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urban chickie
True Blue Farmgirl
734 Posts
Catherine
Niles
IL
USA
734 Posts |
 Posted - Oct 18 2010 : 9:15:19 PM
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Nope, it probably isn't scorched per se. Without taking certain precautions, all milk soaps will turn dark brown like that. It's the milk sugars caramelizing during the heat of saponification. Nothing is wrong with the soap and the color itself is no indication of good or bad, so don't worry and go ahead and use your soap! If you rather it not turn dark, there are things you can do. What I do is to freeze my milk, buttermilk, or yogurt ahead of time in a ziplock bag, so it's a rather thin disk shape. I add my lye to the frozen milk and the heat of the reaction melts the milk quick enough, but prevents the almost boiling temps that lye generally creates when mixed with water. Also, do not allow gel to occur. It is best to place your filled molds in the frig for a day or two. Saponification will still occur, just moving much slower than if you had forced gel. It may need to sit a couple more days at room temps after this to finish saponification, but it will do so on its own. This process will also prevent the ammonia smell inherent to milk soap processing.
There are others things that can make soap turn dark, such as certain scents (vanilla is a big culprit) but if you didn't use any additives, it is most likely the usual reaction of the milk to the high temps involved.
Catherine
Farmgirl #1370
City Girl By Birth,
Suburbanite By Location,
Farmgirl at Heart
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My Goat milk soap
