Having Fun with Vanillin

Or vanilla, as it is more commonly known, has a tendency to darken bath & body products over time. You can add chemicals to soap to slow down the process, but over time they all naturally discolor. Depending on the percentage of vanillin in your fragrance, it can change into light beige to a dark chocolatey brown. Not a bad thing if you intend on working with a fragrance that lends itself to a brown color, but sometimes you'll get something called "snow angel" and it'll discolor to a deep dark brown.

That's why it's important to always check with your fragrance distributor how fragrances behave in soap.

No stranger to this change, I expected this fragrance to discolor, since I knew it had a high percentage of vanilla in it. It worked well with a new shea butter recipe I've been eager to try!

Here's the loaf cut on the second day. Notice the vanilla color already setting in the edges?  The inside of the loaf is originally (more or less), the color I poured at. Knowing this in advance, I decided to take advantage and lighten my layers with white as I poured along.

Here's the loaf just three days later! Notice how much darker it's gotten. It's still considered a baby in the curing process, so I expect that it'll continue turning-- which works fine for my design as it works for the fragrance. I hope to unveil it in my shop next month! :)

Ta-ta for now!

-SK