Natural Colorants
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penelopejane
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Just be aware that just about all natural colours except for a few will fade to fawn within a few weeks.
Thank you. I’ve read that several places... I really want my soap to be as natural as possible, but I’ll have to leverage that with the viability of the natural ingredients. It’s a toss up - I may decide later to use some micas. Who knows!
JuliaNegusuk
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I don't find that the natural colours I use fade that quickly, even if I don't keep them in the dark , though that helps longevity. But I have used soaps several months after I made them and they are pretty much the same colour as when I started. Depends what you mean by powdered herbs though. Most botanicals turn brown, some almost instantly. I make pink soap, made from madder root tea, green soap coloured with green tea wax, yellow soap with calendula petals infused in the lye and orange soap just from 5 fold oil and powdered orange peel, cream soap with honey and brown soap with cocoa powder and coffee. My green soap, made with spirulina or nettle tended to fade quickly, but went pale, not brown particularly. If you expect it to last years though that might be a problem, mine doesn't tend to stick around that long. But keeping it out in bright sunlight will probably fade it more quickly. I'm not sure it would go brown though. I've also used paprika powder for orange soap with some success. Ther's lots of other natural soap colourants. I've never tried blue, or achieved better than battleship grey with alkanet, but others have achieved good colours. Give it all a go. I find great satisfaction in making my soap as natural (or at least naturally sourced) as I can.
Thank you! I am ok with some fading as I prefer something that looks natural and is made as naturally as possible. I will definitely still try the herb powders (turmeric, spirulina, etc.) and see how they work for me!
penelopejane
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Turmeric, activated charcoal, indigo, paprika, annatto and clays all work and stick in soap.
If it is for personal use it does not matter but if you are thinking of selling and you sold a green soap that faded after someone had bought it I would consider that a problem. Green clay lasts.
sudszensoaps
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I have difficulties with colorants. Sometimes they come out as a totally different color! Gaaahhh! I'm trying to make peace with just natural color. LOL
Dawni
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I've accepted that my ratanjot, which was supposed to turn purple, will only give me blue lol
Red sandalwood also fades from a deep red to a more of like a muddy red.
I'm having difficulty getting a black from my charcoal but I've seen it done.
Here's a page about natural colorants that I like. There's another two I think if you follow the tags on the bottom.
penelopejane
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Everyone does I think! And once you get it right you will need to buy some more colourant and you'll have to go through the process all over again because each batch seems to be different.
I have done tests of a few natural colourants (because it is all I use) in small batches (100g). But I can't for the life of me scale up from there. As soon as I make an entire loaf I get a weak wishy-washy colour or a really, really dark colour. So annoying. It really is a case of testing your own supply and trying to get a good supplier who will sell the same stuff when you need more. I've also made a perfect colour and tried to repeat it (with the same recipe and same product) and it turns out lighter or darker.
What I find annoying about the link Dawnii posted is that some of the colours Jo uses (although she has obviously scaled back to a few of the more reliable ones) last more than 8 weeks in soap. It is really disappointing and I find it difficult not to see it as sort of false advertising.
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/non-fading-natural-colorants.58540/
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JuliaNegusuk
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I think I referred to Jo's site when I was first exploring natural colours. I was creating a particular range of soaps with a limited range of different colours and I guess I must of just been lucky enough to pick the few that last. I have just been delving into my big bathroom box of the rump ends of soap through the ages and have come across several that must be over a year old and have still kept their colour (and haven't DOSed either - hooray!) I only make small batches in single cell moulds so I don't seem to have problems with consistency of colour either. Though my pink soap, coloured with madder root, is sometimes slightly patchy, I think this actually evens out over time. They also seem to be consistent between batches, though I haven't change supplies yet so that might throw a spanner in the works. Incidentally, I find you can use madder root tea made beforehand and added to the lye as effectively as adding the powder to the lye. That way you can do your sieving with cold tea not warm lye if you want to remove all the bits, slightly safer than trying to sieve lye.
But I think you have to manage expectations. Natural colours probably aren't going to be as bright and consistent as synthetic ones but if you want natural soap, surely the opaque, muted colours with the odd blob or spot here and there is part of the look. Personally I would be suspicious of natural anything that looks too bright and shiny and perfect. Obviously colours that only last a few weeks are a waste of time and it would be nice to have a site that has experimented and tells you which they are. But different people seem to have different results. For example everyone says gel your natural soaps to improve the colour. I did this recently (trying to tackle soda ash) and saw no difference at all except my lovely pale yellowy orange soap (just coloured with 5 fold orange EO and dried orange peel powder) went a very murky dark orange. The one soap in the same batch I left out of the oven in a different mould is beautifully yellowey orange. Fortunately its one that doesn't get soda ash so I won't do it again. Also I can't make alkanet work for me yet some people seem to get lovely purple colours. Unfortunately I have stopped experimenting because I have about 5 years supply of odd, misshapen bits of soap to get through that I can't really give away and I am too stingy to sling it!
But I think you have to manage expectations. Natural colours probably aren't going to be as bright and consistent as synthetic ones but if you want natural soap, surely the opaque, muted colours with the odd blob or spot here and there is part of the look. Personally I would be suspicious of natural anything that looks too bright and shiny and perfect. Obviously colours that only last a few weeks are a waste of time and it would be nice to have a site that has experimented and tells you which they are. But different people seem to have different results. For example everyone says gel your natural soaps to improve the colour. I did this recently (trying to tackle soda ash) and saw no difference at all except my lovely pale yellowy orange soap (just coloured with 5 fold orange EO and dried orange peel powder) went a very murky dark orange. The one soap in the same batch I left out of the oven in a different mould is beautifully yellowey orange. Fortunately its one that doesn't get soda ash so I won't do it again. Also I can't make alkanet work for me yet some people seem to get lovely purple colours. Unfortunately I have stopped experimenting because I have about 5 years supply of odd, misshapen bits of soap to get through that I can't really give away and I am too stingy to sling it!
I think the best way to sum this all up is to say Soap making is not just Soap making.. it's controlled measures of natural alchemy, thaumaturgy and anarchy all poured into one mold with a dusting of prayers and curses. You just have to embrace the bedevilment that ensues.
WeaversPort
Voyages of Curiosity
I think you just summed it up perfectly!
"Embrace the bedevilment" is my new mantra.
My paprika orange lasts for months without fading.
Also, rosehip powder is trippy! After unmolding you can watch the maroon color work its way from the outside in, minute by minute. No fading after months.
Rosehip powder! I Love RoseHips! So do you have any photos of your RoseHips soaps? I'd love to see what that looks like!
Also, how did you use it? Did you infuse in oil, mix into soaping oils as a powder? Make a tea of it & use it in your lye solution? Other?
Also, how did you use it? Did you infuse in oil, mix into soaping oils as a powder? Make a tea of it & use it in your lye solution? Other?
@earlene , photos are here https://www.soapmakingforum.com/thr...ave-you-done-today.42556/page-475#post-739435 . The photo is shortly after unmolding and you can see how the outer edge is colored -- within hours it was a uniform brick red. It was a powder that I mixed into the oil/lye/water.
steffamarie
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I see you used rosehip powder, did you find it to be scratchy? I’ve been wanting to try it but I don’t need another exfoliating soap lol
Yeah, I saw all the warnings about too much can be scratchy. I used 1.5 teaspoons in 2 pounds of oils and it was not exfoliating at all.
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