Palette of natural soap colorants - pic heavy

[surf girl]

I did a little side-by-side comparison of various colorants, and have photographed the results. I'll keep these little soapies for a while, to see how they fade or change over a few months.

All the soaps are made with 100% canola (I'm also interested to see if and how badly these suckers DOS). The powdered additives were at approximately 3/4 tsp ppo; the tomato paste was about 1 1/2 tbsp ppo; the orange 5X was about 1 tbsp ppo. From left to right, the additives are:

rosehip powder, paprika, yellow dock powder, orange 5X
turmeric, curry powder, tomato paste, control (uncoloured)
elderberry, spirulina, stevia
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For the second set, I used carrot juice as 100% the liquid, and doubled the amount of powdered additives. I skipped the tomato paste and the orange 5X.

So, from left to right (same order, really), they are:

rosehip, paprika, yellow dock
turmeric, curry, control
elderberry, spirulina, stevia
.
.

Here are a few as side-by-side comparisons (carrot juice batch is on the left):

Control:
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Yellow dock:
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Paprika:
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Turmeric:
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[TessC]

Very cool, thanks for the pics! Now I want to make some paprika colored soap, that's such a pretty color.

 

[LJA]

I am LOVING the yellow dock. I have to get some of that. Thanks for doing this. TOTALLY helpful!

 

[topcat]

Thanks for this surf girl! Looking forward to seeing how they age too.

Tanya

 

[Lindy]

I am totally loving the Yellow Dock & the Paprika without the Carrot Juice & the Rosehip Powder too! Lady that was a whole lot of work and what a great post to let us see the experiment & results.....way cool....

 

[Guest]

That is a great experiment, thank you for sharing it with us..Nice soaps.

Kitn

 

[smellitlikeitissoaps]

wonderful experiment, i am looking forward to your end results

 

[surf girl]

Yeah, I'm loving yellow dock root too - that pink is very pretty. I'm going to infuse some oil with it, and see what colour I get - and without the speckles. I want red, but it seems like such a hard colour to get with natural colorants... I haven't tried red reef clay yet (I like food/plant colorants! ), nor have I tried madder root. Apparently you can get red from rhubarb root too.

 

[Lindy]

I am so glad we have you here to do these amazing experiments and then let the rest of us know what you've done and the outcome - good - not so good - indifferent. All I've seen of your stuff so far is simply - good - good - gooder - good - OMG I MUST HAVE THAT ONE - and good......

 

[Guest]

COOL. A few noob questions though, what does DOS mean? what is control? orange 5X? are these Amercian drinks or something?

 

[TessC]

DOS is short for dreaded orange spots. There's an article explaining DOS here.

The controls are her two uncolored bars. They're to give you an idea of what the soap recipe used looks like with no additives.

Orange 5x is an essential oil, also called Orange 5 fold on some suppliers' sites, like this one.

 

[Sibi]

Thanks sooo much for doing this surf girl! I love the comparisons, it's so helpful. I love paprika in my food and now I can use it in my soap too! I have only one question, some of these spices have pretty strong smells (curry for example), do those smells come through in the finished soap or have you masked them with FOs? Just wondering.....

Sibi

 

[wonderland]

this is great. thanks for posting your research for us. i'm going to have to get some yellow dock.

 

[surf girl]

what does DOS mean? what is control? orange 5X? are these Amercian drinks or something?

I know your questions have already been answered, but I had to comment because you made me laugh! I think they would be awesome drink names. Might ask my local bartender for a Control and see what he concocts.

 

[surf girl]

I have only one question, some of these spices have pretty strong smells (curry for example), do those smells come through in the finished soap or have you masked them with FOs? Just wondering.....

Sibi, I have never been able to smell any of these when I have used them in soap. When I first mix the powder in a bit of oil, I can definitely smell it, and sometimes right after pouring I can smell them, but not in the final soap (even unscented soap, which these test batches are).

Do note, though, that at least some of these can reportedly be a scratchy if you use too much. In my fully coloured stevia/spirulina batch, the soap is a little less than perfectly smooth, but not so much that it is bothersome, IMO. I don't think my paprika swirls are scratchy, if I remember correctly.

 

[Sibi]

I have only one question, some of these spices have pretty strong smells (curry for example), do those smells come through in the finished soap or have you masked them with FOs? Just wondering.....

Sibi, I have never been able to smell any of these when I have used them in soap. When I first mix the powder in a bit of oil, I can definitely smell it, and sometimes right after pouring I can smell them, but not in the final soap (even unscented soap, which these test batches are).

Do note, though, that at least some of these can reportedly be a scratchy if you use too much. In my fully coloured stevia/spirulina batch, the soap is a little less than perfectly smooth, but not so much that it is bothersome, IMO. I don't think my paprika swirls are scratchy, if I remember correctly.

thanks for the info! Glad to hear the smells go away. Now I'm gonna have to try my hand at some paprika to experiment. fun!

 

[renaissancemom]

that is so helpful. the carrot juice you used as 100 % of the liquid, are you referring to the water in the lye solution relplaced with carrot juice?

 

[renaissancemom]

another question, what is ppo, that per pound o?

 

[topcat]

another question, what is ppo, that per pound o?

Yep, per pound of oils.... :wink:

Tanya

 

[surf girl]

the carrot juice you used as 100 % of the liquid, are you referring to the water in the lye solution relplaced with carrot juice?

Exactly. I blended up four half-sized carrots on the "liquefy" setting, with as little water as I could get away with to make it blend properly. This was for a 1 lb batch.

And yes, ppo is per pound oil.