southern.scents Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 Okay, I have been soaping like crazy the past couple days and I took yesterday off to build up energy for my batch that I hoped to "enter" into the swap with. Well, I soaped it last night. It was a simple batch IMO. My typical soap with some strawberry puree and cocoa powder added at trace with a light amount of chocolate dipped strawberries FO (I was going for Valentines themed). Well, in my research I found some post about cocoa powder and read that it would color the soap brown so I went really light, 1/4 teaspoon to my 4 pound batch. Well, the entire batch turned the brownish color and I could not get it to color red at all. I ended up with a pinkish brown grey color that doesn't look half bad with a few light red and dark green swirlsbut I was going for a vibrant red with a few dark brown swirls. My question is, has anyone else had the issue of not getting a batch to color. I was using liquid dye but in ALL of my other batches it worked great and the colors came out very vibrantly. I am wondering if maybe the issue was the cocoa or maybe the strawberry puree? I will post pics in the gallery when I get a chance.Next time I will seperate the batch into 2/3 red and 1/3 brown and only add the cocoa to the brown part. Maybe this would have made a bigger diffrene and a better batch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CareBear Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 well it's likely that your FO will discolor brown anyway, as will strawberry puree. And brown eats red.Vibrant red soap is tough to get. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tea Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 I too agree that is it probably your fo. Just did a chocolate soap last week, and it is as brown as brown now. Also put in 1tsp of cocoa powder to a 6lb batch.Some fo's will never stay white in soap.Tracey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michi Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 Strawberry FOs are notorious for turning soap brown.I'm sure adding cocoa powder to the portion you wanted red was part of the problem also. Not to mention the puree will brown.All that being said, it is not easy to get a vibrant red in soap.What kind of liquid colorant are you using? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scented Posted January 7, 2008 Share Posted January 7, 2008 You know I soaped Sola's strawberry and it didn't go brown on me. http://www.craftserver.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39771Now probably the puree would, since no preserved fruits brown.As for vibrant red? Tomato something for Select Shades or some neon red tends to work too, well dependent on what you're doing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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