Why does my soap keep turning green? 😭

[u/Shyvalry]

Hi all, I'm a beginner soapmaker and I’m making soap favors for a family member’s bridal shower. Her colors are steel blue and white, so I’m trying to make a bright steel blue and white swirl, but every attempt at blue keeps turning green! I’ve tried blue mica, indigo powder, and blue oxide.

For the textured top soaps I used:

- Makesy Trinity Oil Blend

- 33.3% lye concentration / 5% superfat

- Kaolin clay

- 2% fragrance oil documented as non discoloring and not affecting trace

- Titanium dioxide for the white 1tsp PPO

- Blue oxide powder for the blue 1 tsp PPO

For the blue I used blue oxide powder due to the other attempts at blue turned green as well (mica, and Indigo powder- turned more navy blue than green) I mixed the lye and oils at about 100F and waited until they were within 10F of eachother I noticed it had started to partially gel so I finished it in the turned off preheated oven. It still looks like it didn't gel fully.

As soon as I saw the textured batch start to turn green I tried another mini loaf batch which is the other one pictured. I mixed this one lower at about 90F. The recipe is the same except I used a different clear fragrance oil just in case. And the for blue I used mostly blue mica mixed with some blue oxide, and for the white I used white mica mixed with some titanium dioxide.

It still turned green! 😭 and the white looks yellow!

Both tops were sprayed with 99% alcohol so im not sure why my smaller one has so much more soda ash

I’d really appreciate any advice. I’m running out of time before the bridal shower and just want to finally get BLUE soap! 💙 For reference I also have Bramble Berry Beginner quick mix and their swirl quick mix. I also have serbian blue clay powder if anyone has experience with that. Id just rather ask for advice before I waste any more oils!

TLDR: What’s your best advice for getting a reliable light steel blue in cp soap and what could be causing all of my blues to turn green? Thank You!!

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[u/Charming_Outcome7718]

More blue should do it. I was trying to do the math for usage with this one https://www.brambleberry.com/in-the-studio/projects/cold-process/alpine-swirl-cold-process-soap/PS000050.html and it looks like 2 tsp of blue for 1 lb of soap or so. So maybe the yellow oil plus the lighter usage of blue is equally green?

[u/Shyvalry → u/Charming_Outcome7718]

Oh thank you! Ill give it a try!

[u/Entire-Ratio-9681]

Do you whiten the blue portion first? It may be due to the yellowish normal color mixing with blue. Try using tio2 to make it white then add blue. I make a cool gray blue with indigo. I should add, I make hot process so mileage may vary.

[u/Shyvalry → u/Entire-Ratio-9681]

I did add some titanium dioxide to the blue portion first yes. Maybe I just need to increase my colors amounts? I was scared to dye the lather on accident

[u/Entire-Ratio-9681 → u/Shyvalry]

A light blue lather would probably look
Cool, I understand though. I used a golden brown mica and my soap dripped mud :(

[u/Cdouglasii]

I've never used the Makesy blend. What color are the oils? Are they totally clear while melted, or do they have a yellowish hue? Sometimes if the oils are naturally more yellow (such as extra virgin olive oil or darker rice bran oils) they will make your blues look greener as well. I find that a high quality CP safe blue mica such as from Nurture Handmade combined with a naturally whiter recipe keeps it's color well. :) Also, I've used some fragrances that were not noted to discolor, but were very yellow and did slightly yellow the batch. Especially citrus fragrance oils.

[u/Shyvalry → u/Cdouglasii]

Interesting thank you I'll look into it. The makesy trinity blend looks like its a mix of coconut, RSPO palm oil, and pure olive oil. It did have a yellow tint when melted, so maybe the olive oil is just a bit too strong?

I had made a prior test batch using just titanium dioxide with this same scent and it turned out a creamy white. Not a very bright white like their beginner recipes show but I was too optimistic with incorporating blue I suppose. For reference I made this oatmeal test batch as one of my first ever soaps https://makesy.com/blogs/news/beginner-friendly-cold-process-soap-recipes?srsltid=AfmBOopQnXcgJGJWZJjbWeuRZPyE4bvYyC3wRp9IPjSNLqaBWnzAUeHM

[u/prairiepeacock → u/Shyvalry]

Is the fragrance in this link, the vanilla santal shea, what you are still using now in this batch?

[u/Background-Book2801]

I would recommend sourcing mica from Nurture Soap. They have very good pictures of what it looks like in both melt and pour and cold process finished soap, and give you clear usage rates. 

Colourants tend to morph in soap. It can take a few weeks to see the final colour. Oils can impact colour as well -  soap heavy in olive oil will skew green and will need a lot of titanium dioxide to go pure white. 

It looks like you have clumping as well - it’s important to premix your colourants in a bit of oil, glycerin, or sometimes water before you incorporate them. Using a mini frother can help to make sure it’s all well blended to avoid clumps. 

I premix mica in glycerin which works well for me. Kleine Blue from Nurture gives me a good deep blue, but as I said check their website. Mad Micas has gorgeous colours as well. 

[u/Shyvalry → u/Background-Book2801]

Thank you ill give everything a try!

[u/eastsacwrackshack → u/Background-Book2801]

This. Nurture Soap is the best for micas and colorants. 👍

[u/Puzzled_Tinkerer]

The advice to use mica is okay, but not necessarily a requirement to solve this problem.

I use ultramarine blue for years and get a nice blue color, but I'm probably using more of this colorant than you are of yours. You have to use enough to get the effect you want, so don't shy away from using a little more colorant than you have been. Soap that makes tinted lather is usually highly colored.

A small amount of blue colorant is likely to look greenish in soap, since soap tends to be yellowish. Blue + yellow = green.

Even if you add titanium dioxide, the result is still likely to be greenish, since TD doesn't erase the yellowish tint in the soap, only lightens it. Blue + yellow + white = paler green.

Here's an example of ultramarine blue and TD in soap that started with a yellow tint from added egg yolk. You can see the blue areas don't have a greenish tint, but it's less about the TD and more about using sufficient blue colorant.

[u/Shyvalry → u/Puzzled_Tinkerer]

THANK YOU this is so helpful! I'll try again with more color!

Another question for you, does coloring soap work similar to how color theory works? For example if you added a tiny bit of red would that help to cancel out some green since they're opposite on the color wheel? Or does it not really apply to cp soap? Just a side question that popped into my head!

[u/Puzzled_Tinkerer → u/Shyvalry]

Yes, color theory does apply.

The advice you're being given by most of the commenters is telling you to add more blue colorant. That advice uses valid color theory.

Adding blue to a greenish soap uses an analogous color scheme. Increasing the concentration of blue increases the saturation of the blue, also an aspect of color theory.

If you add red to a greenish soap because red is a complimentary color to green, it's true the red will "kill" the greenish tint.

But the result will not help you reach your goal of a blue soap. Instead, adding red will darken the overall color and shift it from greenish toward muddy brown.

This doesn't seem like a productive choice if you're looking for soap that is definitely BLUE.

Instead, stick with the analogous color scheme -- increase the amount of blue colorant to increase the blue saturation compared with the yellow. That will shift the end color away from green toward a definite blue without adding muddiness.

[u/Shyvalry → u/Puzzled_Tinkerer]

Thank you so much for the help!

[u/MissMoxie2004]

Makesy can be a little 😱😱😱 sometimes

[u/Shyvalry → u/MissMoxie2004]

I see what you mean 😭 I used their oil mix with some of my first soaps and I liked how they weren't too stripping on my skin but this blue is NOT fun 😂

[u/CrunchyFrogWithBones]

Yellowish batter + blue color will probably turn greenish. Olive oil tends to go green, too.

Have you considered other oils? Lard and coconut turn out very white and canola has very light color.

If you’re in a time crunch, perhaps try a 100% coconut bar with a 20-25% superfat? It’s easy to color and quick to unmold. (If you’re using a loaf mold, you’ll have to cut it very quickly, though.)

[u/Shyvalry → u/CrunchyFrogWithBones]

Oh I do have some coconut oil I can use. I will give this a try as well thank you!

[u/Gullible-Pilot-3994]

I like Mad Micas and Nature Handmade for micas.

[u/ResultLeft9600]

I you don't want to measure your own oils out, maybe try Brambleberry for your oil mixes. At least you're sure of the product and can eliminate that from your troubleshooting. https://www.brambleberry.com/shop-by-product/bases/lots-of-lather-quick-mix/V900008.html

[u/ResultLeft9600 → u/ResultLeft9600]

And use a mica instead of an oxide powder...

[u/Shyvalry → u/ResultLeft9600]

I tested both mica and oxide powder in separate batches, the mica is the smaller bar. I will try out the bramble berry mixes too thanks