Green Tea Coloring

[absintheherbs]

I tried my first batch of green tea soap today and the color was far from what I was hoping for. The tea I used ended up greenish brown, and after it cooled and I added the lye, it was totally brown. I added some titanium white, and then some chlorophyl and finally managed to get more of an olive drab. (I really wanted a half light green and half deeper green color.) I do have some green tea that is a brighter green when steeped, but it is rather expensive. Plus I'd hate to use it and have the lye turn it brown.

Any tips?

 

[shonnyisley]

I dont have any tips but I make a green tea soap and it turns brown with lye too..I have found that almsot anything you add lye to it turns it a dark brown...for me anyway. Except for water of course. I hope you get some advice!

 

[Sunny]

yep, it'll turn brown either way in my experience, from the lye.

 

[Best Natural Soap]

Yep- my green tea soap is beige, too.

if you're looking for a natural green colorant, try spirulina (blue green algae). I get mine at a health food store in powdered form, but the tablets will work too. You can give natural colorants their best chance at color, by adding them at the last moment. That said, you still need to have time to incorporate them in. So, I would mix it into a bit of oil (only 2T or so), and add it at a medium trace.

I wrote a blog called "Spiruwhat?" at http://barsoapnatural.com/blog/spiruwhat/ that has a picture of the soap I most recently made with it. The soap is the same color now as it was at the time of that post. A pale, soft celery green. The scrubbies in it are chamomile buds.

 

[Bukawww]

Does your spirulina soap stink? I have heard of it smelling fishy...

I have a green tea soap that I colored with parsley powder and it is a perfect match to the tea I drink...kind of a light sage/yellow (much the same color as the spirulina soap).

 

[Best Natural Soap]

Fishy? Not at all!! I used Chamomile Neroli EO blend from WSP- and shared the soap with extended family last weekend- they all grabbed it up so fast, saying it was their favorite- so now I have to make more for my upcoming shows!!

Spirulina on it's own smells kind of "green" like plant material. But, not fishy.
Now, my kelp powder....? THAT smells fishy... so fishy that I didn't want to use it. But, several forum members have assured me that the scent won't survive the lye monster.

 

[IanT]

lemon balm powder has given me a reallly nice green before

 

[Northland Naturals]

made green tea soap to very unfavorable results once. very dark green/brown bar. the lye mixture smell almost made me gag. probably the worst smell i've had so far soaping. also used the ground up tea leaves and it was way too scrubby. lesson learned for me.

 

[Sunny]

made green tea soap to very unfavorable results once. very dark green/brown bar. the lye mixture smell almost made me gag. probably the worst smell i've had so far soaping. also used the ground up tea leaves and it was way too scrubby. lesson learned for me.

same for me. soap was to scrubby and scratched. the soap turned out a gross tan color too, LOL. yep, lesson learned!


I love bentonite clay for a green color.

 

[absintheherbs]

I just unmolded my green tea soap and cut the bars, and oddly enough it lightened in color quite a bit. It is actually a fairly pleasing green now as compared to the darker olive drab it was when I made it. Smells nice too!

My notes are in the studio, but this was 51 oz of oils, 15 oz green tea/lye, 1 to 1-1/2 tbls titanium dioxide, and I believe I went to 2 tsp of chlorophyl. I also sprinkled a tsp or so of Emerald Mica in at the last minute and loosely mixed it in.

 

[Maria]

I use matcha green tea powder and add after the soap is done cooking. I dissolve the powder in the fragrance. You can get a deeper green by adding parsly powder or chlorophyll. I only got brown color from regular green tea.

 

[absintheherbs]

Maria, thanks for the reply. I'll give that a try with the next batch I make. I'll have to get a cheaper matcha than what I drink tho!

 

[krissy]

i used spirulina for both of these batches. this was at pour


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this was after a few months cure


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and then this is another batch with less spirulina

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on the last one you can see where it speckled some with tiny green dots. the green dots and green color never turned brown for me.

 

[Jaaret]

Chlorella

I use chlorella powder when I want to make a green bar of soap. It works very well and you can get different shades of green depending on how much you add. I once made a strong tea with chlorella and used it as the water with the goal of making a pale green batch of soap bars. To my surprise, the bars turned out peach colored! I need to find that recipe and see if I can recreate that color again.

 

[BakingNana]

hmmmm....I made soap using white tea brewed really strong. It was a nice green color, of course turning brown when it hit the lye. The brown completely disappeared after cure. I did use just a few drops of Apple Green Pop to get a very pale, translucent green. Smells heavenly. The other big surprise I got out of this batch was that the tea leaves I topped it with didn't turn brown during gel. I HATE using soap with "stuff" in it; makes a mess in the tub/shower, but it sure seems to sell.

 

[Best Natural Soap]

you're funny! My mom loves all my soaps with stuff in them- and she's a bath-taker... I can't imagine all the gunk floating around!! Then again, she likes "bath tea," too- The loose sort that you just scoop into the tub. not me.

I like scrubby little blueberry seeds. They're probably my favorite addition to soap.

I have a somewhat related question about green tea (although it's not about soap). Has anyone had Panera's Iced Sweet Green Tea? That stuff is gorgeous!! It's the prettiest shade of apple-y green. Any tea drinkers out there who would know a store brand tea that gives that color? It was very mild- I loved the taste, too, but the color was beautious!

 

[doubletake]

made green tea soap to very unfavorable results once. very dark green/brown bar. the lye mixture smell almost made me gag. probably the worst smell i've had so far soaping. also used the ground up tea leaves and it was way too scrubby. lesson learned for me.

same for me. soap was to scrubby and scratched. the soap turned out a gross tan color too, LOL. yep, lesson learned!


I love bentonite clay for a green color.

How much bentonite clay did you use?

 

[Chris-2010]

Green tea steeped in the lye solution will give a light to medium brown tone.

For easy green:

Parsley. Buy the big jug of parsley flakes at Sams or the restaurant supply store. Grind it down to a fine powder yourself. The green is so green, with a nice even tone. Parsley gives a definite green. The green clay would give a subdued green tone.