Hello and question about colours....

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MGM

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Hi everyone! I'm new to CP soaping (have done some M&P for about a year). I took a beer soap-making workshop in November and was hooked (as I feared I'd be.....). Last week, I made my first batch at home, unsupervised, and learned a lot (swim goggles are not safety goggles! keep stirring your small pots of coloured soap so they don't turn into one big lump! oh, and above all make sure all your lye is completely dissolved, not forming a crust at the bottom of the container!). Now it's time for batch #2, a peppermint/lavender shampoo bar. I'd like to do 60% of the bar white (can I use zinc oxide to colour? I have loads of it and no titanium dioxide) and 20% each green and purple. Question is: if I'm to dissolve the zinc and micas in 1 Tbsp of oil before adding to the soap, these oils should be from the total quantity, right? I shouldn't be adding *extra* oils, should I?
thanks for the advice!
 
Welcome to the forum!

I think zinc oxide would be okay.
https://www.brambleberry.com/zinc-oxide-p5046.aspx

I am concerned about your green and purple colors. Where do you get them? Many colors that are sold for MP are not CP stable, and purple especially is a difficult color.

I like to mix my colors in a Dixie cup with a chopstick (I think my mini mixer is dead :( ). What a lot of people do is take out a small amount from their batch of melted oils and mix that with their colors. Try to use as little as possible. Depending on the batch size, start with a teaspoon.

You are generally correct that you shouldn't be adding extra oils, but using a teensy amount for your colors that is not accounted for in the recipe is okay. it is BETTER to pull it from the oils accounted for in your recipe, but should you forget and add your lye before you mix your colors, it's not disastrous.
 
Welcome to the forum!

I think zinc oxide would be okay.
https://www.brambleberry.com/zinc-oxide-p5046.aspx

I am concerned about your green and purple colors. Where do you get them? Many colors that are sold for MP are not CP stable, and purple especially is a difficult color.
.

Thanks! I'll take them from the pot of oils and mix in as little as possible.
I'm using micas from TKB Trading.....hmmmm you're right! When I bought the micas, I was only interested in whether they were face-safe, but now I see that some are not recommended for CP! Totally spaced that! Well, it might just be zinc oxide and spirulina....we'll see what THAT looks like! Thank you for pointing that out!
 
Welcome, MGM, and have fun soaping! For me, I've found that the Brambleberry micas are so fine that I just dump them right in to my batter. I've used oxides and other colorants and don't like the extra step of first mixing them in a teaspoon of oil.
 
I thought I'd been reading too much and had succumbed to analysis paralysis and I needed to make soap. Got great feedback about colours, but didn't mention my FO...had intended to do just peppermint and lavender, but at the last minute, while mixing up fragrances last night, decide to use NDA Green Mint, a grassy/minty fragrance that I lurve lurve lurve. Just happened to be browsing the FO review page while killing some time and saw a description about that FO seizing. Sure enough, when I went to the NDA page, there are horror stories (of course, I'd gone through all my NDA FO descriptions and ear-marked those that were CP-safe...then forgot about that list :p) Anyhoo....here I am with about 1 oz Green Mint and .7 oz peppermint and lavender combined and ready to go....but GO WHERE? Could I use this in M&P with no problems? Back to the drawing board with designing my fragrances for soaping tomorrow...with that one out, all options are back on the table, which means so much reading and thinking...gonna be a late night....
 
Ok, think I've worked it out: orange-ginger (from FO from NDA) shampoo bars with extra EOs: 5 fold orange, ginger, dark patchouli, and cedarwood. My hands sure smell great after mixing up the fragrances, anyway. Final question for the night (maybe :) ): any reason I shouldn't add just a teaspoon of finely ground oatmeal to these shampoo bars? I don't necessarily want the grit in my hair, but am hoping to use half the batch as regular soap (two of the recipients are bald, so won't be too fussed with receiving "shampoo" bars....). Best to avoid or go for it?
 

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