How do you choose your color palettes?

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I usually let the FO guide me. Today I made a soap using golden Pear and White Rose FO, so I coloured the main part of the batch with yellow mica ('golden pear'), and then did two accent colours: white and pink. Pink because it's pretty, and white because of the white rose ( and pink also because i think the white alone would have been a bit boring with the yellow).
I made one recently called 'herb garden' which had lots of different essential oils in it - basil, mint, lavender, rose geranium, marjoram, lemongrass, etc. So I used a ton of colours - lime green, purple, yellow, dark green, teal....
View attachment 75953
I must admit I tend towards gaudy colours ( I can't help it!)
I wish I had the courage to use more colors like this. I tend to maybe use two colors aside from the natural soap color. I always worry it’s going to look terrible, but you make it look so effortless! ♥️
 
One thing I forgot about and think is worth mentioning is that I often am inspired by things I see in nature. Mother Nature is more than sunsets and rainbows. Try looking at things in a different way. An artichoke, a chickadee or blue jay, or a simple banana can give a starting point. If I see something I want to remember, I take a picture.
This photo inspired the soap below
IMG_20190909_112922~2.jpg

1706478773452.png


Here are a couple of others I've saved for inspiration
PXL_20231118_211729926.MP.jpg
PXL_20240127_214241128.jpg
PXL_20240127_213349705.jpg
And just for fun and because I have been trying for decades to get a photo of a whale breaching
PXL_20240126_213603401.jpg
 
I usually let the FO guide me. Today I made a soap using golden Pear and White Rose FO, so I coloured the main part of the batch with yellow mica ('golden pear'), and then did two accent colours: white and pink. Pink because it's pretty, and white because of the white rose ( and pink also because i think the white alone would have been a bit boring with the yellow).
I made one recently called 'herb garden' which had lots of different essential oils in it - basil, mint, lavender, rose geranium, marjoram, lemongrass, etc. So I used a ton of colours - lime green, purple, yellow, dark green, teal....
View attachment 75953
I must admit I tend towards gaudy colours ( I can't help it!)

Considering I only use natural colorants, I don't find this gaudy at all. Love the color combination ❤️ Inspiration 😊

One thing I forgot about and think is worth mentioning is that I often am inspired by things I see in nature. Mother Nature is more than sunsets and rainbows. Try looking at things in a different way. An artichoke, a chickadee or blue jay, or a simple banana can give a starting point. If I see something I want to remember, I take a picture.
This photo inspired the soap below
View attachment 76325

View attachment 76326

Here are a couple of others I've saved for inspiration
View attachment 76327
View attachment 76328
View attachment 76329
And just for fun and because I have been trying for decades to get a photo of a whale breaching
View attachment 76330

I am with @dibbles on this....I look to nature to provide inspiration. This especially makes sense when using only essential oils & natural colorants.

For a forest-type scented soap I make, I decided to look out my front window, and at the colors I see when hiking & bushwhacking. That wasn't enough & I was really feeling anxiety about making a beautiful soap which would do the forest I love so much justice. So then I meditated & intentionally connected with the trees & asked them to assist me in choosing colors & to give me some design inspiration because I was really struggling with this one & did not want a typical boring green soap. Laugh if you choose to, but this ended up being one of the most beautiful soaps I make 😁

The shades I ended up using for this are some rich fall orange colors, a couple of lush & more muted green shades, a rich, earthy brown, a tiny bit of black, speckles of herbs in there, a tiny bit of white...every time I look at a bar I see something different in there....a hidden fox, gorgeous ferns, beautiful green leaves, deer, mushrooms, fall leaves, you name it.

I bought these to help with my coloring. They will be arriving next week. I can’t do complimentary colors well at all, so this will help.

The paint sections of hardware stores, as well as stores dedicated to paints would also have color swatch cards. It's been a while since I bought paints, but I assume they would still have those for free? They might also be getting rid of old 'books' of these, the ones on a metal ring which people can flip through.
 
The paint sections of hardware stores, as well as stores dedicated to paints would also have color swatch cards. It's been a while since I bought paints, but I assume they would still have those for free? They might also be getting rid of old 'books' of these, the ones on a metal ring which people can flip through.
I like what’s on the other of the cards though. It has helped me pair colors that I wouldn’t have thought would look good together.
 
I am with @dibbles on this....I look to nature to provide inspiration. This especially makes sense when using only essential oils & natural colorants.

For a forest-type scented soap I make, I decided to look out my front window, and at the colors I see when hiking & bushwhacking. That wasn't enough & I was really feeling anxiety about making a beautiful soap which would do the forest I love so much justice. So then I meditated & intentionally connected with the trees & asked them to assist me in choosing colors & to give me some design inspiration because I was really struggling with this one & did not want a typical boring green soap. Laugh if you choose to, but this ended up being one of the most beautiful soaps I make 😁

The shades I ended up using for this are some rich fall orange colors, a couple of lush & more muted green shades, a rich, earthy brown, a tiny bit of black, speckles of herbs in there, a tiny bit of white...every time I look at a bar I see something different in there....a hidden fox, gorgeous ferns, beautiful green leaves, deer, mushrooms, fall leaves, you name it.
I’d love to see a picture if you care to share. It sounds beautiful!

One thing I forgot about and think is worth mentioning is that I often am inspired by things I see in nature. Mother Nature is more than sunsets and rainbows. Try looking at things in a different way. An artichoke, a chickadee or blue jay, or a simple banana can give a starting point. If I see something I want to remember, I take a picture.
I love this idea! I’ve got several photos on my phone that I took just because I loved what I was looking at. I really should go back through and see what inspires me…..
 
I’d love to see a picture if you care to share. It sounds beautiful!

If you happen to visit where I live, I will be happy to take you to see my soaps :) They are beautiful, and I love them. A lot. Other people seem to as well. They're probably my most beautiful soap so far, which was unexpected.

Back to the pine tar I am making at 2:53AM & which I believe I already screwed up LOL Good thing it's a test batch 😁
 
One way I pick color palettes is by googling for pre-made palettes (e.g. "three color combination" or "four color palette"). This helps guide me toward palettes that actually look good design-wise. Here are a two examples of soaps that I based on online color palettes:

20240111_083554.jpg

20240111_083716.jpg


Sometimes, especially when making a sculpted soap design, I'll make a colored-pencil sketch of what I want. Here's a recent example of that method:
20240111_083627.jpg
 
One way I pick color palettes is by googling for pre-made palettes (e.g. "three color combination" or "four color palette"). This helps guide me toward palettes that actually look good design-wise. Here are a two examples of soaps that I based on online color palettes:

View attachment 76351
View attachment 76352

Sometimes, especially when making a sculpted soap design, I'll make a colored-pencil sketch of what I want. Here's a recent example of that method:
View attachment 76353

Beautiful, and all doable with natural colorants, lucky for me 😊

And now I need to make myself some soap sculpting tools....because I don't have nearly enough to do as of yet! LOL :rolleyes: Need to sow my lettuce seedlings indoors too so they're ready to go ASAP 😁
 
Back
Top