First bath soap, pink?

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psfred

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Made some soap last night, and got a surprise. Hot process, 80% lard, 15% CO, 5% olive oil (because I dropped a new plastic bottle and it leaks...). 0.5 gr tetrasodium EDTA, 3% SF. 12 drops of Bulk Apothocary Egyptian Dragon FO

Went well, got to try out my new stick blender, but got some discoloration -- yellow while it was cooking, not a surprise, but the finished soap is light pink!

It was pink before I added the FO, I think, but definitely is now.

Not exactly what I expected, is it the FO maybe, or something strange with EVOO -- Colovita if that's important.

Soap is great so far, obviously it needs to cure a while, but lathers up nicely for fresh HP soap. Not thrilled by the scent, but it was really for my mother anyway.

Peter
 
I would suspect the FO. Look at the ingredients list of that FO: "Tantalizing warm blend of myrrh, dragons blood, patchouli; with precious notes of rose and jasmine, kissed with base notes of woodsy musk." Dragons blood discolors pretty dark in my experience. I have read that this same FO by other vendors discolors to a light beige. Sometimes beige looks pinkish to me.
 
I looked it up myself, and saw the dragon's blood. That has vanilla in it, and does indeed discolor. Bulk Apothecary doesn't list that sort of information, alas.

It's a delicate pink, quite nice for a lady's soap -- just not what I expected!
 
I find ED can go pinkish especially in lard soap. Do not ask me why but it does. Not knowing your batch size but 12 drops of to is next to nothing, especially with ED not being a particularly strong scent. Most Dragon's Blood will go extremely dark brown and is stronger than ED.
 
It was a one pound batch, will last quite a while at our house.

I prefer barely scented soaps, which is one of the nice things about making your own -- just like beer or wine, you can make exactly what you like for yourself! Selling it is another story, but I've not got any plans to do that any time soon.

So I guess my Mom gets pink soap for a while. Could be worse, it could have lavender buds in it that look like mouse droppings.....
 
Also some preservatives added to commercial lard can turn pinkish in the presence of a strong alkali (NaOH). I use a lot of lard in my soap recipes and have seen this a time or two, but the color shift usually doesn't happen, even though I always use the same brand of store-bought lard. I'm not quite sure why it's so variable, but it is.
 
I find ED can go pinkish especially in lard soap. Do not ask me why but it does. Not knowing your batch size but 12 drops of to is next to nothing, especially with ED not being a particularly strong scent. Most Dragon's Blood will go extremely dark brown and is stronger than ED.

I've found the exact opposite. DB is light and ED is strong, at least in my experience. ED is my hand's down favorite scent.
 
Definitely the FO -- did another batch with a different recipe last night, and it went pinkish as soon as I stirred in the FO after the cook. More yellow tinge from more olive oil in this one, so it's not as obvious, but pink it is!
 
Just an update -- made a very similar recipe with different lard (Emge instead of Field brand) and hey, the soap isn't pink this time! Different lye, too, but I don't think it was the reagent grade I used on the first batch, I'd expect it to have less impurities than drain cleaner....
 
Candle science has a dragon blood with 0% vanillin. Not sure if it is good, because is not my type of scent.

And pictures please!
 

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