Alkanet for Colouring soap

[Kim1242]

I'm trying to use Alkanet to colour my soaps. I've made an infusion in Olive Oil. I've tried a couple of ways of using it (amount of oils in total is about 1500g)
1. replace 50g of the normal olive oil with the alkanes infusion whilst measuring all the oils, then adding the lye water to it - result - no colour.
2. Making my soap as normal, and then when it reaches trace adding 50g of the alkanes infusion - result - soap doesn't set properly.
So - what am i doing wrong please. Should I be making the base soap minus 50g of olive oil getting it to trace and then adding the alkanet infusion, or should I just add the powder at trace.

I'm presuming that the same reasoning will apply when using a tumeric infusion.

Thanks

 

[Petraji]

Hi Kim, it is difficult to comment since you do not list the entire recipe. 50mg of added oils to the traced soap should not make a big difference to the consistency of the soap - it also does not do much for the color.
I have made Alkanet soap having infused the entire olive oil content with the root and had no problem, except even with this amount my soap just turned blueish-gray.

 

[soapmaker]

I add my alkanet at trace. I put it through a sieve and SB it. I usually do this in a portion of soap for layering etc. In my recipe a small amount makes grey, a larger amount makes a dark purplish colour.

 

[Kim1242]

I add my alkanet at trace. I put it through a sieve and SB it. I usually do this in a portion of soap for layering etc. In my recipe a small amount makes grey, a larger amount makes a dark purplish colour.

Thanks - I'm probably being thick but what does SB mean??

 

[soapmaker]

Stick Blend.

Sorry, Kim I misinformed you, Alkanet is not a colorant that I put through a sieve. It is fine enough and does not clump.

 

[Veggiebin]

SB is stick blend . I use an alkanet infusion of 50% of my oils - entire amount of olive oil, and it’s a beautiful dark purple. Obviously, you have to plan the whole batch to be purple when used that way, or have two separate batches going. I also add it at trace sometimes, if I’m mixing different colors, but it ends up being lighter, more grayish, as I don’t like to mess with that balance too much and I don’t overdo it. I’ve never had it not set up for me, but again, I try not to add too much. I try to keep the proportion similar to adding extra nutrient at trace and substitute the color infused oil instead.

 

[Seawolfe]

If I don't know how much alkanet infused oil Ill be needing, I put in portions till it looks right. Say that my recipe uses 500 g of olive oil. I make the soap batter with everything BUT the olive oil, and then add 200 g of alkanet infused oil, mix, check the color, add another 100g of infused, mix.... Keep going until the color looks about right, then make up the difference with regular olive oil. So if I used 300g alkanet infused oil, then I would add 200g more of regular olive oil. Then WRITE THAT DOWN FOR NEXT TIME

 

[Veggiebin]

Seawolfe,

That’s a good way of doing it, which I’ve never done. I should do an experiment some time with different percentages of the allanet infused oil to see the various shades it gives, writing down the amount of alkanet used, etc.

For Kim1242 -

The color does change as it cures though, so keep that in mind. It takes a bit of experience to know what you want the soap batter to look like in order to get the desired final color in your bars. Doesn’t hurt to play around and experiment on small batches or single bar batches