Sunshine Soleseife

Here is the soleseife / brine bar I made this weekend. Colored with beta carotene (6 capsules in 700 g oil, split for different shades). I love the orange, but as you can see, I didn't get much contrast. Next time I'd use TD for one of the parts; I was lazy this time and didn't want to mess with it.

The fragrance blend is dominated by bergamot to match the color. It smells SOOOap good! I just hope I anchored it well enough so the sunshine effect still radiates this coming December!

It's so pretty! I love the vibrant orange color and I bet it smells as good as it looks. Great job!:clap:

That color is so vibrant, I can alllllllllmost smell it. Nice job!

Your soap makes me feel happy just looking at the sunny colors.

What a happy sunny soap! So pretty!

What a beautiful soap! The contrast is very nice, I don't think its too subtle at all. Reminds me of daybreak. I can't wait to hear how it feels in a few months, nicely done!

I love how those 2 oranges work together. Makes you take a second look.

I love that orange!

Sommer-Sonne-Gute Laune-Soleseife

(summer-sun-cheerful mood-brine bar)

CaraBou said:

Here is the soleseife / brine bar I made this weekend. Colored with beta carotene (6 capsules in 700 g oil, split for different shades). I love the orange, but as you can see, I didn't get much contrast. Next time I'd use TD for one of the parts; I was lazy this time and didn't want to mess with it.

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What are those capsules? Are they the same as the health food supplements with 25,000 IU (whatever that means)? And do you add them to the warm oils? I really like the colour. Your soap is lovely.

Yes, it is a supplement - also known as vitamin A. It is what makes carrots orange. You can get the same effect using carrot purée but that might leave a little more guess work or experimenting in how much to use for the shade you want, especially if you want to reproduce it. But carrots are a good option too, I have used them with success and they would of course be cheaper. But the capsules were so easy to use: just poke them, squirt the juice into a little extra oil to disperse it better before adding to your batter.

I don't remember the unit of measure for the capsules I used, but I'll look it up when I get home. I also don't remember how much I paid for the bottle, but I think it was pretty cheap on a per capsule basis.

ETA: I checked the beta carotene capsules. They are indeed 25,000 IUs, and the bottle of 50 was $13 USD at my local health food store. That comes out to$1.56 to color this batch. I know no one asked that, but I was kind of curious so thought I'd share. I'm sure you could get it cheaper with a little shopping around, especially outside of AK. Even so, it seems reasonable to me.

Thanks a lot for that. I think that I'll give it a go.

Those are gorgeous! And a colorant I am not allergic to! Thank you so very, very much!

amazing color! putting beta carotene capsules in my shopping list!

I love the color!


Lizette

Gorgeous!!

I'm curious, whether the beta carotene is going to be stable.

I used carrot juice and got nice orange soaps, but after a year or so the orange faded (it's still a lovely "apricot"). Probably the juice did not contain enough beta carotene.

Maybe the pure stuff is the clue.

Really pretty! So happy and bright!

Alprinceton said:

I'm curious, whether the beta carotene is going to be stable. I used carrot juice and got nice orange soaps, but after a year or so the orange faded (it's still a lovely "apricot"). Probably the juice did not contain enough beta carotene. Maybe the pure stuff is the clue.

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I'm glad you brought this up. I'll be watching for fading because I too saw fading in my carrot soap (which was made from fresh puree, not just the juice). I should also say that the color I got with the puree was a lot lighter than what I got here -- it was a delicate yellow rather than orange.

The carrot bar that faded the most was the one that I had taken to my office and propped on a ledge that is a register of the building's heating system, and also receives direct sunlight. The heat and light faded the wonderful scent of that bar too (patchouli and orange). I knew that location was not ideal, but I couldn't resist because I wanted to see and smell it all day long .

I still have three bars left of that batch (made 10 months ago), including one that's been sitting out in a display dish, and others that have been stored in a plastic semi-transparent box. Yellow is still present in all of them, though there is varying levels of fading. I'll see if I can to take some pictures later tonight and post along with the original pics, though if the lighting isn't right it might be hard to effectively compare. If I don't get it done tonight it will be awhile as I have a friend arriving tonight and we will be off to new adventures:-o

ETA: If I post pics, I won't put them here. I'll either put them in a new thread or in the original thread for my carrot soap at http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=39611

Beta carotene is heat, light and oxygen sensitive so if it's exposed to these conditions for a long time, they would inevitably fade faster

Susie said:

Those are gorgeous! And a colorant I am not allergic to! Thank you so very, very much!

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I hope it works out for you Susie. I'm sorry to hear you have allergies to deal with!