Help! Too much colorant (and oil)!

Hi everyone,

So in returning to soapmaking after a 2 year hiatus, I believe I may have made a disastrous batch last night. I'd love to know whether you folks think it is going to be salvageable.

Here's what I did: The batch in question was made with 100% olive oil, and I set up my recipe in soapcalc for a 5% superfat and used the default "water as % of oils" setting at 38%. I used 0.9 oz of 10x orange essential oil for fragrance. So far, so good (right?).

Anyway, where I messed up big time was with my colorants. I had been watching a bunch of soapmaking videos earlier that day that showed people dispersing a tsp of colorant in a tablespoon of a light carrier oil. I only had olive oil in the house, so I proceeded to set up my colors (an orange mica, a yellow mica, and titanium dioxide) the same way, but I planned to use only a small portion of each in my soap. I dispersed them thoroughly using a mini whisk blender. At this point, I got distracted and ended up dumping ALL of the mixed colorants into my divided portions of soap batter.

The soap is in the mold now, and boy, are those colors BRIGHT. :shock: Think neon orange play-dough. I have two main questions: 1) The additional olive oil that I dumped into my soap (3 tablespoons), along with my essential oil, has no doubt WAAAY overfatted my soap. But how badly? Will this ever set up (I know, being Castile, and especially with no water discount, it would have been the better part of a week before I could have unmolded anyway, but I went to clean my soap dishes this afternoon and the soap residue was extremely mushy). The soap in the mold looks ok, though (no beading up or oozing of oils so far). 2) Assuming by some miracle this does in fact become a solid bar of soap, will there be skin safety issues due to the excessive colorant?

I looked up the weight of a tablespoon of olive oil online, and was able to figure out that my recipe, that was calculated for 24 ounces of olive oil, ended up with 25.45 oz of olive oil, plus the 0.9 oz of essential oil, to only 3.1 oz of lye. But I have no idea what to make of that info...only that I know I am at a higher superfat there than the 5% I had planned!!!

So much for soaping at 2 a.m. Next time I do this, I will be well-rested with all my brain cells functioning, I hope! Thanks for any suggestions or thoughts.

Looks like you will have around a 8% superfat. Your soap may take a while to de-mold with the high water/ low Lye Concentration, but will be fine with patience and a long cure. With 100% olive oil even a 40-45% Lye Concentration will work well, since OO is such a slow tracer, unless using Pomace with traces faster

Oh, that is AWESOME to hear! Despite the color intensity, I think the swirls I managed are pretty nice, and it was killing me to think I would have to chuck it all, or rebatch it somehow.

Indeed, my next recipes are going to involve some experimenting with water discounts. I appreciate that info about water discounting with Castile immensely!

cmzaha what is in your opinion a perfect percentage for water? I usually use 33%, probably because is safe and do not know better.

Orchidgirl, here I go again ..... pictures please!

I want to see those pretty swirls :mrgreen:

What mica did you use? Orange is a tricky color and depending on the mica, you might end up with a much lighter color than you have now. I one had Nurturesome orange vibrance completely turn white for 3 weeks before it returned to a gentle orange.

Yes! Pictures will be forthcoming, although I am afraid to even think of unmolding it within the next few days. I think I will give it a week, at least, before I try.

The micas were "Mango Tango" and "Sunshine Yellow," both from Nurture. At this point, it would be great if they were to fade a bit. You give me hope in mentioning that, lenarenee. LOL

Also I think I was able to figure out on my own that there's probably no issue with the skin safety of these colorants. Not sure if that would ever be an issue (are there any colorants that are iffy for skin?) but at any rate, it seems you can use micas straight up on the skin (as in eyeshadow) with no problems. So my soap's probably fine in that regard. Might have to keep the white washcloths away from it, though.

Orchidgirl said:

Also I think I was able to figure out on my own that there's probably no issue with the skin safety of these colorants. Not sure if that would ever be an issue (are there any colorants that are iffy for skin?) but at any rate, it seems you can use micas straight up on the skin (as in eyeshadow) with no problems. So my soap's probably fine in that regard. Might have to keep the white washcloths away from it, though.

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There are different grades of mica. Skin safe then lip safe which is "more" safe. Some people don't like to use micas on their skin at all.

Mango tango?! That's what this is....although not at the amount you used. The soap went from deep reddish orange to this.....

I used to disperse my micas in oil too, but I was annoyed at having to mentally subtract the oil from the recipe and then still add it all even if the color was more than I wanted. I've since switched to dispersing in water. A little extra water never hurt anyone, and the colors always go in great. Others here sometimes recommend dispersing in glycerin too - I tried it and didn't like it but your mileage may vary. If you try something else you won't have to worry about your superfat!

Also FYI you don't have to worry about your essential oil affecting your superfat - essential oils do not saponify (in my understanding - someone smart correct me if I'm wrong)

SunRiseArts said:

cmzaha what is in your opinion a perfect percentage for water? I usually use 33%...

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There is no one "perfect" lye concentration -- there are many reasonable choices.

I think most people get good results using lye at 30% to 33% concentration if making soap with a mixed blend of fats. That's what I do and it works pretty well for me.

You can adjust the concentration within this range to encourage the soap to gel or not. Speaking very generally, the soap is more likely to gel at 30% (and lower) and is less likely to gel at 33% (or higher). The tendency to gel is affected by other factors such as sugars, soap batter temperature, fragrances, etc., so this is not a sure-fire solution.

When you are making recipes that don't use a mixed blend of fats, this 30% to 33% lye concentration still works pretty well, but you might want to go outside this range to get better results.

Coconut oil saponifies fast, so recipes very high in CO will benefit from more water to slow things down. I might use 28% lye concentration. High CO soap for the laundry is the only time I use lye below 30% concentration.

High oleic recipes (100% olive oil for example) usually saponify slowly, so these recipes benefit from using a more concentrated lye -- 35% to 40% -- to speed things up a bit.

So much useful information here. I thank you all so much.

@Blackdog I will certainly try another method in the future. I believe I've even heard you can add micas directly to the batter with minimal speckling, but don't quote me on that. This was actually my first ever batch using micas. I've used other colorants before, but mostly just clays and the various botanicals that I've infused in the base oils.

@lenarenee That's the one! Yours looks gorgeous. That was approximately the color I was going for.

@PenelopeJane Good to know. Thank you so much.

@DeeAnna Wow, I will work my way through that very useful information--going to jot it all down in my notebook. I admit that gel phase is still a mystery to me...I only know of one batch I made that I'm 100% certain went through gel (because I saw it do so, a few hours after being poured into my mold). I've only ever soaped at the higher water concentration that is the default on soapcalc, but I like the look of gelled soaps when I see them in side-by-side comparisons...another reason for me to play around with lower concentrations. The main issue with lowering the concentration of water is the fact that it speeds up trace, right?

So here it is! Can't believe I was able to unmold so early, and now I feel a bit silly for getting all worked up over the batch potentially not setting up at all.

The colors are a bit more vivid than the photo shows, and I don't care for the darker yellow swirls of the sunshine yellow mica in the soap's interior, but I am amazed it turned out at all, so I'll take it!

Question for anyone viewing, since I'm curious: can you tell by looking if this soap went through gel? How does one tell, anyway? All of my soap comes out looking the same, generally, so I have nothing to compare it to.

From my pic I would say no. Wasn't this high olive oil? When it's hard enough, hold it up to a good light and try to see if you detect some quality of translucency.

Non gelled won't. And give your colors another couple of days to settle out, they may calm down a little.

Most importantly -a hearty congratulations!!!

Interesting, thanks for the comment. Yes, it was 100% EVOO. I didn't insulate at all, and my mold is wooden with a freezer paper liner, if that matters. I have so far only ever soaped at 110-120 degrees. I keep hoping to see this translucency that folks speak of in my finished soaps, but so far, haven't had much luck. I do recall that a 100% CO batch I did one time seemed to have gone through gel, but I just can't remember at this point if the soaps ended up looking much different. I guess it's a subtle thing?

It can be subtle, though in some soaps it shows up more easily than in others. The difference that I've seen is that a gelled soap has a smoother, waxier feel than ungelled, in addition to the different in opacity. Ungelled is completely opaque, light doesn't shine through it at all unless it's shaved really, really thin. Gelled you can see light shining through at least around the edges of a piece. It's not super bright, not even close to being actually clear, but it does let some light through.

There can also be a difference in the surface texture as well as the translucency or opacity. Gelled soap feels firm, dry, and waxy, much like a paraffin candle. Not-gelled soap can be powdery feeling and is sometimes softer. It can even (not always, but sometimes) feel slightly damp or cool.

"...lowering the concentration of water is the fact that it speeds up trace, right? ..."

Yes, lowering the amount of water in a recipe tends to speed up trace, all other things being equal, but there are many other factors that are just as important to control if you want the soap to trace slowly. Temperature of ingredients is important. The recipe makes a difference. The amount of stick blending is a big one. Your choice of fragrance is important. Whether you insulate or CPOP or not is also a big factor. If I want a slow tracing recipe, I usually stick with my usual lye concentration and focus on the other factors.