The results of my oil infusions :)

Those came out absolutely gorgeous! I love how vibrant the colors are. I will definitely be taking notes. Thank you for sharing!

Beautiful colors!

Gorgeous

Here is my spirulina soap today it is 2 weeks old. Made on 25/10/2015.
I used 2 tablespoons of 100% spirulina powder in 250 ml (8 oz) of OO and I heated it in a double boiler for 2 hrs on simmer which got the oil to about 80 degrees C (175 degrees F).
I used the infused oil at 5% concentration in my soap mix substituting the Infused oil for OO.

It has faded to a murky pale olive brown and fades more each time I look at it but this could be paranoia. It definitely fades each day even though it is hidden away in the dark. :cry:

Oh no! Well that's a bit dissapointing. Still a nice pale green at least. Hopefully the color will stay at where it is.
Now I'm wondering if the green would be less likely to fade if it were added directly at trace (in powder form).

Do you use your infused oils to do swirls or just color the whole batch?

My experience with Spirulina is that it is better to add it into your soap batter directly and add enough to get a strong green. It does not seem to matter how much is used because it does not stain, at least that is my experience. It can still fade over time, but if used strong enough it usually keep a green color unless it sits outdoors in the sun.

Has anyone experienced with tumeric powder? Will it fade like spirulina too?

mymy said:

Has anyone experienced with tumeric powder? Will it fade like spirulina too?

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Turmeric has always coloured my soap beautifully.

Wildcraft_garden : thank you! How much do you always use? In 500ml batter, I put around 1tbps and the batter is still pale. :'(

Just to let you know that my one soap that I previously posted has faded very badly when I left the batch in a fairly light room on a table, here is the picture. Both of these were colored with paprika, the one that did not fade had rooibosch tea instead of water and also the powder was not strained out.

Gracedarlingsoaps, I love the colour of your roibos/paprika soap. Did you gel them? When I used paprika infused oil, it went much darker when it was gelled and the colour has hardly faded. I then made another soap with the same oil but it didn't gel, it's much paler and the colour faded more.

Hi Rowan
I did not force gel eg CPOP, but I tucked the soap up for the night in a modern day " hay box" . This is a bag containing small polystyrene balls that is used to insulate a pot of food for slow cooking. The soap gets gently warm but I don't look till the next morning when it is cold again, so I assume it has gelled during the night. I have got some paprika infusing in OO and want to try and get this colour again as it is a lovely pink and has not faded.
GDS

Thanks for the info. Can't wait to add the roibos tea now. It really is a beautiful colour!

First post and still new to soaping. You all inspired me to give oil infusing a go ☺ I made a stunning (I think) turmeric infused soap yesterday.

Hi CrispySoap
Great to have you on the forum, your Tumeric soap is beautiful, I suggest you cure it in a darkish place to prevent any fade. My daughter uses Tumeric directly on her skin as a paste if she has a pimple, apparently it is good for skin problems. I have made Tumeric soap once and it was really nice on the skin but it did fade a bit after a number of months.

Thanks GraceDarlingSoaps, all my soaps are stored in my dark hall way

This is my spirulina soap just unmolded, at 2 weeks old and 6 months old. It was an early soap and the final photo is the best of all I have left.

I used an oil infusion with 2tbs of spirulina in 250 mls of OO heated over double boiler for 2 hrs at 150 degree F. I used it at 10% of my oil percentage in the recipe which I added to the oil before the lye.

I think cmzaha says it is better to mix the spirulina directly to the batter.

However, what I wanted to say that spirulina has not brought anything to the soaps. In soaps made with spirulina there is a huge reduction of lather, it is not as creamy or conditioning and it doesn't compared to my other soaps about the same time and ones I make now. I have perfected things a bit but the soaps with spirulina are really terrible in my experience.

The red soap still looks exactly the same:
I made them on the same day using the same recipe with 1 teaspoon of Australian Pink Clay mixed with 1 tsp of water and added it just before trace and only took it to light trace.

The tsp of water was extra water and I was using 30% lye concentration. It is a bit mushy after a few uses and I have to dry them out for a few days to reuse. (I now think even 1 tsp of water extra makes a soft soap). I CPOP at 100*F and turned off the oven when it went in.

I don't mind the feel of the clay soap. But it is not my favourite.