I think I know but I want confirmation and a possible solution.
This is Peak's Lemon Colada which smells amazing, soaps well but discolors to med/dark brown. Since it's lemon it begs for yellow colorant, right? I mixed my usual, well behaved batter, then poured off about 5 oz to leave unscented and color. I added the FO to the rest of the batch (36 oz oils) & poured. I added Nurture's Sunshine Yellow mica that I pre-mixed with OO into the small portion. (I usually add about 1 tsp mica to 1 Tbsp OO) Since I wanted it bright yellow to contrast with the brown, I added about half the mixed mica. I did a bit of a drop swirl into the main batter.
About 14 hours later I unmolded and started to cut. My first cut ended up with severe chipping on the bottom of the bars. So I flipped it upside down and finished cutting. What I ended up with are these very ugly areas in the yellow part only. They feel very dry and are crumbly. My conclusion is I used too much colorant which dried out that part of the batter only. My normal lye to water ratio is 1:1.8 so maybe there wasn't enough water in the batch to help hydrate that much mica in a small amount of batter? Now what? Rebatch? Grate it up and use it as confetti? It's just so ugly I have to find another use for it. :-x
This is Peak's Lemon Colada which smells amazing, soaps well but discolors to med/dark brown. Since it's lemon it begs for yellow colorant, right? I mixed my usual, well behaved batter, then poured off about 5 oz to leave unscented and color. I added the FO to the rest of the batch (36 oz oils) & poured. I added Nurture's Sunshine Yellow mica that I pre-mixed with OO into the small portion. (I usually add about 1 tsp mica to 1 Tbsp OO) Since I wanted it bright yellow to contrast with the brown, I added about half the mixed mica. I did a bit of a drop swirl into the main batter.
About 14 hours later I unmolded and started to cut. My first cut ended up with severe chipping on the bottom of the bars. So I flipped it upside down and finished cutting. What I ended up with are these very ugly areas in the yellow part only. They feel very dry and are crumbly. My conclusion is I used too much colorant which dried out that part of the batter only. My normal lye to water ratio is 1:1.8 so maybe there wasn't enough water in the batch to help hydrate that much mica in a small amount of batter? Now what? Rebatch? Grate it up and use it as confetti? It's just so ugly I have to find another use for it. :-x