Please...tell me it will morph!

[navigator9]

Can I be nosey and ask which lavender FO you used? I have one from NG that goes really brown. It's French lavender I think..

Sure, it was the one from Brambleberry.

Sorry navigator, but I don't think the brown will come back to purple. At least half a tsp. per pound of oils should be used with any mica. I think you added just enough to make the batter go brown, especially if there was a lot of green or yellow oils. Gel will help, but it most likely won't create an intense purple with the usage rate you used.

Also, adding micas before lye is totally fine! When I'm making a one color soap I typically add the micas before the lye so I can't get it mixed really well without having to worry about trace. Works like a charm!

I checked this morning, and the brown ones are tannish, the other ones that gelled are purplish. I'll take pics later, when the sun comes up. At least it's not as bad as I thought it might be. If you add the mica to the oils, then you know how the color "blooms" when you start mixing it in with oils. I was expecting to add much more, but since I wanted a pale lavender color, I kind of freaked when I saw the deep purple, and it prevented me from adding more. I think I may just go back to oxides. For me, they're much more predictable. My results with micas have been all over the place.

 

[songwind]

Really? I've always added my micas to the oils.

For CP I've been mixing them into a bit of the oil mixture, then stirring them in at light trace.

 

[Obsidian]

If I'm making a one colored soap, I add my colorant to the oils before lye. I like being able to really mix the color in without worrying about trace.
I'm starting to add all my additive before the lye, scent, color, clays, etc... If its something that goes in the whole batch, toss it in a blend to your hearts content.

 

[shunt2011]

I do the same as Obsidian. Everything into the pool before the lye.

 

[songwind]

If I'm making a one colored soap, I add my colorant to the oils before lye. I like being able to really mix the color in without worrying about trace.
I'm starting to add all my additive before the lye, scent, color, clays, etc... If its something that goes in the whole batch, toss it in a blend to your hearts content.

Considering I have an unfortunate tendency to forgot to add one thing or another when doing cold process, this is probably a good idea.

I think the "get everything done before it gets too thick" rush gets to me.

Edit: Do you still make a slurry w/ your micas and such before mixing? Or is it sufficient to just add them to the oil?

 

[Obsidian]

Micas and clays I add dry, oxides I make a slurry.

 

[cmzaha]

I mix all my colorants with glycerin and add them after emulsification. I have had more than one color completely disappear when adding them to my oils before adding the lye. I do not use any dry colorants including micas as I have had them leave specks. Clays I mix into my extra liquid before adding into my oils

 

[TVivian]

I mix all my colorants with glycerin and add them after emulsification. I have had more than one color completely disappear when adding them to my oils before adding the lye. I do not use any dry colorants including micas as I have had them leave specks. Clays I mix into my extra liquid before adding into my oils

I do this too. I have my theories about color (specifically micas and oxides and indigo.. Not clays) added before lye, because I've seen a difference between two identical soaps one with color added before and one after.

 

[Dharlee]

I was a hairdresser for 34 years and I know a little something about color. I don't know if this will apply to soaping,as the colorants are different apparently but I might understand how this came to be brown.

I took a class where we had to dye strands of color with RIT dye. We made all the primary secondary and tertiary colors. Later in that class after studying corrective color procedure we were asked to take those same strands and make them a believable color using that same RIT dye. Basically if you use a color that is the opposite of the original color in the color wheel, you can bring it back to brown by using it's opposite on the wheel.

My thought is that if you had a yellow OO in the mix, there may not have been enough purple in the mix to cancel out that yellow. So instead you got brown.

 

[IrishLass]

Navigator- I had kind of a similar experience last month, but with Nurture's Purple Vibrance instead (I used 1 tsp. ppo and added before the lye as I so often do, btw).

I should preface by saying it's my habit to make a batch large enough to pour into my log mold and have enough batter left over to pour into a cavity or two of one of my plastic MilkyWay molds. I do this to test colorants and FOs to compare them when gelled and ungelled. (my log always gels and my indy molds never gel).

Anyway, the batter was a beautiful, vivid purple when I poured into my molds. I set my covered log mold out in the warm garage to encourage full gel, and I set my indy mold on my counter uncovered.

Within an hour or 2 after pour, I noticed the soap in the indy mold cavities turn from vivid purple to chocolate brown and was quite taken aback, but I didn't let it phase me too badly. Years of weird soaping/coloring experiences have taught me that a few hours after pour don't necessarily mean that what you see is what you'll end up with when all is said and done, especially since all kinds of chemically things are still going on.

Fast forward to the next day. The soap in the log mold had gelled and was 100% vivid purple. The soaps in my indy mold had completely set up and had turned back to vivid purple (yay!), but the very top surface of the soap (the part exposed to the air) was still chocolate brown.

Fast forward through 4 weeks of cure. Everything is still vivid purple except the surface of the ungelled indie soaps that were exposed to air. I decided to try out one of the indy soaps at the sink, and lo and behold- the brown completely washed away to reveal vivid purple underneath. Yay!

I hope the color of your soap has as happy an ending as mine, but if not, what I would do next time (to get a nice lavender color) is use at the very least about 1/2 tsp. ppo of the Wisteria mixed with about 1/4 tsp. ppo of TD.


IrishLass

 

[gigisiguenza]

I was a hairdresser for 34 years and I know a little something about color. I don't know if this will apply to soaping,as the colorants are different apparently but I might understand how this came to be brown.

I took a class where we had to dye strands of color with RIT dye. We made all the primary secondary and tertiary colors. Later in that class after studying corrective color procedure we were asked to take those same strands and make them a believable color using that same RIT dye. Basically if you use a color that is the opposite of the original color in the color wheel, you can bring it back to brown by using it's opposite on the wheel.

My thought is that if you had a yellow OO in the mix, there may not have been enough purple in the mix to cancel out that yellow. So instead you got brown.

Dharlee I was thinking the same thing about the color cancellation factor and having not used enough mica to overpower the yellow of the oils.

 

[navigator9]

My thought is that if you had a yellow OO in the mix, there may not have been enough purple in the mix to cancel out that yellow. So instead you got brown.

You may be entirely correct there. I panicked at the sight of the deep purple when I added the mica to the oils, and should have added the amount I originally intended, instead of stopping when I did.

I hope the color of your soap has as happy an ending as mine, but if not, what I would do next time (to get a nice lavender color) is use at the very least about 1/2 tsp. ppo of the Wisteria mixed with about 1/4 tsp. ppo of TD.


IrishLass

While it's not the ending I intended, at least it's OK. The soap is not brown. It is purplish. Here is a bar of one of the batches that gelled. It's purplish, and that's better than I expected. The ungelled ones are a light tan color. I think if I dust them with the purple mica, they'll look pretty.

I think this is a heads up for me. The usual batch I make is about 7 or 8 pounds, instead of this 13 pound batch. I keep thinking that I need to be making bigger batches so that I can save time. But when you make bigger batches, if there's any kind of problem, it's multiplied. Also, it's not so easy for me to wield that huge stock pot, and to pour carefully with it, when I make a batch that's almost double what I usually do. I noticed that because the pot is so heavy, it's hard for me to pour slowly, and pouring as fast as I did, introduced a lot of bubbles into the batter. So I think I'm going back to smaller batches. I feel more confident with those. Thanks for all of your input, everyone!

 

[IrishLass]

That's actually a lovely light lavender color. Much better than the chocolate brown for sure.

It's always so fascinating to me to see how gel affects colorants. For example, I made a soap on Thursday that I wanted colored a medium cornflower blue for the most part. Well, the FO turned my batter a vivid emerald/forest green when I was mixing it in and it stayed that way throughout pour. And I noticed that the smaller bit that I poured into a clear indy mold and left on my counter to remain un-gelled stayed green for several hours. Twenty hours later, though, I glanced at my indy mold and noticed that although the top surface exposed to air was still green, the bottom inside was the lovely blue I was aiming for. And when I unmolded my main soap in the log (which had gelled completely), it also had turned into the same lovely blue (thankfully).


IrishLass

 

[lenarenee]

I'm glad the color has improved for you, and I wouldn't be surprised if there's a little more after several more days.

I've only been making soap for 20 months and consider that to still be a beginner. But for the first year of making soap I used a lot of olive oil - both the yellow and green Costco stuff and every single non-titanium colored batch colored with purple or green micas always went through a lot of changes for up to 4 -6 weeks because the base color always lightened as the soap cured. (my experience is limited to micas because that what I use 99% of the time). Pinks were also somewhat affected, but not as much. Surprisingly I had few problems with blues.

For what it's worth - I've been using a lot of Mad Oils Twilight blue (making a lot of Salty Mariner and Twilight is perfect for it) lately....and at first decided that it never turns out true to it's original color. (It's always gorgeous.) But I have some cured soap - 4 months, and 1 month. I've been watching them closely; both are now exactly the same color as the mica in the bottle....but it took exactly 3 1/2 weeks for it to get to that color (My soap base is very white - high lard, no oo, and no td used)

 

[dibbles]

Your soap turned out to be a very pretty color. Glad it worked out, and thanks for sharing your experience.