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Soap & Candle Making

How Do You Whiten Your CP Soaps?

20 years ago

hello all!

first off, I'm assuming that "CP soaps" means cold process soaps? If not, then I meant cold process =)

I have made several batchs of CP soaps so far, and although in some applications I like the natural yellowish-brown of the soap crystals that form, but when it comes to coloring the soap (say a light pink) it is impossible to overcome that yellow-brown color! Upon doing some research I found that titanium dioxide is a common and very inert ingredient used to "absorb" color. The only problem I'm running into is, it greatly reduces the moisturizing effects of the ingredients of the soap and tends to dry out my hands in the finished product.

Can anyone help me track down some different ingredients/techniques for how to either remove the natural yellow color, or reduce it substancially without the use of titanium dioxide?

Thansk much!

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Comments (6)

sriston
20 years ago
To my knowledge, which I will admit is limited when it comes to CP soap as I do rebatching and melt and pour, other than the titanium dioxide, there really isn't anything to whiten soap. Most discoloring is from the ingredients, and especially the fragrance oils. Fragrance oils that contain vanilla are notorious for this. There is an additive you can buy that prevents the natural browning effect of fragrance oils that have vanilla in them. I have never used it, as I prefer my soap to have as few additives as possible. This vanilla stabilizer (as it is called) smells bad. (I have smelled it- that was enough to make me decide not to use it.) People have assured me that the odor dissipates in the soap. I do know that the product works because everyone says it does. I just prefer the natural coloring.
Susan
Red_Confetti
20 years ago
Color of the final soap is also dependent on the oils you use to make the soap. I always made lye and lard (yes, pork fat - manteca) soap and it always came out snow white.
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Infinite_Mass
Original Author
20 years ago
cool, thanks for the feedback! I'll try out a couple of those suggestions and see if they work out better for me =)
Brent B
20 years ago
What oils/fats you use certainly have an effect on the final colour of the soap. Titainium dioxide is the only ingredient that comes to mind to whiten.

A large proportioned lard or tallow based soap may give you the whitest results.

I believe that there is a non-discolouring vanilla but I forget who carries it.

Yes, CP is cold process, the acronyms will drive you mad; they're almost as bad as a government agency.
Burgie
20 years ago
Brambleberry has a Non-Discoloring Vanilla. It's really strong too... you definitely don't need a lot.

As for the whitening, what ingredients are you using? That might help some of us with what you could use less/more of.

Burgundy
bmeddonna
20 years ago
I have noted that when I make soap with coconut oil from Wal Mart (LOU ANA) which is white and organic vegetable spread from the health food store (made with all palm oil) and add my olive oil to that my soap was white/white instead of the creamy color I got when I used coconut and palm oils from a couple of the soap material suppliers. Those oils came to me a creamy color, and that's what I got for a finished product. From now on I will try to stick with the Lou Ana if I can and see what happens next.
Happy Soaping!!!

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