71 Colors! My colorant test chips

[Anstarx]

I've been using natural colorants so far, only because my local carrier of mica don't test them for soap. They are confirmed body-safe and lye-stable safety wise but they simply don't know how the color will hold. I've considered ordering abroad but then it's way too expensive and slow. So eventually I decided to conduct my own colorant tests. Time to introduce some bright colors to my soap!
I found this acrylic storage unit that was designed for storing nail art supplies and it has 72 slots in total. My local suppliers carries 117 colors, combined with the natural colorants I had in stock (clay, botanics, and oxides), I eventually managed to pick 71 to stock on. I'd probably throw in a white in there just so it's complete. The last empty space had ben irking me a lot.

The first layer is mostly natural colorants.

I used a simple and cheap recipe of CO, lard, sunflower, and corn. The batter was slow moving and soap ended up very white.
Overall observation: Overwhelming amount of aqua-blue and brown in micas. True yellow and true red is a bit lacking.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

It must be very satisfying to have that nice collection for reference. I would love to know more about the natural colorants you’re using and the results you are getting.

 

[atiz]

I love this too! When I was a kid I kept a reference color bit of paper of all my markers and pencils in a box, reminds me of that looks great.

 

[Todd Ziegler]

Very nice, a lot of work, be very proud.

 

[Anstarx]

It must be very satisfying to have that nice collection for reference. I would love to know more about the natural colorants you’re using and the results you are getting.

In the first pic, from left to right I have
activated charcoal, black oxide, green tea powder, red oxide, red clay, rose clay
green bean clay, pale green clay, green tea clay, yellow clay, yellow oxide, yellow mica (I bought it seperately before)
indigo, sea clay, blue clay, blue oxide. And the rest are micas.
I used other plant based colorants before but didn't like most of them. The only other natural colorant I would add is cocoa, which I forgot to include.

I love this too! When I was a kid I kept a reference color bit of paper of all my markers and pencils in a box, reminds me of that looks great.

I do that with all my watercolor paint blocks! Oddly satisfying to look at.

Very nice, a lot of work, be very proud.

Thanks! It took me a whole month to finish this but the colors are totally worth it!

 

[CaraBou]

That's an amazing array of colorants! I'm envious of your collection!

 

[Mobjack Bay]

In the first pic, from left to right I have
activated charcoal, black oxide, green tea powder, red oxide, red clay, rose clay
green bean clay, pale green clay, green tea clay, yellow clay, yellow oxide, yellow mica (I bought it seperately before)
indigo, sea clay, blue clay, blue oxide. And the rest are micas.
I used other plant based colorants before but didn't like most of them. The only other natural colorant I would add is cocoa, which I forgot to include.

I do that with all my watercolor paint blocks! Oddly satisfying to look at.

Thanks! It took me a whole month to finish this but the colors are totally worth it!

Very inspiring. I think I will try more of the oxides. Do you use them much?

 

[Anstarx]

I haven't got much chance to utilize them all yet-working from home made me have less time for soaping.
I've used the red and black oxide in soaps tho, both are very strong. I usually use them at 1% at oil weight and that's what I used for the testing chips.