Mixing Natural Colorants

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liafrank

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So I've tried alkanet as a colorant and annatto seeds. Both worked very well. I was wondering if anyone has tried mixing natural colorants. For instance, mixing madder and indigo, do you think you would you get a purple or a gray mess? Has anyone tried mixing any of the natural colors?
 
I mix natural colorants (herbs, spices, clays).

A good way to find out what will happen to your colorant during saponification is to take your colorant & mix it with a little bit of lye solution. So, if you have 2 different colorants you're using, just mix them together & add it to a little bit of lye solution. That way you're not wasting oils.
 
I just mixed indigo and ratanjot last night. It was rather greyish purple. Might have needed more indigo but I may not be trying this again.

I did find ratanjot and madder gave me a really nice deep plum color. Used these herbs at trace. next time I will infuse to see the difference
 
I just made a batch using mixtures of herbs/spices for colors. Mixing turmeric and paprika gave me the orange I was looking for. I mixed nettle leaf and comfrey which gave me the shade of green I wanted. The one thing I noticed though is I thought the colors in the gelled soap weren't as bright as the un gelled soap left in the mixing bowels. Go figure.
 
I mixed pink clay and yellow dock root to make a beautiful red color for my strawberry soap. I was pleased with the results. I infused the OO with the yellow dock root and added the pink clay at trace with the FO.
 
I mix different amounts of indigo crystals (in water before lye) and annatto infusions to get varying shades of green. Works in most soaps, not so well in goat milk soaps.

I have mixed indigo and alkanet, to get dark grey. Not what i wanted.

Paprika infused OO and annatto infused OO can give you varying shades of orange-gold.

Infused alkanet and madder can give you a rosier shade of lavender than plain alkanet.
 
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