My experiment

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
May 7, 2015
Messages
2,269
Reaction score
2,485
Location
Chatta-Vegas, TN
While I'm getting ready for my applesauce marathon canning session(s), I've been thinking of soap. (Who doesn't think of soap?). So much so, that yesterday I was a couple of miles past the orchard on my way home with soaping supplies I had no intention of getting that I realized I blew past the orchard. That cost an extra seven miles (round trip).

I was researching today how to use some of the natural colorants I have; I know I need more than the micas, but how much and when to add, etc. So, I'm reading that infused oils are better, blah, blah, blah. I don't have time, besides, I master batch. Then I noticed the 4 oz jelly jars I had washed for the applesauce for the kids. LIGHT BULB!

I put two tablespoons of alkanet root, turmeric, spirulina and madder root into individual jars and added a little over 1/4 cup olive oil. Stirred until well mixed than added some more OO. I put the lids and bands on the jars and they are in a water bath. I brought the water to a boil, then cut it back to a simmer while I was prepping the oils.

I'm going to let them simmer for a few hours then turn off the heat and let them cool down. I am hoping the herbs will infuse the oils intensly and then I could I could use them like a premixed liquid colorant. I know some of you pre-mix your colorants with glycerin and don't add that into the SoapCalc. I'm thinking I'll do that. I usually soap at 8% SF, but if I use these, I'll knock it down to 5% jus to be sure the extra OO doesn't spike up the SF. (I doubt it would, but what do I know?)

So, any advice? Critiques? Anyone think this will be a total failure or that my logic is flawed? Please, bring it on! I've thought it out and it seems like a good plan. But I'm not experienced enough to know what I don't know.
 
While I'm getting ready for my applesauce marathon canning session(s), I've been thinking of soap. (Who doesn't think of soap?). So much so, that yesterday I was a couple of miles past the orchard on my way home with soaping supplies I had no intention of getting that I realized I blew past the orchard. That cost an extra seven miles (round trip).

I was researching today how to use some of the natural colorants I have; I know I need more than the micas, but how much and when to add, etc. So, I'm reading that infused oils are better, blah, blah, blah. I don't have time, besides, I master batch. Then I noticed the 4 oz jelly jars I had washed for the applesauce for the kids. LIGHT BULB!

I put two tablespoons of alkanet root, turmeric, spirulina and madder root into individual jars and added a little over 1/4 cup olive oil. Stirred until well mixed than added some more OO. I put the lids and bands on the jars and they are in a water bath. I brought the water to a boil, then cut it back to a simmer while I was prepping the oils.

I'm going to let them simmer for a few hours then turn off the heat and let them cool down. I am hoping the herbs will infuse the oils intensly and then I could I could use them like a premixed liquid colorant. I know some of you pre-mix your colorants with glycerin and don't add that into the SoapCalc. I'm thinking I'll do that. I usually soap at 8% SF, but if I use these, I'll knock it down to 5% jus to be sure the extra OO doesn't spike up the SF. (I doubt it would, but what do I know?)

So, any advice? Critiques? Anyone think this will be a total failure or that my logic is flawed? Please, bring it on! I've thought it out and it seems like a good plan. But I'm not experienced enough to know what I don't know.

Teresa I love my natural colorants and mine have not faded. I've used them in a variety of ways with varying results in color depth. I would when your oil infusions have cooled, be sure to shake the jar thoroughly to get all the oil soaked powder loose from the bottom and incorporated into the oil. I've used the oil without shaking it, and the color is much paler, but very translucent. When I use it after shaking, I use less oil, and the cor is richer, has more depth, and has a super fine visual texture to it. Not quite speckled, it's much finer than that, almost not visible (at least for me). HTH :)
 
Teresa ... Also, if you're new to using naturals, my suggestion would be to go to your spice rack and pick one spice, just one, and play with ways to use it to color soap.

- Try adding some to the lye water for the batch
- Try infusing some oil with it and add some of that oil to the batter
- Try mixing the powder will a little of the batch oils before adding to batter
- Try mixing it with a little water before adding (2:1 ratio water:powder works for me)
- Try mixing it with glycerin before adding it to batter (same ratio)
- Try adding it directly in powdered form

And no matter which method you're trying, split that batch in half, so you can gel one half and not gel the other. This will let you see what the colors will look like with and without heat morphing.

I love using the naturals because there is so much you can do to influence the end colors. :)
 
Ive not had alkanet nor madder fade on me. Turmeric went less orange and more toasty colored. Ive only used spirulina in M&P, it didnt fade there.

I like to infuse in oils - just compensate for it in your recipe. So say you needed 8 oz total of OO, and your colors are infused in OO, and you wanted 3 colors, keep 6 oz OO out of the main batch (so only ad 2 oz OO at first), split the batter into 3 after emulsion, and add 2 oz infused colored OO to your splits. I get a bit more complicated than this and add 1 oz at first, mix, and if I like it I add 1 oz plain OO, if I want more color I add the second oz of OO. I hope that made sense...
 
Instructions for splitting colors with infused oils.

Ive not had alkanet nor madder fade on me. Turmeric went less orange and more toasty colored. Ive only used spirulina in M&P, it didnt fade there.

I like to infuse in oils - just compensate for it in your recipe. So say you needed 8 oz total of OO, and your colors are infused in OO, and you wanted 3 colors, keep 6 oz OO out of the main batch (so only ad 2 oz OO at first), split the batter into 3 after emulsion, and add 2 oz infused colored OO to your splits. I get a bit more complicated than this and add 1 oz at first, mix, and if I like it I add 1 oz plain OO, if I want more color I add the second oz of OO. I hope that made sense...

Yes, it actually does. Right now, my "problem" is I've master batched my oils, so I can't exactly separate the OO recipe to replace with infused oils. I'll have to wait to play around when I have time, and no more MB oils. I've got a good bit of each of those spices left, so I think I'm going to get quart jars and dump the stuff in, add oil and forget about them until January or February. That "should" give plenty of time to infuse the colors into the oil and I will be able to label the jars. I have to figure out the difference between the madder and alkanet by smell when I open the jars the first time. I wasn't expecting that since the powders were so different! Soaping is so much fun!
 
Yes, it actually does. Right now, my "problem" is I've master batched my oils, so I can't exactly separate the OO recipe to replace with infused oils. I'll have to wait to play around when I have time, and no more MB oils. I've got a good bit of each of those spices left, so I think I'm going to get quart jars and dump the stuff in, add oil and forget about them until January or February. That "should" give plenty of time to infuse the colors into the oil and I will be able to label the jars. I have to figure out the difference between the madder and alkanet by smell when I open the jars the first time. I wasn't expecting that since the powders were so different! Soaping is so much fun!

You can infuse the oils much more quickly by gently simmering them in a double boiler (or contrived double boiler) for 1 - 2 hours.
 
FWIW I dont see any reason why you couldn't infuse the colorants in masterbatched oils and follow the same protocol, which would actually make the calculations easier to my tiny mind.
 
FWIW I dont see any reason why you couldn't infuse the colorants in masterbatched oils and follow the same protocol, which would actually make the calculations easier to my tiny mind.

Oh heck, Seawolf, that's easy to answer: (1) I've only been soaping since April. (2) I've only masterbatched twice. (3) This time around I got brave and figured out how to add shea to a batch from my master. (4) I'm still trying to figure things out & that concept eludes me. However, most important (5) I suck at math. If it isn't "1+1," I don't know the answer without taking my shoes and socks off.

You have no idea how many times I had to watch the part of the Soaping 101 episode on masterbatching oils where she talks about doing the math, to make it sink in. (Only to figure out I could do it with SoapCalc!) Although, to be honest, I never would have figured out the SoapCalc thing if I hadn't finally understood the math.
 
FWIW I dont see any reason why you couldn't infuse the colorants in masterbatched oils and follow the same protocol, which would actually make the calculations easier to my tiny mind.

I was thinking the same thing because I'm going to be mb oils soon myself once I nail down a recipe I love.
 
^^ I rather master batch my lye solution but I'm a little scared to do so. It has more to do with my fear of clumsiness rather than how to do it.
 
You still have to mix in butters and hard oils later wouldn't you?
What happens if one oil in the whole batch goes rancid?

My mb is with shelf-stable oils/fats: lard/OO/CO/castor 40/40/15/5. This has, so far, been my favorite bar. I can add any unstable oils and butters I want per batch. The one batch I made with avocado oil got a couple og spots of DOS. That's not something I'll be using again; however, if I get a request for it or just want to try again, I can split my 2# container and do a mini-batch with avocado as a tester and something else in the other half. Now that I've figured out how to do add ins to my MB, it makes stuff easier fir me.
 
Oh heck, Seawolf, that's easy to answer: (1) I've only been soaping since April. (2) I've only masterbatched twice. (3) This time around I got brave and figured out how to add shea to a batch from my master. (4) I'm still trying to figure things out & that concept eludes me. However, most important (5) I suck at math. If it isn't "1+1," I don't know the answer without taking my shoes and socks off.

You have no idea how many times I had to watch the part of the Soaping 101 episode on masterbatching oils where she talks about doing the math, to make it sink in. (Only to figure out I could do it with SoapCalc!) Although, to be honest, I never would have figured out the SoapCalc thing if I hadn't finally understood the math.
You've only been soaping since April.....of what.....2000? I would have never guessed that. From all your post you sound like you got it! My hat goes off to you!
 
Back
Top