Natural Colorants

Hi everyone!

I made my first batch of cold processed soap yesterday and cannot wait to take it out of the mold to see how it turned out. Being the cautious person that I am I stuck to the basics and made a batch of colorless and odorless soap in order to test my recipe.

So if all turns out well I will feel confident to move on and start adding color and scents. My intention is to use all natural ingredients so I purchased a few essential oils for scents.

I am in a quandary though about natural colorants. I have a book where the author uses spices like turmeric, nutmeg, etc. however, the photos of her soaps appear to have a grainy texture which I do not want at this stage.

I also am looking at websites to order colorants specific to cold processed soap so this is where I ask for your input as to your favorite brand of natural colorant and where you purchase it.

Thank you so much. This website has been such a valuable resource for this newbie.

:bathtub:

My recommendation would be to search the forum. There are many threads about natural colorants here.

Artemis has a good suggestion about searching.

Also, I'd like to challenge what you consider 'natural'. A lot of people want to use botanical colorants in soap, at least at first. But think about mineral pigments. Are those un-natural? Hardly, they can be mined directly out of the ground. Are lab-synthesized identical duplicates un-natural? I mean, they lack the heavy-metal contamination of mined pigments, sure, but is that anything to hold against them?

The thing about mineral pigments is, for the most part they're stable. Botanical colorants will fade over time, and after a while all your prettily colored soaps will be various shades of tan and grey.

And using mineral pigments opens up a whole world of color to you. I know that at least Nurture has a ton of mica colors (mica is also a naturally occurring mineral) made with mineral pigments.

Got pics of your first soap? We'd love to see it!

You can purchase natural colorants from a variety of places, store bought spices from your local store are fine. I bought the natural colorants sampler from Brambleberry when I first started & was very pleased with the variety of colors.
In order to avoid the grainy look in soaps, look into infusing your colorants in oils. It's more time & labor intensive than adding the powders directly to your lye water or soap batter, but it works if you are dedicated to the process.

Natural clay colorants are easy to blend and leave no graininess, neither does charcoal. Tumeric doesn't and I love paprika although it can leave flecks, cocoa definately leaves specks because it can be hard to blend but I like cocoa specks. Oxides blend well and cinnamon isn't too bad but cloves can be flecky. Spirolina is the only green I think comes out smooth. Mixing the colors up in a small amount of oil first helps disperse through the batter. I wouldn't worry about a little graininess, buyers seem to like it.

I find all the spices grainy if they are mixed with the batter and my sons think they are scratchy and will not use a soap with them in. Try oil infusions. I had a really bad reaction to spirulina in soap - all over rash wherever the suds had got to. The soap faded to fawn in a few weeks but I still got the reaction. There are many threads that show natural colour experiments and the colour fade.

Admittedly I am allergic to a lot of things but be aware that lots of people still react to "natural" colours especially cloves and cinnamon. The same applies to EOs.

Anne Watson has a great write up on natural colorants. I like that she tries different methods too: http://www.annelwatson.com/soapmaking/creative/november/naturalcolorantssoap.html

I haven't tried many herbs and spices, but I like infusing paprika in oils. I get some nice shades of peach and orange I can't get from my mica samplers. I twist up a spoonful of paprika in a coffee filter and let it swim in oil, in a crockpot set to "warm". You can skip the crockpot if you have the patience.

Clays are easy to use and nice to swirl. The drawback for me is that once I have added enough clay to get the shade I want, I get colored lather, and they can stain washcloths. If you use a light hand though, I think you could get some nice results. This blogger has the magic touch:
http://www.magstatt.com/

Oh dear I don’t think I am ready for colorants. It looks like I have a disaster here. First there is soda ash all over the top. I sprayed it with 91% alcohol so think maybe I need 99%,

The next issue is the transparent Center. The lady who taught me had mentioned last night that this would happen if I did not cover it to keep it warm. I did cover it after she told me but I believe it was too late.

Does anyone have input on any of this mess?

First, it's still soap, so it's not a disaster. Second, I am all for skipping colors until you feel like you know what you're doing. Just make small batches until you get the handle of it.

Partial gel is what that bit in the middle looks like. That you can fix with a CPOP after the fact.

The ash... there's a lot of different info about what causes it and how to prevent it. Alcohol hasn't worked at all for me, in fact it's made the ash much worse the times I've used it. I've had several soaps with ash layers as thick as yours. Let it sit for a week or so, then trim the ash off. You can remove it right away, but letting it sit helps firm it up a little, so you don't have tons of soap crumbs all over everything since (in my experience) the ash layer crumbles at any disturbance right at first.

What I've started doing that seems to be having a minimizing effect is covering my soap with plastic wrap right after the pour and leave it on there until the soap is ready to be unmolded. Last batch the plastic rested directly on my soap batter, and neither seem the worse for the experience. Keep in mind you're not going for a truly air tight seal here, like you would with soap dough, just keeping the surface from direct air contact.

To add to penelopejane's suggestion to dissolve your botanicals in oil (and filter) to remove the graininess, if this doesn't work, try water as the solvent (most things will dissolve or colour one or the other).

Kittish, I get the point of what you are saying, but to answer your question directly, no, a lab-synthesized identical duplicate is synthetic, not natural.

Kimberly60, I see meringue pie, not a mess!! I like the excessive soda ash on just the top, it's a neat effect!
And yes, that's partial gel. It will fade a bit over time, or you could force it to fully gel by putting it back in the oven for a bit, as Kittish suggested.

Thank you for all of this info. I will try the plastic wrap next batch and sticking to odorless/colorless until I get it right.

What is CPOP?

SaltedFig said:

Kittish, I get the point of what you are saying, but to answer your question directly, no, a lab-synthesized identical duplicate is synthetic, not natural.

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See, here's where it gets sticky, at least as far as I can see. According to FDA definitions, mineral pigments aren't actually 'natural', simply because they are not derived from a plant or animal source. But 'artificial' doesn't apply either, because the substances DO occur naturally. And 'synthetic' is a whole other sort of thing, more closely akin to 'natural' than to 'artificial'. In fact, a number of synthetic materials are 'nature-identical', so are they really not natural? And, as far as I understand, hand made soap can't really be legally labeled 'all natural' in the US. Commercial sodium hydroxide isn't obtained from either plant or animal sources.

I personally like nature-identical synthetics, especially for colorants. It brings the cost of the material down dramatically in some cases, and gives pretty good assurance that the pigment won't contain anything BUT pigment.

Kimberly60 said:

What is CPOP?

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Cold Process Oven Process. You put your soap in a warm oven for several hours. In your case, for after the fact CPOP, set your bars on parchment on a baking sheet and into an oven you've heated not quite to 200*F. Turn off the oven, and let them sit in there. If your window is good, you might be able to actually see them go into full gel phase. DO NOT open the oven to check on them before 8 or 10 hours.

Kimberly60 said:

What is CPOP?

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CPOP is Cold Process Oven Process.

This thread may help: http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=43366

Kittish, please make a new thread. Happy to debate this one for a little bit (again :mrgreen.

I like Jo Haslauer's Colorful & Natural Soaps. Here's a link:

http://www.modernsoapmaking.com/join-jo-coloring-soap-naturally/

Here's a pic:


I like Monterey Bay Spice Company for buying small (4 oz.) bags of botanicals, herbs, and spices. Here's a link:
https://www.herbco.com/c-2-bulk-herbs-spices.aspx

Kimberly60 said:

Oh dear I don’t think I am ready for colorants. It looks like I have a disaster here.

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Aw, not a disaster at all. Just young soap! And like all youngsters, this soap will improve with age. All that's required now is patience.

Kimberly60 said:

First there is soda ash all over the top. I sprayed it with 91% alcohol so think maybe I need 99%

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Yes, that's a merigue (as Fig says) of soda ash. No worries. It washes off easily. I doubt that switching to a stronger alcohol will help.

Millie said:

Anne Watson has a great write up on natural colorants. I like that she tries different methods too: http://www.annelwatson.com/soapmaking/creative/november/naturalcolorantssoap.html

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If you scroll down to the bottom of that link, Anne Watson talks about soda ash. Worth a read. (Kinda made me giggle... ... not funny, I know. She covers all the remedies and basically says there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution to the problem.)

Kimberly60 said:

The next issue is the transparent Center. The lady who taught me had mentioned last night that this would happen if I did not cover it to keep it warm. I did cover it after she told me but I believe it was too late.

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Yes, it does help to cover with old towels or blankets to insulate and keep the heat contained until it goes through gel stage. But that transparent center should clear over time.

I suspect something is going on with your formula or technique that needs to be addressed. I suggest you start a new thread. Go to Soap Making Forum > Soapmaking & Candle Recipe & Tutorials Forum > Recipe Feedback
Include your recipe, details and method.

Kimberly60 said:

Thank you for all of this info. I will try the plastic wrap next batch and sticking to odorless/colorless until I get it right.

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Your soap also looks like it wasn't mixed properly as it is strange that the gelled part is swirled through the soap.

Everyone has different solutions for ash. It is difficult because I think it has something to do with the weather in various areas including humidity and time of year.

What I do is CPOP straight after I have made a batch. Pour your soap. Decorate the top. Spray with 90% isopropyl alcohol. Cover your soap (either with a cardboard box or plastic wrap). Wrap it in a blanket and put it in a preheated oven at 40*C (105*F) (if your oven doesn't go that low. preheat it then wait for it to come back to that temp. Get a laser thermometer.) and turn it off as soon as you put the soap in the oven. Leave the door closed for 12 - 24 hours. The idea is to gently provide the right environment for the soap to do its own thing while it saponifies.

I find that spraying it with alcohol again after I've removed it from the oven but before unmolding and leaving it covered until it is definitely ready to cut (not soft at all) I am less likely to get ash.

I have not had success with CPOPing soap after unmolding.
If you go higher than 105*F or leave the oven on you risk cooking the soap which will make it smell musty or make it have rock hard patches in it.

Personally, regarding your soap, I would wash the ash off under the tap or steam it off if you have a steam iron and then just leave it for 8 weeks and use it. It will be fine as soap.

"...cocoa definately leaves specks because it can be hard to blend..."

A tip for those who live in the USA -- Use Penzey's cocoa. It is super finely ground, so it mixes into the soap batter (or hot milk!) easily and does not leave specks in the soap (or lumps in your hot cocoa!) At least that's been my experience so far, but maybe the soap gremlins are just being kind. OTOH, I've used Hershey's cocoa a time or two and yes that one definitely leaves specks.

Everyone learns their own remedy for ash I suppose. A 35% lye solution and leaving my soap uncovered is what worked for me.