Discoloring FO's

Are currently the bane of my existence. Challenge- design a soap using a discoloring FO. Sounds simple and for many it is, I'm certain. No joy here in my world, where discoloring FO's are embued with illogic, peevishness, mischief, and a dislike for my intentions, as well as the ability to act independently.

One is scented with Pumpkin Lager, loaded with vanilla and destined to go deep brown. What did I ever do to you, Lager, that makes you go booger khacki green? All the bright yellow you see is now, yes, gross greenish brown.

I thought this one was okay. I got a partial gel on it and the partial gel is proceeding to darken fast apace, far faster than the gelled portion and it looks like the gelled part will not ever catch up with the corners. I can live with that. Then someone saw it and told me it reminds him of colonic polyps and now I can't stop seeing them. Green, though? He's a vegetarian; maybe he thinks they are green when you go heavy on the veggies and only carnivores get the meaty pink ones. He's not 50 yet so he hasn't had a true picture of the reality of his colon. This is out of the mold. The tan part is now dark brown.

I tried a drop swirl, heavy on the mica to get the shimmery effect. Pinks and gold with edges of glittery white set against a backdrop of extremely dark brown. Sounds delightful! Every bar has a large pink ass on it.

Then I tried one that is supposed to turn everything neon yellow, immediately, even before you get it out of the mold. No longer trusting, I left some of the batter uncolored but did an ITP swirl of bright yellow in it. Gelled, unmolded, blew on it to get it exposed to air and have one sitting on the windowsill to expose it to sunlight, anything that might discolor it. No, the uncolored portions are still white. Thankfully I did that ITP swirl.

The one I will enter, just because I like it, was made with Espresso FO in the uncolored portions and the white and black have Rose Geranium. It sounds weird, I know, but in the right proportions it smells good. Espresso FO turns soap about the color of....espresso, except in my soap. In mine, it doesn't even qualify as tan, in spite of sitting out for almost 2 weeks. It just looks dirty. However, I really like the patterns and in one bar, I see two hawkish eyes and a lemur or ferret, and on the side sit two lambs faces. It's like a Rorschach and I get a huge kick out of it ( I also see a colon, without polyps). It is pathetic as an example of a discoloring FO but I admit myself defeated.

I surrender.

I was watching my small bonfire tonight and took some pictures with a very high shutter speed, just to see if I found out anything about fire. One thing I discovered is that flames will exist momentarily completely removed from other flames or the source of heat. Yes, I do know that flames never actually touch the object that is burning but I always think of them as contiguous in something like a wood fire. Using a gas or liquid, like you would in a flame thrower or such, I know the flames will leave the nozzle but I thought that was because the vapor or liquid was being expressed under pressure. I found many pictures with independent flames above the mass of the others and I thought it was cool. I love the flame flower in the one picture and you have to love the devil tail in the other. At least, I do.