Using naturally coloured oils.

[Tracy Harding]

Morning, I need some help please - i've been experimenting with making naturally coloured oils to colour C P soaps.
I've made some turmeric, paprika and alkanet oils, with a ratio of 2 tblspns to 4 oz oil. I'm not sure what ratio of the coloured oil I should be using in my soap base. In the test batches i'm using 200g oil in total so need to no what % should be coloured. Thanks All.

 

[Tara_H]

I'm by no means an expert but you're welcome to my notes on the alkanet batch I made previously.

The oils were:
Tallow 125g
Olive oil 81.25g
Coconut oil 43.75g

All of the olive oil was taken from a batch of 200g of olive oil which was infused with 17g of alkanet powder. (My filtering did not work very well, hence the specks)

It was made on 21st Feb this year, this is what it looks like today in natural light:

 

[Tracy Harding]

I'm by no means an expert but you're welcome to my notes on the alkanet batch I made previously.

The oils were:
Tallow 125g
Olive oil 81.25g
Coconut oil 43.75g

All of the olive oil was taken from a batch of 200g of olive oil which was infused with 17g of alkanet powder. (My filtering did not work very well, hence the specks)

It was made on 21st Feb this year, this is what it looks like today in natural light:
View attachment 55484

Thanks for your help, the flecks look

I'm by no means an expert but you're welcome to my notes on the alkanet batch I made previously.

The oils were:
Tallow 125g
Olive oil 81.25g
Coconut oil 43.75g

All of the olive oil was taken from a batch of 200g of olive oil which was infused with 17g of alkanet powder. (My filtering did not work very well, hence the specks)

It was made on 21st Feb this year, this is what it looks like today in natural light:
View attachment 55484

thanks for you help, the flecks look good actually, i've used alkanet root infused in oil a couple of times and it has ended up alot lighter than yours. the first time I only about about 15% colour infused oil, and the second time i've used about 43%, only just done this one. I reckon if i've worked out correctly you have used about 33%. I was thinking there must be a safe guideline that we should use but cannot seem to find anything?

 

[Tara_H]

I'm sad to say I don't have a record of how I came to the conclusion above! I do remember having a lot of trouble finding usage rate information as well, and if I recall correctly it was something of a guess based on a synthesis of everything I read while researching.
I'm still not sure how the use of heat affects the results either; I kept the jar with the infusing oil under our woodstove for a number of weeks, so it would have been kept warm for most of the duration. I suspect that will increase the intensity of the colour but I haven't done tests to confirm precisely.

 

[lsg]

You might check this out: Muller Lane Farm ~ Natural Soap Colors

 

[Mobjack Bay]

I haven’t had a chance to try my alkanet infused oil yet, but I recently mixed up a set of natural colorants following the technique used by Chass of Wild Plantanica. For this method you make a very strong infusion and then add a small amount of the colorant to the portioned out oils or the batter, the same way you would add mica. At only two weeks old, my annatto, paprika, rhubarb root and indigo oils all make nice rich pastels using 1/4 tsp infused oil for 1 cup of batter (1/8 tsp. for the indigo). Chass recently posted a YT video to show the method. Apparently alkanet should be gelled to get the best color. It’s clarified in the comment section that the percentages are based on weight. For my first test of this method, I mixed 10 g plant material with 40 g of very light olive oil. That’s a little less concentrated than what Chass uses.

 

[Peachy Clean Soap]

I'm by no means an expert but you're welcome to my notes on the alkanet batch I made previously.

The oils were:
Tallow 125g
Olive oil 81.25g
Coconut oil 43.75g

All of the olive oil was taken from a batch of 200g of olive oil which was infused with 17g of alkanet powder. (My filtering did not work very well, hence the specks)

It was made on 21st Feb this year, this is what it looks like today in natural light:
View attachment 55484

What a beautiful natural color. Impressive

 

[Tracy Harding]

You might check this out: Muller Lane Farm ~ Natural Soap Colors

Thanks, will do.

 

[Tracy Harding]

I haven’t had a chance to try my alkanet infused oil yet, but I recently mixed up a set of natural colorants following the technique used by Chass of Wild Plantanica. For this method you make a very strong infusion and then add a small amount of the colorant to the portioned out oils or the batter, the same way you would add mica. At only two weeks old, my annatto, paprika, rhubarb root and indigo oils all make nice rich pastels using 1/4 tsp infused oil for 1 cup of batter (1/8 tsp. for the indigo). Chass recently posted a YT video to show the method. Apparently alkanet should be gelled to get the best color. It’s clarified in the comment section that the percentages are based on weight. For my first test of this method, I mixed 10 g plant material with 40 g of very light olive oil. That’s a little less concentrated than what Chass uses.

thanks very much for your help, will watch yt video.