What happened?

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

tmmorrow

Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2016
Messages
8
Reaction score
4
My friend and I have been making CP soap for awhile now, she's done it for a couple years, and I'm a newbie. We've been making small batches of different fragrances to give away for Christmas. Anyways, this particular batch something happened, mine turned out fine, but the bubble gum fragrance did something weird? Any idea what it is? What we did wrong?
ImageUploadedBySoap Making1479053338.730928.jpg
 
What's wrong with it? I do see some discoloration is that it? It looks like it's turning brown. That possibly could be from vanilla content in the FO. He weaver, I would think a seasoned soaper would already suspect this. So without more information not sure what you are asking
 
The recipe was - 25%coconut 25%palm 25%olive and 25%canola. Discounted 35%, 5%superfat and 1oz FO PPO.
Fragrance was bubblegum. From windypointsoaps.com in Calgary AB. 1.38% vanilla, soaped at 110degrees F
This is the second time we used this recipe.
We split it up into 3 separate batches to fragrance them different. Nothing happened to the other batches and its only the pink that is getting these like brown rust looking spots. also the white has the same fragrance oil. I am in no way a 'seasoned' soaper and have only made about 20 batches in those 2 years.
It was supposed to be the light-ish pink and white. The same pink colour all throughout.

Plus this is the beginner forum. So I thought we were to post for help.
Thanks.
 
Last edited:
Your request for help is is perfectly fine. Problem is you didn't explain what you wanted help for -- you asked "...Any idea what it is?..." -- and everyone has been wondering what "it" you meant. The dark areas might have been intentionally colored that way -- it's actually rather pretty to my eye -- so how were we to know this was the problem you were wondering about? In any case, you've clarified your concern, so now we can help you better.

If the only difference between the three batches was the fragrance, then the fragrance is the only thing the darkening can be caused by. Any vanillin content in a fragrance will cause some darkening, sooner or later. The pink (mica, I'm guessing?) might be reacting chemically with the fragrance to form the darker spots quicker, but the white is also likely to darken too. Give it a few more days and see.
 
How did you mix in the FO?

If not properly mixed in i.e. just with a whisk, it will brown in some spots/areas first like a some sort of soap disease. It will then spread through the rest of the bars after few days.
Ask me how I know. :)

It's a beautiful soap. Shame about the discoloration but it will smell nice.
 
Thanks for the help everyone, sorry for the vague explanation at the beginning. First time poster and didn't know what was required. It does almost look like a disease lol. It was just odd because it slowly happened over night and it only was on the pink part. We're going to keep an eye on it during the curing process, and cut it in half afterwards, just to see what the inside looks like out of curiosity
 
The inside will look really cool. I ordered a bar online and cut it in half to share with my sister and you see the ring of where the fo oxidized (whatever causes the vanillin to react)
 
I used bubblegum FO and it did the same thing. Mine was from Nee Directions though. I was so disappointed. I split the batch and made half of it into citrus mist and that one turned out great so I guessed it was the bubblegum that did it.
 
Back
Top