turned pink?

[Shar0n]

I've just made my 3rd batch of cold press soap. I coloured it with titanium dioxide and did a drop swirl with ultramarine blue colourant.

This morning I went to unmold it and found that the top layer was wet and had turned pink! The rest of the block has stayed white and the drop swirl is perfect unlike my first soap that traced very fast and the drop swirl turned into a swirl top

With that first batch, I found my mistake was using a recipe that had a heavy water discount. So I tried using a soap calc for the second batch and I kept it simple, no colours, and it turned out fine. So I tried a larger batch this time with the swirl and everything seemed to go well until this morning when I unwrapped the towel. I've been googling all morning trying to figure out what I've done wrong with this 3rd batch!

 

[atiz]

Welcome to the forum!
If you could post a picture, maybe people could help you more.
I have not had that experience, but colors can change sometimes; depending on the state of saponification, or, sometimes, even of pH (I had a soap that turned from pink to blue and back to pink once!).

 

[shunt2011]

You’re going to need to post a picture as well as your recipe and process. We will be better able to help.

 

[Shar0n]

I used the Brambleberry calculator. My oils were 95% Olive oil-Pomace and 5% Coconut oil. The lye and water worked out to be 129.39g of lye and 289.34g of water. I blended until a light trace was reached and then added titanium dioxide to the mixture and the blue to a smaller portion. I mixed the colours in and then added essential oils, eucalyptus, tea tree and thyme. By this time it was thickening but still pourable. That's it, I thought everything had gone rather well but obviously not! Hope to figure out what went wrong so I will avoid making the same mistake again

 

[DeeAnna]

I can't figure out what happened. That's an unusual color change. It looks like a very happy mistake to me -- it's really very pretty.

You mention your first recipe was done with a "heavy water discount" and I have no idea what that means to you. But for a recipe this high in olive oil, I'd probably soap with a 40% lye concentration. That is less water than what I normally use for more typical recipes.

Thyme EO definitely causes acceleration. It can be a tricky one to work with.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

I sure don’t have an answer, but I wonder if the top being wet is a clue that deserves more consideration. How wet was the top? Do you know if it was EO, or zappy as in lye?

 

[Shar0n]

I'm not sure if it was zappy but it wasn't oily. Here is a picture of the soap now. The pink has reduced dramatically but the tops look dull compared to the other soaps I've made.

 

[IrishLass]

I had that happen before with a particular fragrance oil. I can't recall the full name of it at the moment, but was a manly scent and 'Cowboy' was a part of its name. I thought it was pretty funny for such a manly scent to turn such a bright pink, but thankfully it dissipated a day or so after unmolding. lol

I wonder if it was due to your scent combo.


IrishLass