Advices in colouring my (shaving) soaps?

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Gabriel_Gago

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Hi there!

I know there is more than one thread about colouring our soaps, but i have not found one concerning shaving soaps, so i thought it cannot hurt to start one. =)

I introduced myself yesterday and mentioned my sadness about only finding this forum now because that is a question i had for some time. I make shaving-related products, been selling shaving soaps for some time now with, fortunally, great feedback.

I TRY to keep my shaving soaps as natural as possible, out of my four main recipes only one has animal oils (tallow) and i never wanted to add artificial colours to it. Its just something that usually wet-shavers dont care about, and i should know it, since i'm in this hobby for eight years now.

But, i noticed a german shaving soap that uses a black colorant called CI 77268:1 - Meissner Tremonia. And it looks very nice indeed, his black colour adds a little bit of "luxury" to its appearance.

Now... altough i do know that it is the colorant, i'm somewhat ignorant about this subject, but i do know there are liquid colorants, micas and pigments.

So my question is; how can i make my soap with a nice black colour? Do you think its best to use activated charcoal or other kind of colorant for a shaving soap? Do i "sprinkle" the AC on my soap before of after trace - pure or mixed with water/any other ingredient ?

I make hot process soap, BTW.

Thanks in advance!
 
You could definitely use activated charcoal - it'll give you a nice grey/black colour and the nice part is you could tout it as a 'natural' colourant if you like. It also has some nice skin-detoxifying properties, for label appeal.

I'd suggest adding the AC to your liquid to allow it to hydrate a bit before adding your lye to the (now black) solution. 1 tsp - tbsp per pound of oil is a good starting point.
 
Thank you, it was a nice quick and very informative answer!

Another question;

Do i add AC until it reaches the shade of "black/dark grey" i want, or do i have to take in account some sort of discoulouring after the soap is ready?
 
Thank you, it was a nice quick and very informative answer!

Another question;

Do i add AC until it reaches the shade of "black/dark grey" i want, or do i have to take in account some sort of discoulouring after the soap is ready?

It can be kind of hard to predict the final shade until the soap has had a chance to harden up a bit. It may look pitch black when it's still quite liquid, but dry to a slate/medium gray.

One thing to also keep in mind is if you want grey lather or not. Some people don't like a grey lather - it can sometimes stain white wash clothes - so they use less AC. If you don't mind a grey lather, you can add more AC to your next batch to get a deeper colour.

Others like to mix AC with black oxide to get a darker colour as well.

I personally like the "slate grey" look I achieve with 1 tablespoon AC ppo. It also gives me a nice white lather.
 
It can be kind of hard to predict the final shade until the soap has had a chance to harden up a bit. It may look pitch black when it's still quite liquid, but dry to a slate/medium gray.

One thing to also keep in mind is if you want grey lather or not. Some people don't like a grey lather - it can sometimes stain white wash clothes - so they use less AC. If you don't mind a grey lather, you can add more AC to your next batch to get a deeper colour.

Others like to mix AC with black oxide to get a darker colour as well.

I personally like the "slate grey" look I achieve with 1 tablespoon AC ppo. It also gives me a nice white lather.

Thanks a lot, toxikon ;)
 
That is vegetal carbon (lamp black). Make sure you get a micronized version, you don't want any grittyness in shaving soap, and it will produce grey lather.

You may also be able to find oil soluble black dyes for the same effect, but again you will have grey lather, and likely staining.

Me, I prefer shaving soap to be free of anything not soluble in water -- I don't want to degrade my blades -- but you may, of course, do whatever you'd like!
 
That is vegetal carbon (lamp black). Make sure you get a micronized version, you don't want any grittyness in shaving soap, and it will produce grey lather.

You may also be able to find oil soluble black dyes for the same effect, but again you will have grey lather, and likely staining.

Me, I prefer shaving soap to be free of anything not soluble in water -- I don't want to degrade my blades -- but you may, of course, do whatever you'd like!
Thanks!
 
Hello there!

I tought it would be nice to give you guys a feedback on how it turned out for me. The short answer is; Great! =P

Bought some AC alongside titanium dioxide, did two or three test runs figuring out how many AC to add, and in the third or fourth time, i achieved a great solid black colour. First i tried adding it to the glycerin in after the trace, but i found out it gets much easier adding it alng with the fragrance oil.

Since i was planning for some time of making a soap in honour to the late great David Bowie, and since his last album is called "Blackstar"...you guessed it; i made a black soap with my new formulation, using the Minotaure fragrance oil since its is said to be his favourite perfume. =)

Before selling it of course i submited the soap to a long test, not only to get a grip on how my new formullation would turn out (great, btw), but also to figure out how the AC would effect the durability of the blades. I tested with doube edge and single edge blades, and found out that thankfully it did not effect it at all. I still get the 8 to 10 shaves using a double edge, or roughly double the amount with a GEM PTFE single edge blade. The lather does get grey-ish, especially in the beginning, but the final lather is not dark at all, wich is nice.

So i called it a success, put a limited test-run in the market for a few clients and they loved it. I even started to mix titanium dioxide in my regular-selling shaving soaps, ant it does get a nicer look, all-white.

So thank you all very much for your help, really. I'm attaching a few photos of the "Blackstar" soap.

IMG_20171013_145425852.jpg


IMG_20170930_140820316.jpg


IMG_20170930_140636779.jpg
 

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