Teach Soap

Hello!

I've just gotten into cold process soap making, and so far, it's been great! I made my first batch last Sunday, and now I have it cut and curing. Really looking forward to seeing the final product!

I made this initial batch without adding any fragrance or coloring, because I wanted to see how a basic soap recipe would look, feel, and smell.

But now, I'd like to make another batch, and color this one. Which brings me to my question:

Can I use vegetable-derived colorant, such as India Tree's natural food color? Or would it stain or otherwise irritate skin?

I want to keep my soap all-natural, and the craft store here doesn't carry any natural colorants for soap. Just M&P stuff. Obviously, I could order some from BrambleBerry, but I'd prefer to buy locally.

Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Food coloring is not meant to be used in soap. Here is a chart on natural colorants. http://www.mullerslanefarm.com/soapcolors.html

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Thanks! I figured it probably wouldn't work, but it couldn't hurt to ask someone who knows.

That's a great list! I'll make sure to bookmark it for future reference.

Glancing over the link, here are a few that I use that I didn't see on their list:

Beta carotene
Clay
Activated charcoal
Australian sandalwood powder. It's a different plant than Indian sandalwood, and it's not endangered. It is reddish/purplish.

There's a great ebook from Bramble Berry (it's called Infusing Herbs, but it also covers things like clay) that contains a pretty exhaustive list of natural colorants- its got lots of great ideas. I recently made a layered bar with natural colored soap (you know the natural color soap would be, in this case milk soap, without anything else) mixed with calendula blossoms for one layer, and another layer colored with red palm oil. It made a beautiful goldy-yellow. I've made light green soap using cucumber juice as my lye water and cucumber puree added at trace (lovely- light green with darker green flecks from the skin).

probably the easiest thing you could infuse for color would be paprika. Easy to get! or if you don't mind brown soap cocoa powder but a little goes a long way!

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

Last night I put a quarter teaspoon of turmeric into 5 oz (by weight) of canola oil. How long should I let it rest if I want a good yellow color?

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Anna Rose @-}--
blog

I heated it up in the microwave for 45 seconds to about a hundred degrees F, but I didn't maintain the heat. I figured I should wait and ask here before messing around.

Try rosehip tea and other teas and parsley works. I also have been trying natural additions and found calendula flowers boiled in my water for the lye gave me better colour than low heated steeped oil gave. Paprika is also great. I read someone else used curry powder too and of course you have the coffee. I want to try the carrot puree and juice I saw on Youtube next. So many things to try out. Great inspiration. Good luck.

creativemumsie,

Thank you for the idea of coloring the lye water, instead of the oil! I'd love to hear the experts chime in on that.

There are a lot of wild flowers in my town, and it would be wonderful to color my soaps naturally with them!

I still have a lot to learn, but I'm having so much fun!

That is a nice list, but you may find some discrepancies when making cp/hp soap. For instance, red hibiscus will not give you a purple or even a pink in cp soap, but instead a grayish color, in a m&p it maintains its color nicely though. Alkanet root will give you a nice purple, purplish red to maroonish red, depending on the ph of the product. The lye interaction changes the color of many herbs, so you may get one color in m&p and a completely different one in cp soap. Keep a list of what you try and what happens to it. With some it will just be a matter of adjusting the amount you use or the strength of the infusion (ie. alkanet, I have some that is a deep orange and some that is so pale it will give a yellow in the batter. In fact, I usually keep 3 different strengths going at once), but some are just what they are (ie. the hibiscus).

I think it is better to use dried or powdered herbs to make your infusions, as fresh herbs with the least bit of moisture will grow bacteria/mold. So, if you do use fresh, be ultra careful when making your infusions!

Have fun and enjoy the journey!

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy