Achieving good neon colors

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Lynusann

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So I really am struggling to achieve really good neons in my CP soaps. I can get semi vibrant colors but never even get close to the tests I've seen suppliers advertise. The majority of my neons are from Mad Oils and Nurture Soaps. I've tried adding TD and then mixing in the colors, I've even nearly doubled up on color which I wasn't keen on and nothing gets me close to a true neon. Any suggestions?
 
So I really am struggling to achieve really good neons in my CP soaps. I can get semi vibrant colors but never even get close to the tests I've seen suppliers advertise. The majority of my neons are from Mad Oils and Nurture Soaps. I've tried adding TD and then mixing in the colors, I've even nearly doubled up on color which I wasn't keen on and nothing gets me close to a true neon. Any suggestions?

Well TD will wash out your colors not make them brighter. I have good luck with nurture neons. It could have to do with the color of your batter. That is a batter high in olive oil will be more yellow hued, with pomace more green hued.

I use mainly lard so my plain soaps are white. I'm not sure what to suggest. I don't measure my colorants so I don't know what a lot is - it could be I use double or more! I do know the lather is not colored and washcloths do not stain, so I don't worry that I use too much.
 
What amount of soap are you making and how much colorant are you using? I too don't measure but do mix until it's the color I want. Sometimes I do get a bit of colored lather and transfer on a cloth but nothing stains. All comes out in the wash.
 
I think Dorymae is right... TD whitens your colors... try avoiding it for more vibrancy. Also, gelled soap has more vibrant colors... closer to the color of wet soap. Like Shunt, I don't bother with measuring in my colorants, I just keep adding until I get the hue I want.

I forget who it was that posted here about dunking their bars into very hot water for a few seconds to make the colors darker, but it does seem to somewhat darken the colors for me. I normally avoid gelling my soaps so getting rich colors is a struggle.
 
The amount of soap I make varies from 3 lbs to 15 lbs...so my colorants do too. I suppose I shouldn't have said I measure out stuff because I kind of eye it as well. However I've practically dumped full 1 oz bottles in some of my soaps and still can't get near the color replication that I see on NS or MO. I have only tried added TD a few times, but I'll note that going forward that TD won't help me in the slightest.

Most of my recipes do have OO but it's usually about the same quantity as my CO or lard. I might run a test batch on an OO free soap this week and see if I get anything closer to what I'm looking for.

before wrapping any of my soaps I do dunk them in RODI water and let them dry for a couple hours. The water helps remove any remaining soda ash and brightens but I wouldn't call it a neon still.

I don't CPOP my soaps because I had a bad experience the couple times I tried and for the life of me I have no idea what I did wrong, but I may have to get back on that bandwagon and try it if it'll help my colors out. I don't try to inhibit gel in any of my soaps, if it happens it happens, but I also don't go through extra insulation to ensure gel either.
 
I gel all my soaps. Seems to make colors more intense, bright and true. I don't CPOP as I've had bad experiences as well. I just insulate and let it go.
 
I've not tried MO or Nurtures neons (have them, just not used them), but I always get great neon bright colors with TKB's neons. Like blindingly bright almost.
Have you tried those?
 
I've had excellent results w/TKB too, you just have to make sure that they do not morph. They usually say, but check the pics anyway, and if they do make sure to store it w/your morphers. Generally their morphers are the usual suspects - blues and purples - but there are definitely others. I noticed a brown one recently, luckily I checked right before I used it.
 
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It's funny I'm reading threads on soap colors. Guess all your beautiful swirls kinda inflicted that bug on me. I'm telling my self that colors will only be in select few batches, time will tell.
Nothing related to the actual question, I have absolutely no clue about neons. I just think Sonya used them in her first prize soap, that had some purples in it. I could be completely wrong.
 
Ok, stupid question but who is TKB? I've seen the acronym before but I am not familiar with that supplier?
 
I suspect the soaping hobby is going to have him scratching his head when he sees the totals over the next couple of months, tell him there's just a largish-up front expenditure and then it is much cheaper! Plus, you will be selling right? "You have to spend money to make money, sweetheart!"

No need to explain that you are just a pitiful addict like the rest of us :)
 
I suspect the soaping hobby is going to have him scratching his head when he sees the totals over the next couple of months, tell him there's just a largish-up front expenditure and then it is much cheaper! Plus, you will be selling right? "You have to spend money to make money, sweetheart!"

No need to explain that you are just a pitiful addict like the rest of us :)

Bwahaha. Um, well at this point I don't know what the excuse is because I've been soaping for over a year. Just that, when I started, I had a very old family recipe and it didn't require colorants or fragrances, I built my own molds and cutter. I actually tallied it up over the last year and it's easily into 5 digits of expenditures...

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