Why Did Scent & Color Fade?

Hello All,

On August 13th I made a batch of CP soap colored with liquid chlorophyll and scented w/ MMS FO "Green Tea & Cucumber". The soap looked and smelled great for about two and a half weeks while curing. BUT then at about week three, the green color began to fade to a greyish green around the air exposed edges AND the wonderful scent has morphed into an almost unpleasant waxy crayonish version of what it once was. I used one of my small guest sized soaps at week two just to see how I liked it and all was well. I thought that perhaps the scent and color may still exist in the interior of the full sized bars so I cut one up and while the interior color is still good, but the scent is not. Interestingly enough, the guest bar that I started using at week two still smells great and still has good color. Any ideas as to what may have gone wrong? I can give recipe details if needed but all checks out in lye calculators. It has been very hot lately and we use an evaporative cooler in another room which may have affected the humidity in the "soap curing room". But the used bar has been subjected to the same conditions and remains in great shape while the rest of the batch that is still curing looks and smells aweful.

Thanks

Any soap that I've used chlorophyll in always eventually faded in color.

How much fo did you use & how bit was the batch?

There were 24 ozs of oils in this batch (6-coconut; 4-palm; 7-olive; 4-sunflower & 3-castor). I used .035 oz of FO. That's the same amount of FO I've used in past batches using different MMS FOs and those soaps still smell great. I just can't get over how suddenly and drastically the scent in this batch changed! This was the first time I tried to make a green soap. I've read inconsistent reviews of both chlorophyll and spirulina but I decided to try the chlorophyll. I can't figure out why the small bar that I began using after only two weeks of curing should still be looking and smelling so good when the rest of the batch that has continued to cure should have turned so drastically!. By the way, I used 1 Tablespoon of chlorophyll in the recipe. This was also the first time I've incorporated castor oil into a recipe. That couldn't have caused the problem, could it?

Most botanical green colorants will fade or go grayish and/or brownish over time. And spirulina can stink! (think dead fish) Your best bet for a stable green color would be a clay (which will also have a more muted tone but won't fade) or micas or oxides.

As for the FO, scents can morph over time. I can't say why the bar in use is different from those that cured longer though.

The dead fish potential was what made me go with the chlorophyll in the first place! And I know I was going for a subtle scent but not as subtle as I typed; I actually used 0.35 oz of FO :roll: So does the beautiful chlorophyll color usually fade so quickly? I know I read comments from someone elsewhere who said her soap eventually turned brownish with spirulina but that she always had excellent results with chlorophyll. Oh well. Maybe she worked for the chlorophyll company - LOL!

Another reason not to use chlorophyll is it can accelerate DOS. You'll find discussions about it if you type "chlorophyll" into the search function's keyword box and "green soap" for the author.

Wow! Those are some pretty strong warnings against using chlorophyll. Too bad I didn't see them before purchasing that big bottle! I've never had DOS before and was actually beginning to wonder if that might not be part of this batch's problem. At this point I think DOS may actually be part of the issue with the scent - the more closely I look at the soap, the more I think I can see some brownish (orange?!) discoloring on the edges. Such a shame, too, since the chlorophyll was really easy to use and did produce a beautiful shade of green. And to think I almost sent some of these soaps to my mom for her birthday :shock: - YIKES! Let's just say, lesson learned. I won't be using chlorophyll to color my soap ever again!

Thank you everyone for your input and expertise. I appreciate your helping me to figure this one out.

-Caterpillar

If I understand you correctly you used about 1/3 of an ounce of fragrance for a one and half pound batch? Each different fragrance has its own usage rate, some are stronger than others. I think it faded because you didn't use enough. Most FO's I have ever used are recommended in a range of 0.7 to 1 ounce per pound of oil in cold process soap. So for your batch you would need 1.05 to 1.5 ounces of fragrance, which is 3 to 5 times what you used. It may smell super strong at first, but after saponifying and curing a few weeks it will fade and calm down quite a bit as this batch did. MMS has a fragrance calculator on their site that may help.

http://www.thesage.com/calcs/fragcalc.html

Is your chlorophyll food grade? If so, you can add a little to water and drink it. My sister takes chlorophyll gelcaps. You'd want to be careful in case you're allergic to it. Also, it can cause photosensitivity so if you're really fair skinned you want to make sure you wear a good sunscreen when you're going to be outside for an extended period of time.

I used to buy a chlorophyll/supplement blend at a vet's to add to my cats' drinking water. I don't know if there is a difference between chlorophyll for humans as compared to animals. This isn't what I bought but I posted it so you could see the info about it. http://biopaw.com/liquidchlorophyll120m ... ml?cPath=3

As far as the amount of FO I used in this batch, since it is a Majestic Mountain Sage product, I actually used the amount recommended by their calculator. I've used their FOs as recommended per their calculator without issue in the past so I doubt their recommendation was wrong in this instance.

Thanks for the suggestions as to how to use up the chlorophyll. It's a 16 oz. bottle! It is food grade and I did purchase it at a health food store but I had no idea why people would be wanting to consume it. My husband enjoys using food coloring so I'm sure he'll soon be consuming some green cupcakes, green eggs and ham, green beer, green whatever... And maybe the cat will also end up helping us use up this stuff!

Allegedly, chlorophyll is used as an internal deodorizer plus has other benefits like detoxification and supporting the circulatory and digestive systems. I don't know for sure about detoxification and systems support because I haven't read any scientific studies on it. My sister swears it works as a deodorizer and gave me some to try. I did think it helped but I didn't buy more when I finished the bottle. I'm just cheap that way. I found eating more leafy greens and vegetables plus a better deodorant performed the same function. :wink:

I love green eggs and ham! :mrgreen:

Hazel said:

Is your chlorophyll food grade? If so, you can add a little to water and drink it. My sister takes chlorophyll gelcaps. You'd want to be careful in case you're allergic to it. Also, it can cause photosensitivity so if you're really fair skinned you want to make sure you wear a good sunscreen when you're going to be outside for an extended period of time.

I used to buy a chlorophyll/supplement blend at a vet's to add to my cats' drinking water. I don't know if there is a difference between chlorophyll for humans as compared to animals. This isn't what I bought but I posted it so you could see the info about it. http://biopaw.com/liquidchlorophyll120m ... ml?cPath=3

Click to expand...

Chlorophyll also works wondefully for dyeing certain fabrics by the way.

I had a chlorophyll fiasco about a year and a half ago. Unfortunately about 1 tbs or half tbs PPO gave me DOS really fast. You can tell because the soap discolors, not always to orange and not always in spots. It gets oily areas and smells rancid. It sounds like this might be the problem with your batch.

I blend indigo and beta carotene (or infused annatto) to get green.