Wednesday 7 July 2010

Alkanet Experiment 6

DIFFERENCE: Half of the liquid in this soap is lemon juice, the other half is distilled water as per usual. I am using Alkanet Experiment 4 as the base recipe, the one with Almond oil.


I can’t really tell the colour of this because it came out too dark, too much Alkanet this time. It is definitely blue... but with a purple tinge? Since I am working with such small quantities, even just a small movement of my hand and a little more coloured oil can drop into the mixture... I may try lemon juice again with less Alkanet to see what shade of blue it goes.

CONCLUSION – Lemon Juice DEFINIETLY affects Alkanet colour in soaps.

OTHER CONCLUSIONS
- I am beginning to feel that it is the liquid in the soaps that affects Alkanet colour more than the oils?
- The Benzoin I used made my soap trace too quickly and go chunky. Not sure if it is Benzoin in general or the brand I have. Most likely will not be using again.

TEASER... Next experiment will be with Vinegar...

Xo Jen

6 comments:

Natural Aroma Handmade Soaps said...

Hi Jen, not sure how much alkanet you used for this one compared to the others, but there sure is a difference:) I soaked 20gram alkanet root powder in 40gr olive oil and used 3 teaspoons to colour a 2500gram batch and that was a light purple, but I suppose that wouldn't follow all the time, as we're seeing here by your experiments it would depend on other factors as well.

I was thinking, they use bi-carb and citric acid I think to adjust the Ph of lotions and creams, one is used to lower it and the other to make it higher, the citric acid would be like the lemon juice, so I wonder if the bi-carb would change the colour as well? umm, maybe a pink colour? might have to try that myself:) I love your experiments, they are sooooo interesting!

Jennifer Young said...

Hi! Fascinating! Can you tell me what is bi-carb? Bicarbonate Soda? Baking Soda? Let me know and it will be one of my next experiments..... xo Jen

Michelle said...

Wow! This is such a difference from the other experiments. I love this color!

Dörte said...

diese Experimente hab ich die ganze Zeit verfolgt, sehr spannend. Nr. 6 gefällt mir sehr, tolle Farbe.

liebe Grüße Dörte

Amy W said...

You're really getting some amazingly different results with all your experiments! Who knew you could do so much with just one ingredient?

Natural Aroma Handmade Soaps said...

Sorry Jen, yes, bi carb is just short for Bicarbonate Soda or baking soda. Don't know how it will work, but have fun!