Face soap color choice?

[Soapman Ryan]

I need a few suggestions...
I'll be making a round facial soap of x-mas gifts this year and wanted some color options for a face soap.
I'd like it to be a soft, light, calming color. I will be giving it to both male and female, so something like a light pink wouldn't do. Any ideas?

 

[paillo]

For a facial soap I wouldn't use any synthetic colorants (micas, oxides, ultramarines, etc), as many people are sensitive to these in a facial soap. I'd instead stick to a nice clay that is also beneficial to the skin - like green, rhassoul, white kaolin, or bentonite. All but the white will impart just what you're looking for - pale, calming, light and natural. And I know you don't want pink, but the pink and rose clays are really, really pretty

 

[judymoody]

Carrot puree is really nice as a natural colorant that is gentle for the face.

I like the clay idea too.

 

[Skatergirl46]

I like the clays and you also can't go wrong with a creamy white bar.

 

[Obsidian]

I like white for a face bar.

 

[Lindy]

French Pink Clay makes a nice facial bar and also makes for a pretty colour....

 

[Saswede]

My favorite facial soaps either use pink clay or carrot purée .... Both already mentioned! But if you're looking for a natural looking (non-pink) facial soap, you could also consider using either chilled camomile or rooibos tea instead of water to make your lye solution. Both will give you an off-white, creamy colored bar (obviously depending on which oils you use), and both also work really well with honey.

Another idea would be saffron. It's really expensive, but perhaps worthwhile to splash out on for Christmas gifts? And it's believed to accelerate new cell development, so is beneficial for mature skin. If you do use saffron, you should soak the stamens in warm water for at least 24 hours to get good color (and the longer they're soaked, the more the color intensifies - up to about 3 days). You won't get bright yellow soap, but mine is a lovely yellow color (I also add about 5% wheat germ oil, to add to the color).


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[Soapman Ryan]

Thanks for all the replies. I like the clay ideas, so tonight I'll be looking through google images at clay colors.
Great idea to stay away from the micas, oxides, ultramarines, etc. for the face.
I'll also look into the saffron idea, to see color options.

 

[kazmi]

I made a soap that I use for my face made from chamomile infused in OO. I used a clay (can't remember which one sorry) that added to the feel and color of the soap. The color is between a brown/green and looks very natural.

 

[lizflowers42]

I use french green clay in my face soap...nice light green. Maybe swirl red and green clays together for a muted Christmas color?

 

[Paintguru]

My coworker likes to use my coffee soap on her face. Basically colored with the coffee and some cocoa powder.

 

[Soapman Ryan]

I haven't used honey in soaps before, but I came across this brand and researched the bar, for its color. The bars name is Pre de Provence Soap, Honey Almond.
The ingredients are listed as:Sodium Palmate, Sodium Palm Kernelate (Palm Kernel Oil), Water, Apricot (Prunus Armeniaca) Seed Powder, Parfum, Glycerine, Shea Butter (Butyrospermum Parkii), Sodium Chloride, Sodium Hydroxide, Tetrasodium EDTA, Tetrasodium Etidronate, CI 77007, CI 77492

I had two questions:
1) I make my face soap with goat milk (not gelled), does honey add color soap when added?
Update: I found honey will add a light tan in color.
2) By the ingredient list I found listed from Drugstore.com, the specs must be Apricot Seed Powder. If I mixed in a little Apricot Seed Powder, for spec coloring, would it be too exfoliating? I didn't really want an exfoliating bar, as I'm not sure everyone would like exfoliating.

 

[Saswede]

You're quite right, honey does make the color slightly darker than a plain GM soap - which is lovely.
Regarding the apricot seed powder, I've never used it - but would guess that it could be exfoliating ..... Perhaps someone else who has used it could comment. (Keep in mind that, contrary to what you may think, the finer the particle size the greater the exfoliation you achieve. So if its mild exfoliation you want, you may be better off with poppy seeds or something of a similar particle size.)


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[Robert]

I'll be making a round facial soap of x-mas gifts this year and wanted some color options for a face soap.

I'd like it to be a soft, light, calming color. I will be giving it to both male and female, so something like a light pink wouldn't do.

Why wouldn't it?

I think if you asked 100 people their favorite color from 10 different-colored pieces of soap (or mock-ups), including white, you'd wind up just as undecided. And even some of those people would change their minds once they took it home and looked at it in their soap dish in their bathroom; and maybe change their mind again if they looked at it in their other bathroom!

I don't think a cake of soap would occupy enough of a person's visual field long enough to have a calming, or any other psychologic, effect. That's more the thing people shoot for when they paint the walls of a room.

I do think there'd be a general trend, though, between adults & children in how deeply colored they'd prefer a soap (if it's not white). A strong, saturated color would be attractive to children but would be off-putting to many adults. But you've already decided you want a pastel, so no news there.

The only other thing I think might be working here would be comparisons in people's minds to mass market soaps they're already familiar with. If they think a certain brand of soap has certain properties, they may associate those properties with another soap that matches its looks. However, I've noticed in recent years that the big brands are no longer going for a color association themselves, and are offering themselves in a variety of colors; even Ivory, ironically, now has colored versions (although they are very faint and meant to indicate other differences in formula). So the people you're giving to would have to be of a certain age to associate yellow with Dial, pink with Camay, etc.

 

[jenneelk]

I like the clays with green or light beige/tan or eau naturel.