Natural colourings - increase ratio of powder to oil or add more of the infused oil?!

Well yesterday I made my new batches with an increase of the infused oil as suggested and wow!!!
I added 2oz of the infused nettle powder and the ti tree eo i was scenting with. THen i took 2 uk tbsp out and added 2 tsp of nettle powder and dripped that onto half of the batter in the mold. I tried to swirl but i haven't mastered this yet, then i put the rest of the batter on top. This morning it is a beautiful mint colour with a dark green layer!! yay!!

The alkanet is a little darker than I want - but hey, i got colour!!! i added 2 0z again of the infused root and lavender and lemongrass eo - i got a lovely pink on 1oz but thought i'd go with 2oz to see and it looks like aubergine/dark plum. Will wait to see if it lightens over the next week or so but thanks everyone ....i got colour!!! AND - i get to use my new soap cutter on them!! double yay!!

Debs

Debs said:

Well yesterday I made my new batches with an increase of the infused oil as suggested and wow!!!
I added 2oz of the infused nettle powder and the ti tree eo i was scenting with. THen i took 2 uk tbsp out and added 2 tsp of nettle powder and dripped that onto half of the batter in the mold. I tried to swirl but i haven't mastered this yet, then i put the rest of the batter on top.
Debs

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I don't understand why you added 2oz of oil but took out 2 Tbs and added 2tsp of oil?

Are you saying you didn't mix the nettle powder oil into the soap batter?

penelopejane said:

I don't understand why you added 2oz of oil but took out 2 Tbs and added 2tsp of oil?

Are you saying you didn't mix the nettle powder oil into the soap batter?

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NO - that is my poor communication in my excitement!! I infused the powder initially in OO for 8 weeks....2 UK tbsp in 5oz oil and added 2oz of that infused oil to my oils at the beginning with my other butters and fats. But once it had gone to light trace i took out some batter and added nettle powder (not more infused oil) to give me more of an intense green colour that i used to add a strip. I am new to colouring and someone suggested i could do this so i thought i'd give it a go. So i have a mint soap with a dark green strip - looks quite cool even if i do say so myself!! i am assuming it will fade a bit but it was good to experiment. i didn't add any more of the infused oil as that would have altered the recipe and i am guessing made it a bit sticky?
Sorry for the confusion! - Debs

Sounds lovely. I'd love to see some pictures of your success if you have them.

Debs said:

NO - that is my poor communication in my excitement!! I infused the powder initially in OO for 8 weeks....2 UK tbsp in 5oz oil and added 2oz of that infused oil to my oils at the beginning with my other butters and fats. But once it had gone to light trace i took out some batter and added nettle powder (not more infused oil) to give me more of an intense green colour that i used to add a strip. I am new to colouring and someone suggested i could do this so i thought i'd give it a go. So i have a mint soap with a dark green strip - looks quite cool even if i do say so myself!! i am assuming it will fade a bit but it was good to experiment. i didn't add any more of the infused oil as that would have altered the recipe and i am guessing made it a bit sticky?
Sorry for the confusion! - Debs

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Was the 2 oz of infused oil part of the amount of oil in the recipe?

If so it sounds great.
Yes, you have to be careful not to willy nilly add more oil than the recipe.

Next time if you want to speed the infusion process you can heat the oil and nettle slowly in a double boiler or an hour or two.

earlene said:

Sounds lovely. I'd love to see some pictures of your success if you have them.

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Well i tried to upload an image and it said it had done it but i have no idea where it went!!! LOL

penelopejane said:

Was the 2 oz of infused oil part of the amount of oil in the recipe?

If so it sounds great.
Yes, you have to be careful not to willy nilly add more oil than the recipe.

Next time if you want to speed the infusion process you can heat the oil and nettle slowly in a double boiler or an hour or two.

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Yes it was part of the amount of oil in the recipe.
I think I will try the head infusion as Susie also mentioned it on page 1 of this thread- If it speeds things up I am up for that!! I only managed to squeeze 2oz of infused alkanet oil out of the 5oz i put in - the alkenet root was lovely and wet but i couldn't get anymore out and was too impatient to let it drip over night through a cloth!! so this weekend i will try it.
Debs

Debs said:

Well i tried to upload an image and it said it had done it but i have no idea where it went!!! LOL

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In manage attachments you have to choose your photo which uploads (selects it) it then hit upload button (which uploads it to SMF) then close window for it to save.

I am hoping that I have done this correctly and my photo will be attached with this message!!
Yay it worked! Thanks Penelopejane! The photo isn't great but you can see a tinge of mint and the alkanet root is very mauve at the mo'/ i am hoping it fades to a lighter shade of purple, or pink.

I love that dark color of your alkanet root soap. For me, alkanet root tends to be a bit unpredictable, but I have only used it maybe 3 times, so I have yet to learn the ins and outs of how it interacts with different recipes as well as how much to use to get the color intensity I want.

My first soap with it, came out with grey swirls. I was happy with the swirls, but the color was a shock. During cure, it remained grey and I was really disappointed until washing with it. Suddenly it turned purple when it hit the water, and stayed that way when the soap dried. I had not expected that. The last soap with Alkanet root is also grey, but very dark grey. I haven't got it wet yet to see if it changes, which I expect it will. Right now it looks like I colored it with Activated Charcoal. But I did not use the heated oil infusion method, so I intend to try that next time. I used a cold oil infusion both times.

I've never used mint in soap, so have no experience with it. But I did use dried spinach powder (dried & pulverized it myself) in soap. It had lovely swirls and was a nice two tone green in the beginning, but faded to a solid white during cure. To my surprise, when boiling it when I was salting out some soap, it turned spinach green again in the boiling water! I still had one bar left that I had not put into the salting out batch and so I thought I'd test it out in the shower to see if the color came back. It did somewhat turn green, but not like when added to the boiling water. I thought that was an interesting phenomenon.

Pretty! The nettle soap looks fresh and minty and the alkanet soap looks like raspberry sorbet. I would love to know how the colors hold up over time, please share more photos

Thanks Millie- felt quite brave putting it up for scrutiny lol. The Alkanet root is pretty but not the colour I want. It's for a lavender soap so I think it looks more appropriate for something more rosey. Will have another go using less of the infused oil and I will have a go at the heat method to speed up the waiting process! May try clays too as I have read that they can give pastel colours.......trouble is there is so much I want to try and so little time!!!
DEbs

Well - these are the 4 photos of the different shades of purple i have got from different ratios of alkanet oil in my recipe. Kind of want something between the middle too - more lilac ....so guess what i am doing this afternoon?!

Debs said:

I am hoping that I have done this correctly and my photo will be attached with this message!!
Yay it worked! Thanks Penelopejane! The photo isn't great but you can see a tinge of mint and the alkanet root is very mauve at the mo'/ i am hoping it fades to a lighter shade of purple, or pink.

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Please take that soap off that metal rack! Metals can cause DOS (dreaded orange spots, AKA rancidity) in soaps.

Thanks Susie - I didn't know that!! thankfully the first photos showed the soap on my emergency rack as i'd run out of space- they were soon moved to a cake rack......gosh, best go and check what material the cake racks are made of?! If the metal has a plastic covering does that make it better or still bad??
Need advice on curing racks!!! :???:

Debs, I use some plastic coated racks, but check them regularly for deterioration. The coating does deteriorate over time. But mostly I used crafters plastic canvas that you can find in many stores that have a crafter's section. Looks like this:



I also use plastic mesh shelf liner which is easy to cut to size and I had a lot of it so the price was right. You can purchase either in many stores and online and they are very affordable.


I use them inside of cardboard box tops for ease of carrying and stacking.

BTW, I love the purple you got and it's nice to see the variation of color.

Oh that's a great idea thank you earlene! They'll be easy to clean too. I have some wooden blocks that I am using to stack my racks as all my experiments are mounting up! But like you say, I can stack cardboard trays with these inside....feel a shop coming on!

If you are trying other natural Colours don't bother with spirulina as a green colour. It looks great at first, a lovely deep green, but it fades to fawn quickly. Also, even though I strained the spirulina through a stocking, it was an irritant to me and my DH. It made me itch all over. I couldn't use it at all.

I second the warning about Spirulina. The color can be lovely but it does fade. My issue is that it left the soap with a noticeable "off" smell, and often interacts with your EO/FO in unusual ways.

Also, and you may already know this, but skip beet powder. It turns an unappealing brown in CP.