Olive oil turning some colorants green

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JuneP

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High Olive oil soap recipes turn some coloranst green, but I haven't been able to find out if there is a % number of olive oil where you can avoid that. What is high - 30%, 40%, ???????

So much to learn!


Thanks!
June
 
It will depend on the OO you use. I don't use Virgin Olive Oil as it's too green. I use the OO from Costco and haven't noticed any issues with it turning my colorants green. If your olive oil is exceptionally green it could affect it I suppose but not experienced it every.
 
Plain OO helps, so does a little bit of titanium dioxide, it will keep your colors more true but it also lightens them to more of a pastel.
 
Thanks. That's a big help. I used the Pomace in the small batch of soap I have curing now, and I just bought a small amount some regular olive oil yesterday at Walmart, so I'll use that in my next CP. We're going to Costco Tuesday, so I'll get a large amount then. Thanks so much! I was concerned because I have a lot of pink colorants, and read that olive oil could even turn those green!

June
 
It's all about the color wheel. Complimentary colors (ones that are opposite on the wheel) negate one another when mixed - making them muddy/grayish/brownish.

Color-wheel.jpg


Since red and green are complimentary, your pink will be negatively impacted when mixed with a green base. However, complimentary colors do intensify each other is viewed next to each other (just not mixed).

It's part of the reason why purples are hard to get looking right in CP. Most CP batter is yellowish, and yellow is a complimentary color to purple.

You can eliminate some guesswork by neutralizing the batter color with TD.
 
Your wonderful answers seem to bring up more questions! LOL I see soapers on you tube videos, just squirint some titanium dioxide mixture into their soap, so I"m assuming they just add enough to get the color they want, but not by any pre-set % or weight. Is this what you all do?

Other questions: Can I also use Titanium dioxide to lighten a color. For instance, I'd like to get peach or apricot but I don't see those as available colorants. So will using some TD in an orange colorant give me a peach or apricot color?

I know that too much TD can cause the soap to go more into an orangy tone (same thing when you use a lot in some ceramic glazes). So is there a maximum amount to use to maintain the white color and avoid it going into those orangy/yellowy tones?

Also, if they have a large batch of pre mixed TD, then how do they figure the extra oil that is going into the soap when they are only using a small part of that pre-mixed batch; or do they just not concern themselves with the extra, carrier oil.

So much to learn!

June
 
You can definitely mix colorants to make your own special ones though you might want to experiment since sometimes things don't work out in CP like you think they will. :oops:

TD can lighten (tint) a color. I also sometimes use activated charcoal to darken (shade) a color. Adding a touch of a complimentary can take the vibrancy off a color if that's the effect you want. I normally take out a teeny amount of my batter oils to premix my colorants. If I end up needing more colorant than I initially thought, I just use a super-teeny-tiny bit of extra oil and consider it as extra-super-fat.

Some folks use water-dispersible TD, so they have it premixed up and can squirt away without fear of changing their superfat. One thing though, I've heard that water-dispersible TD (and too much of it) can contribute to glycerin rivers. I don't think you can go from a very non-white base to a snow-white base using TD without impacting your soap though. 1% is about the most you could use before soap becomes drying and feels chaulky.

Here's a Soaping 101 about color theory: [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR9wvtv0g_c[/ame]
 
1%, that's what I needed to know! I have some water soluble TD, so I'll measure out 1% with some water and measure it by spoonful size, so I'll know how much volume of the mix to add to a batch to equal 1%. Now to clarify, is that one percent of the batch of soap, or 1% of the oil weight?

Thanks so much!
I'm off to watch the video!
June
 
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