Anyone used tea infused water in CP?

[OnceUponATime]

Anyone ever try this? I'm looking to get a tan colour in my soap. I want to used the scent Manly Man from the EO blend page and I want to use a natural colourant in it. I've been checking out some web pages. I saw one soap where they claimed they used green tea infused water. The soap was a med brownish colour. That would go good with sandalwood (which is in the Manly Man EO blend). I had thought a black tea would give me brown /tan colour but maybe the green tea turns that way in CP. It certainly would be great to hear from anyone who's tried this. Making Soap from rooibos infused water might make a great colour too.

 

[beachgurl]

yeppers .. and it does result in a nice brownish/tan color

 

[Vinca Leaf]

Yup. I use tea frequently. Is it just me, or does tea accelerate trace?

 

[AshleyR]

Yep I have used different kinds of tea - all of them have turned the soap a pretty dark brown.

 

[Lil Outlaws]

Yep - most of the time it's turned a shade of brown.. last time I used the Lemon Berry Zinger tea (from Celestial Seasonings) and my soap is a beautiful magenta color.. gorgeous.

 

[OnceUponATime]

Excellent! Now I know what to use to get that brown colour in my soap. Thanks everyone.

Lil Outlaws, That magenta colour sounds interesting. Did you ever take pictures?

 

[LJA]

My hibiscus tea had me excited for a minute. When you first mix it, it turns a beautiful scarlet red. Unfortunately...you end up with more of a tan.

 

[Guest]

I am going to have to try the Celestial Seasonings, that color sounds very nice.

 

[Guest]

Ok, so how much tea do you use? Do you add your lye directly to the tea in place of water?

 

[Candyrage]

I have been wondering about this too. Does the scent from the tea disappear completely because of the lye?

 

[kaseencook]

There is no scent from the tea in soaps with tea water.

I generally just chuck the tea bag into the lye water after the lye has dissolved for the biggest release of tannons as the tea leaves are digested by the lye directly (and then I just pick it out after a few minutes) or if you want to control the amount of tannons in the soap you can make the tea before you add the lye. As the organic matter is digested by the lye it can be a little stinky, but that goes away in the final soap. Even though the organic bits of the tea are digested I believe that some of the chemicals in the teas remain intact, like antioxidants as canola soap made with tea water is less prone to DOS.

I have found it interesting that soap made with green tea is more brown than soap made with black/ceylon teas, even though if you were to make each of those teas to drink the green is almost colourless and the ceylon is dark brown. I think is may be because the ceylon tea is fermented longer than green tea in the manufacturing process, that's the only real difference between the two as they are both from the same plant.

 

[xyxoxy]

Many botanicals will turn your soap brown... even if that's not what you intended. Vanilla FO's can also. So will coffee.
You should have no trouble getting your soap to turn brown.

Now when you want to make WHITE soap... that's a different story.

 

[artisan soaps]

..

 

[Jeremy]

I haven't used teas yet but we found a store on holidays called Teavana that has all kinds of lloose tea so I have been thinking of using infusions from the products we bought. I used a lavender infusion before and I think it made a difference but who knows?

 

[JeepNsoap]

Tea in CP

I very frequently use either Green Tea or White Tea in my soap making. The strength of the tea will determine just how dark the soap turns out. Green tea makes anywhere from a light tan to dark brown and the White tea makes a really light tan. I use the Chinese Gunpowder Green Tea (for an Asian Market) with great success!

Good Luck!
Troy

 

[dagmar88]

Hi,
Almost a year ago I made batch with pink clay, light coloured tea and a couple of whole tea leaves. The whole tea leaves give the soap something special. One of the soaps has been sitting in the bathroom for at least half a year and is used after toilet use by the hub, me and a lost of guests. The leaves still hold up well, no mold, dos or anything :wink: might be nice to add some to your infused soap
Dagmar

 

[jarvan]

Jeremy, I am familiar with Teavana and unless I have money to burn....ohhhh...if I soap, I apparently do. Nevermind.

I am a soaper. I am an addict.

 

[OnceUponATime]

I was going to give it a go last week-end but realized I didn't have nearly enough bergamot and sandalwood EO's to do the job. I've only done one batch of CP before so I'm starting to realize just how pricey using EO's in CP can be. I'm going to have to try and find a one pound batch recipe to use the really expensive EO's like sandalwood and bergamot.

The green tea sounds like the perfect solution for a brown colour. For the Vanilla FO and Coffee they would only work if I was imparting those fragrances into the soap but I'll keep them in mind.

I notice nobody seemed to use rooibos. I'm wondering if the colour stays red.

I did some melt and pour over the week-end though and am really happy with a lavender soap I made getting a lovely lavender colour with all natural ingredients. I used a combination of alkanet and a few drops of german chamomile oil.

 

[ChrissyB]

I have seen pictures somewhere of some soap that someone made with Rooibos tea, and it was a lovely reddy/tan colour.

 

[Lil Outlaws]

Excellent! Now I know what to use to get that brown colour in my soap. Thanks everyone.

Lil Outlaws, That magenta colour sounds interesting. Did you ever take pictures?

I did, let me see if I can find them!