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Soap & Candle Making

fading colors problem?

23 years ago

I did a two color soap months and months ago, it was a yellow goldfish sitting on top of a square blue/green block. I put it away in a box and forgot about it until I went to pull one out for a gift and got a shock.

The nice gold color I got before was now a sickly yellow. It looked like the color got sucked right outta the fish and into the square block. Is that normal? Is that what happens when colors 'bleed'? I thought it was only at the beginning when you first poured, not months later!

Disappointed, =/

Andrea

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Comments (5)

CraftyGirl75
23 years ago
That's what happens. You can buy non bleeding colorant to prevent it. I don't do much with artsy soap. Didn't want to buy a whole different set of colorant for something I might do once in a while.

Also remember that scents with vanilla in them can turn soap colors also. If you are doing fish in a bag you need to use a scent without vanilla (and many scents have vanilla) or you need to use a vanilla stabilizer. If you don't hours later your clear soap will be yellowish!

Better luck next time.
Heather
Jill_NC
23 years ago
Andrea---something similar happened with me. Remember that Dragonfly soap I made--blue with the dragonfly raised in white? I used opaque base for the design and then used clear base for the block/background of the soap colored with blue mica. I knew the mica wouldn't migrate into the white design. I sent it off to my mom and she put it in a decorative soap dish in her bath. Then about a mo. later she asks me where all the blue color went from the soap. The design was still white, just what was the blue base was now just ugly & colorless. All I can think of is that she has a window in her bath that's glass blocks so it lets light in all day and it faded the soap. Weird, huh?

Jill
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We understand. But I think there's more than one way, and maybe you can all get what you want. The vast majority of times this has happened in my home it was guests. I did not even mention to them, like you said, it's just towels and I kept using them until they wore out, I just made sure not to use the bleached ones when guests were visiting. But here's the deal. I have sometimes used anti-acne medication. I also have used toothpastes and mouthwashes that have peroxide or other bleaches in them to treat gingivitis. And I often wear contact lenses that need to be cleaned/disinfected with peroxide (not all contact lens solutions have it). There are things that are easy to do -- rinse your face well before using a towel, for example; spitting toothpaste out and then just wiping your face dry will bleach the towel if you're using dental hygiene products with bleach. Sometimes it's harder, because people are trying to follow instructions from their doctors -- for example, when cleaning contacts, one is often advised to dry hands/fingers between dealing with one contact and then the other one. Sometimes doctors advise to always deal with the contacts over a towel (for example, rinse them with the disinfecting solution) so as not to drop them on dirty surfaces. That's when it helps to step outside the box for a bit. I only use the towels when what I'm drying is clean and well rinsed. If you need to blot something or rinse contacts over a towel, that's when I reach for the roll of paper towel I keep in the bathroom. As a bonus, not only are you discarding the paper and it doesn't matter if you had peroxide on it, but also you are always using a fresh paper towel for things that should be kept away from whatever was in the towel before you tried to use it. Also, no lint on the contacts, much nicer to the eyes. Good luck!
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tararara
23 years ago
Yup, soap dyes fade. Pigments don't, but I think they all come powdered (am I wrong? I would love to find some liquid pigments). Also, pigments will cloud clear m&p...
tanner2135
Original Author
23 years ago
hmm. my colorants are liquid but no idea if they're dyes or pigments. how do you tell? i'll have to look into the non-bleeding colorants, heather, since i have a couple artsy soaps i do. if they bled, i expected that the soap below it would change colors but it didn't really.

jill, i do remember your dragonfly soap, interesting about the mica. i definitely didn't use any mica in the goldfish though.

argh, can i just vent about the mica for a sec? i mixed up blue mica in a bit of water. i did this with black pigment and it worked fine. might be because it was black that you couldn't tell.

anyway, i was careful to mix really well, stirred extra long, everything looked good as i poured but when i popped them out of the molds, the mica settled at the top so everything looked speckled. my DP said it looked fine and that it was cool but still! i will grudgingly say they looked good BUT it's not what i expected nor wanted.

so annoyed!
andrea
BuffyC
23 years ago
Hello THere,

You can buy embedding soap for these soaps. I buy mine from WWSP. they have all colors even balck. I use the black to make my crosses for the bible church. Can you imagine a black cross bleeding?
I only use this soap for special designs. Sometimes the bleeding soap curls look good in loaf soaps.

Have a great day.
Carolyn

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