Why is my Pine Tar soap so light?

Hi folks,

Last night was my first time making Pine Tar soap, and I had a hiccup along the way. Now I have PT soap that looks lighter and more speckled than the other ones I've seen here.

I've used the recipe once before with good results. I made 1.5lb batch.

All water was subbed out for calendula tea that I made by soaking dried petals in hot distilled water, straining, and then freezing. I added the lye to semi-melted calendula ice cubes and stirred until both are completely dissolved. Then I added 3 tsp sugar and 2 tsp salt and stirred until those are completely dissolved.

Last time, my lye water was at a perfect 90F when done with this step. This time, I was interrupted for several hours and my lye water was around 65F when I got back. I gave it a good stir, and all seemed well, but I did strain out what looked like a thin, crystal flake. I'm guessing/hoping it was some sugar. My oils were at 90. I've read here to not worry too much about temperature differences so I trod on, confident and sleepy.

I added my pine tar at medium trace (it took forever to just to get to trace), hand stirred and seemed to have plenty of time to play so, I hit it with a stick blender too.

I've tested it out, no zap, light smokey scent (I actually rather like it), small/ creamy bubbles.

So for the novella... my question is: do you think the tar attached itself to the calendula bits in the water and that's the speckles? I colored my previous calendula water batch so I don't know if I had speckles there too...

Recipe:




Soaps:

The color can depend on the brand/type of pine tar used. Also some of the solids in the PT can settle out in the can. Give it a stir and see if you are scraping darker stuff off the bottom.

Some PT soap I have seen is very light like yours, although mine has always been a black-brown shade. Grandpa's PT soap (commercial brand) is very light.

Can't speak to the speckles.

The white scum/flakes on the lye water (floating, right?) was probably sodium carbonate created by the NaOH reacting with carbon dioxide in the air.

I never made a soap with any kind of tar, but I did use benzoin EO for a perfume. Benzoin has a thick consistency that requires it to be warmed up before it can be used. I'm wondering if the pine tar was warmed up before use?

Warming shouldn't make a great deal of difference unless the PT is unusually thick. I've used three different brands without warming, and all have been fluid enough at room temp to mix in nicely. Also, I think there would be "rivers" of PT through the soap, not specks, if the PT was not blended in well enough.

Specks are probably the calendula petals, but I rather like the lighter color soap myself!

what brand of PT did you use?

Thanks for the feedback! Before using, I stirred the pine tar pretty well. It was fluid and very dark in color. The brand is "Su-Per Pine Tar" 100% pine tar.

I just went back to look at it and didn't get anything darker or thicker to come up with stirring from the bottom so I don't think there was any sediment or separation of the pine tar. On a related note, do not sneeze while closely eyeballing pine tar for sediment. I painted my nose and looked like Rudolph's demented cousin (or the actual representation of ex-coworkers).

I hadn't noticed any floaties in the lye water right before I started using it; however, it was late... I may have missed them until they showed up in my strainer. I just read up on sodium carbonate... that's probably what I saw - neat!

"...but I did strain out what looked like a thin, crystal flake..."

That's what I was talking about. When it forms, it tends to float on top of the solution, but will sink if disturbed.

As far as the Su-Per pine tar product, I've not used it. It may be a somewhat different pine tar product than the ones most of us are using. Or maybe your can was filled with pine tar from the lighter part of the storage tank. Pine tar is a natural product and it's made in a rather crude way, so I imagine it will probably vary a bit. Hard to say.