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Primrose

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First soaps in … I think three months :( Pretty sure the last soap I made was the dancing funnel challenge. How sad!

Goat milk soap with essential oils and natural colourants. The first attempt at soaps for my "natural" vs "artisan" line. Lemongrass with lemon myrtle and yellow clay. Lavender with chamomile, titanium dioxide, purple clay, cornflour petals and a bit of jojoba. Pretty pleased with how these turned out. I don't usually use EOs, natural colourants and I don't usually texture tops either

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They look really pretty Primrose!

(If you are aiming for the natural market, you might like to try out Zinc oxide as a Titanium oxide substitute :)).

I like the look of both of your soaps - good luck with the sales! :thumbs:
 
Thanks SaltedFig - I've heard about zinc oxide but heard mixed reports. Also heard some debate over whether TD is considered "natural" or not ... several supply places have it as a natural colourant so thats good enough for me LOL

Its a bit of a worm-hole this "natural" thing. More so I just want to have a few soaps that are scented with EOs and a bit more on the natural side of things. I did have someone ask on the weekend whether I had any EO soaps and I had only FO soaps with me ... she ended up buying a plain bar but I would have liked to be able to say yes I do have that

I'm really happy with how they turned out. Wonder if the purple will stay that good. Previously my attempts at purple clay have ended up brown
 
My current avatar (from the Carved Soap (Intaglio) Challenge) uses zinc oxide as the white - it is very white in person (I quite like it), but the ingredient is more expensive (of course!). Still, not much is needed.

Curious about the purple clay - I wonder what gives it the purple colour then?

I would love to hear how well your blue cornflowers stand up to the lye (I reckon they should).

*Edited to correct - I've double-checked the recipe and the base oils weren't as green as usual. I'll send you a PM Primrose.
 
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Those are lovely looking soaps Primrose. I would think the purple clay will hold okay. When I have used clays I never remember having problems with color morph such as you get when using botanicals. That was in my more "natural" days. :D I do still make some once in awhile with clays.
 
Yeah the cornflowers I've done on top before and they stay that beautiful purple/blue. I know its weird putting a different flower on top but I didnt trust lavender buds on top not to turn brown, and I wasnt sure if the purple clay would work or whether I'd be sticking with "white lavender" and a bit of colour on top.

I think most of my issues with colour in my soaps tends to be because of the goat milk, so it darkens and mutes the colours especially when they are already finicky natural colours. And especially if it gels - which now I'm making bigger batches they tend to since I cant get the molds in the fridge. Mostly the micas hold up if I use plenty of them, but the natural ones seem a bit harder.

I'm stoked with the swirl though. I was looking for a fairly understated, minimalistic soap. I think I got that. I may lighten the base of the lemongrass next time with some TD or the zinc oxide. All the yellow seems a bit heavy
 
pink and purple clay.jpg

This was my first attempt at pink and purple clay last year some time. I got maroon and tan LOL I didnt use any TD in this one so I suspected it was the colour of the base oils and the goats milk. But for the new lavender soap I coloured the whole thing white first then added the purple clay. I'm pleased it seems to have worked
 
Thank you Dibbles! They turned out well, though I have to admit I was NOT patient waiting for it to set up enough to texture it
 
Beautiful, never heard of purple clay before, where does it come from - here in Oz ?
 
Unfortunately not - the purple is Brazilian clay. Aussie Soap Supplies stocks it
 
Curious about the purple clay - I wonder what gives it the purple colour then?
I found this on SoapQueen

"These clays are naturally colored and do not contain any artificial dyes or pigments. The various shades are actually achieved by variations in the minerals found in the soil in the different regions of Brazil."
 
Beautiful soaps! I really like the purple color you got! And you definately nailed the minimalistic swirl, very elegant;)
Natural colorants can be very challenging, especially when you're using goat's milk in your soaps.. I've also had some unidentifiable brown in stead of purple, definately don't use alkanet with goat's milk:confused: Annatto on the other hand gave me a deep creamy orange (but it's only 4 months old, so can't say anything about color morphing).
The other day I actually read that the blue color of woad is enhanced by goat's milk, so maybe that's worth a try? Here's an article with some information in case you're interested.. http://medoitmeself.com/2017/03/25/great-cakes-soap-challenge-club-secret-swirl/
 
Thanks Primrose!

It was when you said that they had gone brown I thought there must be some organic material in there, but it sounds more like a combination of colours (oil and clay) created the effect. :)
 
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