Phenolphthalein

I hope that it wasn't dropped in the whole batch of soap. I have some from AAA chemicals. I hope that helps.

54R4H said 
 

I have some questions of my own, too.  I had been doing hot process exclusively (and got an AWESOME recipe suggestion from Nana Sandi!), but I am wanting to try cold process because you can get a little more decorative with it.  Does anyone use any cool ways to decorate their soap (HP or CP?), I'd prefer not to use any dyes.  Most recently I made a Cinnamon Oatmeal bar (CP) and pressed oatmeal in it and it has a cinnamon swirl.  I am just so addicted to soaping, I want to hear anyone's suggestions or things they like that work for them!

 

I love both Hot Process and Cold Process. If you don't want to use dyes, oxides or micas there is still a good range of colorants you can use. I like to use clays myself. I love the soft green of the French Green Clay and pink of Rose Kaolin Clay. Browns have a good range using Cocoa Powder and Rhassoul Clay. Red from using Madder root or Moroccan Red clay. Orange from Paprika and turmeric.  Yellows from annatto seed and calendula. Purple can be had by using Alkanet root although watching some videos on YouTube, it seems it turns blue in hot process. I plan to experiment. There is probably a lot more out there, so you need to do research. The best part is just experimenting to see what floats your boat.

laurie hamar said
Hi Ladies, I need help please.  Just made a batch of hot process soap using milk instead of water.  I've made this soap before and never had a problem (checked the soap calc and am using regular oils, nothing fancy).  I froze my milk until slushy before combining with the lye and as far as I know did everything right, however; after cooking in the crock for about 45 mins I notice that the oils separate.  I had the same thing happen last week.  I cooled it some and then re-blended with the stick blender.  After a few minutes everything seemed to combine and get that glossy color.  So, I tested it and it was done without having to cook any more.  Last week I thought maybe I didn't bring it to a strong enough trace so this time I made sure I had a good trace.  Any ideas what may be going on?  It is an old crockpot so maybe it's cooking too hot all of a sudden (I've been making soap for a couple of years and never had a problem with it before).  Help, please!

Hi Laurie,

It is most likely you are soaping too hot. I find that mostly my crockpot is too hot, so I end up soaping at warm or low occasionally. I have some hot spots in my crock and sometimes I get separation if I forget to turn down the pot after melting my oils. The good thing is that you can usually just stir everything back together. Also remember that adding things like milk will cause your soap to get hotter than usually due to the sugar content so you should soap even cooler than you usually do. You might need as long a cook as well. It helps making milk soaps in the crock to melt all your oils together and just let it cool down to room temperature and then to add your lye/milk (that is also cool/cold) mix to trace and then turn on the crock to low/warm. I hope that helps a little.

Carol