Thursday, October 1, 2009

A Little Help Here

Quickie question.....

I made cp soap last night.

The fragrance was a mix of Carrot Cake, Graham Cracker and French Vanilla (hungry yet?).
I covered two loaves with saran wrap and then a towel and left the soap"leftovers" in a silicone pan uncovered. This morning, I found the covered soap loaves to be brown and the uncovered soap an autumn orange. Sadly, I would have liked all the soap to be an orangey hue.

pourquoi?
warum?
waarom?
なぜ?
чому?

Did you know how pretty "why" was in all these languages?

:)

If I find my camera, I will post pictures later..... thanks in advance for posting comments if you have any ideas and if they will change.

15 comments:

SUDS said...

Hey Joanna, I don't know if you used vanilla stabilizer or not... I am guessing that you didn't. Without the stabilizer your orangey soap is more than likely on the road to turning brown as well. =( But, on the bright side, brown isn't all bad and I am sure that it smells DELICIOUS!

Unknown said...

I'm thinkin the same thing as SUDS...maybe you can make an orange frosting or topping and drizzle it along the tops? (unscented so it doesn't change color) =o)

btw your blend sounds divine!!!

Anonymous said...

Well, I'm befuddled and hungry now...but what they said about the stabilizer makes sense (given all Anne-Marie's posted about this topic). :}

Alchemic Muse said...

Actually, to me it sounds like the covered portion went through gel overnight, but the uncovered portion didn’t gel at all. That would definitely account for the color difference. I play with gel/no gel all the time to get different color results.

Joanna Schmidt said...

Alchemic Muse....and...what happens to the final overall?

Ruth at The Nova Studio said...

I agree with Alchemic Muse. It could be that the ungelled soap will still end up brown, too. But it's still good soap. And I'd lay down money that it smells heavenly.

egassner said...

Chalk me up for non-gelling too. Stablizer or not, alllll the soap would have been the same color if it went through the same process. Plus, I don't think a stablizers apply to CP soap like it does in MP soap.
HTH!

FuturePrimitive Soap Co. said...

i think the covered soap has gone through the saponification process in the correct (?) way and the uncovered hasn't. before i knew more i never used to cover my soaps for the insulation period...always left 'em uncovered. never had probs though. but colours always come out deeper after covering in my experience.

Alchemic Muse said...

There is no difference in quality, but the gelled soap will be a bit harder at first because of the heat and water evaporation. I deliberately keep some of my soaps from gelling because I want a lighter color. Also, I find the scent to be stronger in non-gelled soap. I actually stick them in the freezer just as they are get hot, but not before they get warm… it can be tricky. They take a little longer to cure as well.

di Palermo Body said...

Alchemic Muse is absofruitly right. The gelled and non-gelled accounts for the difference in the colors and stabilizers are needed in CP soaps when using vanilla if you prefer no color change. My vanilla soap is brown because I don't use a stabilizer but it smells lovely as I'm sure your yummy concoction does. My suggestion would be try again w/ a stabilizer but in small batches until you reach the results you want. Good luck and I can't wait to see pictures.

******* said...

Yup, sounds like a partial gel to me also. Did you just place a towel on top or wrap it around them completely? Most of the time I try to avoid a gel in my soaps, I don't want to lose the scent and I like the lighter look. Once they start warming up I put them in the freezer. I have forgotten and left them in the freezer over night, no problems.

Gel or no gel, without a stabilizer they're going to turn brown, could be a light brown or a deep brown. Stabilizers work in cp soap, too.

Ellia C. Naturals said...

I agree with the other posters regarding the vanilla and resulting color. Another thing to consider is depending on which carrot cake scent you used, it could have cinnamon and/or clove in it (both of which cause a very hot reaction, which intensifies the gel during a "normal" insulating process with wrap and towels). Sounds yummy though!

in-between said...

All I have to add is - YUP!

Body Natural Soap said...

I had something kinda for similar happen with two batches I made. The batch that stayed cooler eventually ended up the almost the same color. So I agree with everyone here that most likely the orange will slowly change to brown.

BodybyM said...

Vanilla color stabilizer is not usually recommended for CP soap - I've seen others who have tried it and it turned their soap neon pink.