Collection of Red Palm soaps

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ResolvableOwl

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Everyone feel free to contribute and extend this thread! I'm including some links to the few projects that came to my mind, but this of course is a terribly incomplete list!

Reasons for this thread:
  1. Praise the marvellous colour of red palm oil!
  2. Give a clue about dosage to obtain different shades of yellow or orange (or other hues in combination with extra pigments)
  3. Diffusion: carotenoid colours are notorious for migrating into adjacent layers of a composed soap.
  4. Staining. How strongly coloured is the lather? Does it stain white fabric? Hands?
  5. Long-term stability. The orange-yellow goodness has not an infinite life span, the colour fades over time, and loses some of its brilliance. If applicable, include pics of soap bars at different ages, to estimate this fading.

I will start with cross-referencing to some of my red palm projects across SMF:

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/conceptual-soap-opera.83798/post-88817380% red palm LS. Stayed bright orange for its whole life time, noticeably yellow lather, yet no prominent staining issues.

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/what-soapy-thing-have-you-done-today.42556/post-912786https://www.soapmakingforum.com/thr...ve-you-done-today.42556/page-1178#post-913901https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/what’s-with-the-halo.83880/page-3#post-916722100% red palm M&P, pure and in dilution with 8% | 25% | 65% white (pigmented) M&P soap

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/thr...lenge-confetti-cubes.84480/page-6#post-902957Red palm bar soap confetti, embedded into clear M&P, to watch how the colour diffuses through the clear base

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/triple-maize-soap.86307/4% red palm as HP post-cook superfat

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/thr...cented-candles-…-make-soap-out-of-them.86422/12% red palm in CP


Still “unpublished” is this fun little project. I haven't talked much about it, because some of the steps didn't quite meet my expectations (and I might repeat it, some time in the future):
red_palm_peace.jpg

This is a lollipop swirl (avoided gel). I've cut the column into “peace symbol” shape, and the leftover batter kneaded into soap dough, to use it as a rim + glue between the pieces of the symbol. Soap batter is 30% palm oil, RBD in the white parts, and zomi red palm oil in the yellow-orange sections. The soap dough is about 2:1 (i. e. ~10% red).
The brilliance never was too overwhelming, because zomi contains some particulate stuff from the palm pulp, that gives it a more yellowish-brown than orange-red look. It lost some of its colour depth, but it also spread by quite some distance, ruining the contrast.
Lather is not noticeably yellow. When in use, the red portions do dissolve noticeably quicker than the RBD, so the dark areas are in fact lower than the light ones. They also appear to have caught more stearic spots.


Finally, some accomplishments of others:

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/red-palm-butter.85037/#post-907759@Ford : 15% red palm oil

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/what-soapy-thing-have-you-done-today.42556/post-926337@dibbles : Layers with 0% | 2% | 5%

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/mechanics-soap.83976/@Zing : red palm at 5%


to be continued…
 
Great idea, Owl, to give some love to red palm oil! My max is 5% and it creates an intense yellow -- like Dial soap. It does not stain and lathers white. It does stain my loaf mold. However, when I make the next batch, the stain disappears and does not affect the next batch.
 
It does stain my loaf mold
Good point! Palm oil is notorious for soaking into silicone. It travels through millimetres of silicone with ease, and can bloom on the outside, or contaminate next batch(es). Not only red, but also refined; it's only that you see it when it is red.
I suspect this is what happened to these poor guys. Thankfully, the staining has faded over the months.
 
OK! I have my Red Palm Ombre all planned out. Fingers crossed!!!

ETA: Red Palm Oil sure is a pain in the but to measure out and clean up! My mantra was : Its becoming soap, its becoming soap!!!
ETA #2: so… Red Palm heats up and accelerates?? Even with a de-accelerating FO…. My white stayed some what fluid, but as I added the red Palm batter it also thickened up! Quite disconcerting! Lol!
 
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Well not very ombré… but still pretty! I was just trying to get the thick batter into the fluid batter and into the mold. Next time…
A2AC8DD5-2D24-4FEB-9095-DA6C7AAE39AB.jpeg
I’ll try lathering it up tomorrow and maybe wash some dishes with it! See if I can stain up my sink!!! Lol! I do love it though!
 
🙃
One can see that it is indeed an honourable attempt to ombré, you just utterly underestimated the colouring power of red palm oil 😵.
Have you added pigments (TD for example)? It might be that the soap is just a tad too transparent right now, so that one sees too much of the colour inside. It might become better with (curing) time.

(Warning: Bad advice following:) You might also place one piece at a light/sunny place, and let light bleach out some of the carotene dyestuff.

Keep us updated!
 

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