Coloring frustration

[Woodi]

I'm wondering: what is your water like? super hard? purified? maybe if you try a different water, like distilled even.....

 

[Zenobiah]

Actually, our water, although it is well water, is very soft. But I can try using our filtered water for the next batch if you think that will help. Like I said, the color is okay in the water but dissipates as soon as I add oils.

 

[reallyrita]

Zenobiah....I have well water too and I can't use it for soapmaking. I have to use distilled water. Well water always contains minerals of some sort, dissolved particulant and what have you as the water seeps through ground and rock before reaching your well. This is probably playing havoc with your colors. I live in your neck of the woods, so I know about well water in NM.
I recently found out my water is mildly radioactive...yikes! very common in our state.

 

[Zenobiah]

Zenobiah....I have well water too and I can't use it for soapmaking. I have to use distilled water. Well water always contains minerals of some sort, dissolved particulant and what have you as the water seeps through ground and rock before reaching your well. This is probably playing havoc with your colors. I live in your neck of the woods, so I know about well water in NM.
I recently found out my water is mildly radioactive...yikes! very common in our state.

Interesting. I wonder if our water is radioactive. We hear the rockets from White Sands all the time. Ok, I will try our RO water next time and see if it makes a difference. Thanks for all the help, you guys!

 

[reallyrita]

I have RO water too but stuff still gets through. I would start with that, though. You might not need distilled if your water is pretty soft to begin with. I live near Los Alamos...so who knows? I was told that my water contains uranium ( gross alpha particles) that are naturally occuring in the rocks of my part of the state....the point being...everything that your water goes through before it gets to your well is in your water to some degree. City water is processed and filtered out the waazoo so this stuff gets stopped at the border. We are trying to deal with this issue now for our own health's sake but fortunately I have never used anything but distilled water for my soap and I wash all by soaping things a second time in RO water. Our well water is filtered twice before it even hits the RO unit. (I have two now)...but this is scary stuff nevertheless. So far, I have only tried micas, oxides and colored jojoba beads for color. Those jojoba beads must use dye...they make nice and easy peasy swirls...and very gentle to almost nothing exfoliating.

 

[bodybym]

I use POP micas primarily and have not been disappointed with them. They have been tested and while the Strawberry does morph (they do tell you that) I've had all the colors hold strong and true batch after batch.

 

[Zenobiah]

I have RO water too but stuff still gets through. I would start with that, though. You might not need distilled if your water is pretty soft to begin with. I live near Los Alamos...so who knows? I was told that my water contains uranium ( gross alpha particles) that are naturally occuring in the rocks of my part of the state....the point being...everything that your water goes through before it gets to your well is in your water to some degree. City water is processed and filtered out the waazoo so this stuff gets stopped at the border. We are trying to deal with this issue now for our own health's sake but fortunately I have never used anything but distilled water for my soap and I wash all by soaping things a second time in RO water. Our well water is filtered twice before it even hits the RO unit. (I have two now)...but this is scary stuff nevertheless. So far, I have only tried micas, oxides and colored jojoba beads for color. Those jojoba beads must use dye...they make nice and easy peasy swirls...and very gentle to almost nothing exfoliating.

According to the guy who tested our water we have better water straight out of the well than the city water (which contains arsenic(!) and is very hard) and we don't even need a water softener. The water here in the Tularosa basin is apparently the best in the state, so our RO water should work well for making soap. I'll try a few more things before I try changing the water at least.

I didn't know that you could color the soap with jojoba beads, I will try that sometime.

 

[reallyrita]

On the jojoba beads....I have never tried to color the whole soap uniformily with the beads. I don't think that could work. What I have done, though, is swirl them through the soap . The first time I tried this I was afraid that the heat of the gel would melt them...but it did not...or if it did melt them a bit the color swirl was still there. Putting the beads on top of the soap as a decoration did not work for me...they kept sloughing off and were messy. In the soap....very pretty swirls. They come in a ton of nice colors too and are cheap. I don't mix them in with oils or soap mixture...I just swirl away. I like to pour some of the soap into the mold, add the beads and swirl and then add the rest of the soap and repeat. Also can do ITP swirl. They are very tiny and don't sink to the bottom. Lots of fun and just a little bit different than working with the tricky micas and oxides. (which I love to use as well, but am not good at it yet!)