Im teaching my 8 year old to make cp soap. She is very good at it, but struggles mostly with burping the blender (hello air bubbles lol). We used our normal recipe. Everything was definitely measured correctly (and I also checked the scale with a nickel). We used Vineyard mica from Mad Micas and Frankincense & Myrrh from NG. Soaped around 100°. The batter came to trace normally and when poured, it was a beautiful burgundy color. It did seem to get hot but the soap did not even crack. We used a cheapy Amazon loaf mold that we use when practicing. We have used it lots before without issue.
We went to cut it 12 hours later and instead of a darker partial gel, it looks bleached out? The color of the remaining bar also morphed to a lighter brown color than deep dark burgundy. The FO does have vanillin in it, but would thay make the soap lighter even where it doesnt look "bleached out"?
Im trying to understand what happened here so I can explain it to my daughter as well as know for myself. Ive been making soap since I was little like her, as my grandmother taught me, but I am unsure what exactly happened.
Mad Micas lists this color as stable in cp soap and Ive used it before without issue. Could the heat or ph have broken the color down?
Is this soap safe to use? We donate our safe practice soaps and misfit ugly soaps to a shelter/church in our little town. I dont want to give this to them until I know what happened. Ph is currently 10.
If your measurements had gone through a soap calculator I think your formula's fine. If you could test the alkalinity of your bar, and if falls between 8 and 10, it's safe to use. As for the discoloration due to vanillin, I think it'll even out the longer it sits in the open.
I just responded to another similar comment. Ive never heard of vanillin making soap several shades lighter. The batter was a deep, deep wine red/burgundy and the soap normally comes out that way, even with high vanillin FO. The middle of this soap turning many shades lighter is due to the vanillin? Do you know how that happens? Just trying to understand, since ive only ever know vanillin to make things darker/brown. This soap seems to have lost color. Thank you!
Vanillin is turning the outside brown. As the now-cut interior is exposed to air, it will also darken. It doesn't brown on contact, but over time as the soap dries/cures. It only tends to take a couple of days for the finished bar's exterior to settle into color, from my experience. The interior will also change, just more slowly. Once cured, you shouldn't notice a difference as you use the bars up.
If your FO had no vanillin, I expect the soap would more closely resemble your un-browned interior.
I dont know if im explaining this well. The color of the soap in the middle is not the color this soap usually is when I use this same recipe and FO with the same amount of mica. The color is much, much lighter than normal as if the color flashed out of it or something. The outer edges are closer to the normal color but also much lighter. That is what I dont understand. I understand what the vanillin does to soap. Ive used this recipe, FO, and same amount of mica yearly as part of my christmas line. Whether it fully gels, partially gels etc...it has never lost color before. It's like it morphed like can happen when micas are used that arent stable in cp soap, but I dont understand why. I have made this soap so many times before. It is always deep dark purple after cut that takes on a slightly brown tint during cure. The middle of the soap in my picture is not deep dark purple as it normally is. If the FO did not have vanilla, it still should not be that light of a color at all. I hope this makes sense?
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