Himalayan rhubarb root and indigo or woad for purple

[lwwh67]

I was wondering if anyone has tried to mix blue/red natural colorants to make purple. I tried rhubarb/indigo and madder/indigo but as they cured, the color changed. I think the madder/indigo could work if i added more indigo. It was more red than purple. I haven't tried mixing with woad. Just wondering if anyone had any luck with mixing colors for purple

 

[AliOop]

I haven't tried mixing, but I have used alkanet for purple, with very unpredictable results. Sometimes it is grey, sometimes it is almost black, and sometimes I get a nice purple. I'm not the best at precise measurements so I'm sure the variations are my fault.

 

[earlene]

Linking to a thread on getting purple with alkanet root. There are some links within that thread too, as well of photos of my deep purple soap from alkanet root: How to naturally colour goats milk soap purple

I have never used rhubarb to color soap, nor mixed two different natural colorants as if mixing paints, so don't know how well that works. But I have been successful with alkanet.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

I’ve mixed madder and indigo in the past and the color balance shift towards red even though it started out a gorgeous eggplant purple. I recently saw a very pretty bright purple soap on FB that was made using rhubarb root and alkanet-infused oils, so I did a little test batch. For some crazy reason I also decided to make the soap at 45% lye concentration. Although the soap itself isn’t very nice, and I didn’t quite get my infused oil balance where I wanted it and then also got a partial gel, I still think the results are promising. From left to right below the colorants are: indigo + alkanet, alkanet + rhubarb with a tiny bit of indigo, rhubarb with a little alkanet.



Here’s a closeup look at another soap I recently made with indigo and alkanet Infusions. It was the first time I used alkanet and I’m pretty happy with the color for a swirl. It will be interesting to see if it goes grey when used at a lower concentration. I’m guessing the color of the base recipe will make a difference. The recipe I used for these soaps is not my whitest base.

 

[LiliKuenca]

This seems to be a bit old but hopefully the author is still looking for an answer. I have used madder and h.rhubarb with better and more durable results with rhubarb. I get a super deep purple but I'm sure i can get a lighter one if i use less of both (obviously). My recipe is 50% OO so i replace part of that with 30%rhubarb and 5% of indigo. I don't seem to be able to upload a photo from my phone but if needed let me know.