The green attempt in this soap is using Spirulina. I have been advised by several people that that Spirulina green in soaps is fleeting but I wanted to give it a try anyway. This is the same soap as the Aloe Vera soap, except I changed the liquid to half goat milk and half Aloe Vera and adding ¼ teaspoon of Spirulina powder at trace. I have 220gr of oils in my experimental batches – is that roughly 1/2 pound? Please correct me if I am wrong.
The spirulina was quite simple to use and it has produced a nice green for now. I will keep my eye on this soap and maybe post pictures in 1 month to see how the green has held.
The only strange thing is the speckles... I think they may be unsaponified lye? I added the lye to frozen goat milk as I often do, but for some reason the lye got into clumps and just wouldn’t melt the milk. I kept moving it around and around until it eventually started to melt the goat milk. Then I added more lye and continued mixing. It just felt strange. Like I should have waited for the goat milk to unfreeze more first. Then although the mixture never got really hot, it turned bright orange. It has only turned bright orange for me in the past if the temperature of the lye/goat milk mix gets really hot. When I poured it into the oils, there were little white lumps in it. Not curdled milk but harder. Maybe unsaponified lye, for whatever reason.
Anyway, back to green. For a first attempt with Spirulina, it is nice, so far.
Next experiment: The liquid will be half strong Nettle tea and half Aloe Vera.
4 comments:
This is a lot like the green that I get with my green powder. I look forward to seeing more green experiments. Too bad about the specks. They may be undissolved lye. You could sacrifice your tongue and see if it zaps - although I'd be hesitant to do that myself :)
I can't wait to see the nettle! I've only tried parsley powder with some very unimpressive and fleeting results. Thanks for experimenting again, I really look foreward to seeing your soaps & learning about natural green colorants! :)
Oh the dreadful tongue test, I don't know if I'd want to do it again... Too bad if these soaps are lye heavy, they look so beautiful!
I've had issues like this before too. Similar anyway. Seems like if my goat's milk gets freezer burned, that's what doesn't fully incorporate. Sometimes I have bits of hard, yellow clumps at the bottom of the lye solution. Before I make soap, if I melt the goat's milk, blend it up with the stick blender, and re-freeze, this seems to fix it.
Post a Comment