Category Archives: Color Soap Naturally Series

Natural Soap Colorants Gallery – Clays added at trace

Posted on by

Here are some results using cosmetic clay to color your soap naturally. From Nature with Love has an awesome clay sample pack (affliliate link).

Sea Clay – 1/2 tsp per pound of oils added at trace

Rose Clay – 1/2 tsp per pound of oils added at trace

Rhassoul Clay – 1/2 tsp per pound of oils added at trace

Red Kaolin Clay – 1/2 tsp per pound of oils added at trace

Red Illite Clay – 1/2 tsp per pound of oils added at trace

Pink Kaolin Clay – 1/2 tsp per pound of oils added at trace

Multani Mitti Clay – 1/2 tsp per pound of oils added at trace

Green Illite Clay – 1/2 tsp per pound of oils added at trace


French Green Clay – 1/2 tsp per pound of oils added at trace

Yellow Illite Clay – 1/2 tsp per pound of oils added at trace

Color Soap Naturally – Calendula and Paprika, Layers and Swirls

Posted on by

This is an advanced soap design using natural colorants.  It includes calendula and paprika for color and texture and swirling and layering techniques.  I’ll also show you how to do the thin cocoa line you can see between layers.

Bring your soap to a stable emulsion.  You don’t want to see trace or you won’t have enough time to separate out your colors and swirl. 

Divide your soap into three containers.  The amounts are up to you but I did about 2/3 for the bottom base, 1/6 for each top swirl color.  Add a pinch of calendula petals to the base container and stick blend to a thicker trace.  Stick blending with the calendula helps break the petals up a bit so they aren’t so big in your soap.  Pour the base mixture into your mold and spread evenly.  Drop your mold down onto a counter or the floor to help the soap flatten out. 

Add 1/8 teaspoon of paprika to one of the swirl containers.  Do not stick blend these as we want them nice and fluid so we can do a swirl.   

Next we’ll do a cocoa line.  I like to use a tea strainer to help sprinkle on the cocoa.  Cover the bottom layer of soap with a thin line of cocoa.  Don’t completely cover the surface or you might have soap with layers that separate.  You can see plenty of the bottom soap surface peaking through.  It will still look like a solid layer when you cut.

Now we’ll do our swirl on top of this layer.  Since we brought it to a thick trace before we poured it into the mold we shouldn’t have any problems with it supporting the top layer.  But just to test, gently spoon some soap onto it.  See if it stays on top or if it breaks the surface.  If it breaks the surface let it sit for a bit longer. 

Spoon enough soap to completely cover the surface.  Then simply rotate pouring the two different swirling colors until your fill your mold.  I poured in lines all going the same direction. 

You can leave it as it is or you can take a skewer and swirl the top.  We don’t want the skewer to break the cocoa line and mess it up so make sure you don’t insert the skewer that deeply.

And there you have it!  A beautiful soap design using natural colorants.  I love the way the calendula doesn’t just provide color but also provides texture. 

When you cut this soap be sure to lay it on it’s side and cut in that position.  That way you won’t drag the cocoa line.

Happy Soaping!

Amanda

Natural Soap Colorants Gallery – Spice and herbal powders at trace

Posted on by

Spice and herbal powders can be added to soap at trace. Here are my results with notes.  I’ll be posting more galleries over the next couple of weeks.   

Alkanet Powder

Usage: Added at trace – add 1/2 teaspoon alkanet root powder per pound of oils to traced soap. Mix well.

Results: Alkanet root is hard to get mixed in well if added to trace. I ended up with a highly speckled look and soap that was slightly scratchy. I would recommend infusing in oil for best results.

Color: dusty speckled purple, gray with purple tint

Turmeric Powder

Usage: Added at trace – add 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder per pound of oils to traced soap. Mix well.

Results: Turmeric powder is easily mixed in at trace. If you don’t want a speckled look use an oil infusion. I’ve heard that turmeric can be scratchy but at the tested usage none was noted.

Color: sandy yellow, light orange, speckled

Sage Powder

Usage: Added at trace – add 1/2 teaspoon sage powder per pound of oils to traced soap. Mix well.

Results: Sage powder is easily mixed in at trace.

Color: warm gray, tan, speckled

Rose Hip Powder

Usage: Added at trace – add 1/2 teaspoon rose hip powder per pound of oils to traced soap. Mix well.

Results: Rose Hip powder is easily mixed in at trace. If you don’t want a speckled look use an oil infusion.

Color: speckled dusty purple, light mauve

Annatto Seed Powder

Usage: Added at trace – add 1/2 teaspoon annatto seed powder per pound of oils to traced soap. Mix well.

Results: Annatto is easily mixed in at trace. I ended up with a highly speckled look and soap that was slightly scratchy. I would recommend infusing in oil for best results. At tested usage rate I did get slightly tinted lather.

Color: tangerine orange

Black Walnut Powder

Usage: Added at trace – add 1/2 teaspoon black walnut powder per pound of oils to traced soap. Mix well.

Results: Black walnut powder is easily mixed in at trace.

Color: cool gray, purple tint, heavily speckled

Indigo Powder

Usage: Added at trace – add 1/2 teaspoon indigo powder per pound of oils to traced soap. Mix well.

Results: Indigo powder does best when added to the lye water. I don’t recommend adding indigo powder at trace.

Color: dusty light blue, cold gray

Mustard Seed Powder

Usage: Added at trace – add 1/2 teaspoon mustard seed powder per pound of oils to traced soap. Mix well.

Results: Mustard seed powder is easily mixed in at trace.

Color: cream, no color seemed to come through at tested usage of 1/2 tsp ppo

Orange Peel Powder

Usage: Added at trace – add 1/2 teaspoon orange peel powder per pound of oils to traced soap. Mix well.

Results: Orange peel powder is easily mixed in at trace.

Color: orange tinted cream, speckled

Paprika Powder

Usage: Added at trace – add 1/2 teaspoon paprika powder per pound of oils to traced soap. Mix well.

Results: Paprika is easily mixed in at trace. I ended up with a highly speckled look and soap that was slightly scratchy. I would recommend infusing in oil for best results.

Color: salmon, pink grapefruit, speckled

Parsley Powder

Usage: Added at trace – add 1/2 teaspoon parsley powder per pound of oils to traced soap. Mix well.

Results: Parsley powder is easily mixed in at trace.

Color: jadite green, green tinted cream, slightly speckled

Rosemary Powder

Usage: Added at trace – add 1/2 teaspoon rosemary powder per pound of oils to traced soap. Mix well.

Results: Rosemary powder is easily mixed in at trace. If you don’t want a speckled look use an oil infusion.

Color: sandy cream with a slight green tint, speckled

Color Soap Naturally – Advanced multi colored design with infusions

Posted on by

Okay, so making a solid colored soap with an infusion is easy. But what if you wanted to color a soap four different colors using different infused olive oils? You wouldn’t want to make your standard recipe, divide the traced soap in individual containers and add a tablespoon of infused olive oil to each container. Why not? You would be over superfatting your soap if you did that. You could always make different batches of soap at once but who wants to clean extra containers if you don’t have to? I sure don’t. So let’s go over how to make a multi colored soap colored with different infused oils.

First we have to modify our recipe a bit. Take your favorite recipe, plug it into a lye calculator such as soapcalc.net and change the lye discount/superfat to 0.

Recipe:
Palm oil – 300 grams
Olive oil – 300 grams
Coconut oil – 300 grams
Lye – 138 grams
Water – 280 grams

Decide what you want your superfat to be. I like to use an 8% superfat.

Add up all of your oils and multiply by 8%.

900 grams (oils) x .08 = 72 grams

72 grams is the amount of infused olive oil you have to work with to bring this batch of soap up to an 8% superfated soap. Since we want to do a four colored soap divide 72 by 4.

72 / 4 = 18 grams of each infused olive oil color

Let’s make some soap! I want to do a four colored swirl.  Here is what the different colors will be.

Annatto infusion colored
Alkanet infusion colored
Plain – no color
Textured using black walnut seed powder

I will make my recipe at 0% superfat. Divide it exactly into four containers which will contain 18 grams of olive oil (two infused/two not).

The first thing I do is make the lye solution.  Then measure out the oils for the 0% superfat recipe above.  Do not include any infused oils. 

In individual containers measure out the following:

18 g infused alkanet olive oil
18 g infused annatto seed olive oil
18 g plain olive oil
18 g plain olive oil with 1 tsp black walnut seed powder

This can be a bit confusing at first so let’s go over where we’re at. 

We have our base oils and lye solution all ready to go.  Our base recipe is made with a 0% superfat.  Our superfat oils are measured equally out into individual cups based on the amount of colors we want.  We are doing a four color swirl.  We had 72 g to work with to bring our soap up to an 8% superfat so we divided that by 4.  That gives us 18 g in each cup.

Bring your base to a very light trace.  Using the scale divide your soap between the four containers.  I like to weigh my mixing container empty, then weigh it with the traced soap.  Minus the mixing container weight from how much the container + traced soap weighs and this will give you the exact weight of your batter.  Divide this by four and weigh this number into each container.  We want to divide it equally because we want each color to have the same superfat. 

 

So above we have equal parts of plain soap, annatto colored, alkanet colored and black walnut powder colored.  Now it’s time to swirl! 

I simply rotate pouring each color in the same direction into my mold. 

Then take a skewer and swirl.

And now you have a naturally colored swirled soap with an accurate superfat!

Color Soap Naturally – Coloring soap with natural colorant infusions

Posted on by

Now that you have your infusions ready to go…let’s make some soap!

Using your infused oils for coloring soap is easy to do.  In this tutorial we’ll make a solid colored soap using alkanet infused olive oil. 

To use an infused oil to color a solid soap you will simply use the infusion for all or part of the olive oil in your recipe.  The amount will vary by infusion.  When using alkanet I like to stay between 5% and 15% infused oil of total oils.  This recipe has a total of 32 oz of oil.  We’ll use 3 oz infused oil for color which is about 9% of total oils.

The recipe: 

Palm kernel oil – 8 oz
Coconut oil – 3 oz
Shea butter – 2 oz
Olive oil – 7 oz
Alkanet infused olive oil – 3 oz
Apricot kernel oil – 3 oz
Sunflower oil – 6 oz
Lye – 4.56 oz
Water – 9 oz

 Be sure to gear up in goggles and gloves when working with lye.  If you’re new to soap making…start here. 

Make your lye solution and set it to the side to cool down.  Measure out the palm kernel, coconut and shea butter and melt. 

Once the solid oils/butters are melted add the liquid oils.  Be sure to add 3 oz infused olive oil and 7 oz plain olive oil.

Add your lye water, bring the soap to trace and pour into your mold. 

I have noticed that with most natural colorants you get more vibrant colors if the soap goes through gel phase.  But you can expirament with gelling or not gelling. 

When using some natural colorants such as alkanet or annatto you run the risk of using to much that it colors the suds of the soap.  I was worried that this soap would have colored suds since it came out so dark but it actually didn’t!  Whew!

 So that was easy!  Next we’ll get a little more advanced and talk about how to make a multi-colored soap using infusions!

Happy Soaping!

Amanda

Color Soap Naturally – Infusing oil with herbs and spices

Posted on by

Infusing oil is probably my favorite method of using natural colorants. It works for most natural colorants but we’ll talk about the ones that do better using a different method as we go along. When you infuse oil you don’t get the grainy speckled look you get when you add spice or herb powders to traced soap.

You want to be sure to use a long shelf life oil for infusing. The top three are fractionated coconut oil, jojoba oil and olive oil. I usually stick with olive oil as all of my soap recipes contain olive oil.

There are two main methods of infusing oils.

Cold infusion –Add spices or herbs to the oil in a jar and allow to sit 2-6 weeks to infuse. If I’m infusing powdered spices or herbs I infuse 2 tablespoons in 5 oz oil. If I am using dry whole herbs then I’ll fill the jar with the herb and cover with oil. Never use fresh herbs in cold infusions as they contain water and will cause mold and bacteria to grow.

Heat infusion –Add spices or herbs to the oil and heat gently to kick start the infusion. Some spices and herbs infuse easily using the heat infusion method and you can even use the infusion the same day! You can heat using the crock pot turned to warm for 2-6 hours or low heat on the stove for 2-6 hours. You can use fresh herbs in a heat infusion if you plan on using the oil in soap making the same day. Don’t ever store away an infusion made with fresh herbs as they contain water and your infusion will grow bacteria and mold.

My favorite method is to use a hot water bath to gently heat the infusions. I seal the herbs and spices in heat sealable tea bags so I don’t have to worry about straining the infusion before I use it. I just simply remove the tea bag. Here’s how I do it.

I usually infuse 2 tablespoons of any powdered herb or spice into 5 ounces of olive oil.

Step 1 – Measure out 2 tablespoons of your powdered herb into a heat sealable tea bag.

Step 2 – Seal the edge with an iron.  Make sure it is sealed and will not come open.

Step 3 – Place the sealed teabag into the canning jar and cover with 5 oz (weight) of olive oil.

Step 4 – Screw on the lid and secure tightly.  If you’re doing many infusions at once make sure you label them so you don’t forget what they are.  I just use a permanent marker on the lid.

Step 5 – Place your jars into a pan.  Fill the pan with enough water to reach about 1” underneath the lid.  You want the water to stay plenty beneath the bottom of the jar lids.

Step 6 – Turn the heat on low and let heat for about two hours.  You can also do this in a crock pot.  Just set the crock pot on warm.

Step 7 – Remove the jars from the pan and allow them to cool away from cool air or drafts.  You don’t want the jars to break.  I typically put my jars on the counter and cover with a towel to keep out the drafts or air if it kicks on.  Check the color of your infusions.  Some herbs and spices infuse easier than others.  I noticed the alkanet, paprika, indigo, turmeric and annatto all looked nice and dark.  But some of the others looked like they needed a bit more time.  You can either heat for another hour or two or if you aren’t in a hurry to use them…let them sit somewhere out of the way for a week to get a darker infusion.

That’s it!  Wasn’t that easy?  And the best part is that since we used the tea bags to contain the spices and herbs we don’t have to bother with straining which can be a mess!

To use your infused oils simply replace a portion of olive oil in a recipe with infused olive oil.  We’ll go into more detail later on in the series. 

Happy Soaping!

Amanda

 

Color Soap Naturally – Testing herbs and spices for pH stability

Posted on by

Some natural colorants hold up to the high pH of cold process soap better than others.  Occasionally you’ll have a red herb turn yellow, a yellow herb turn pink or maybe even an herb that disappears altogether.  There is a way to test your colorants beforehand to see how they will react to lye.

Let’s test yellowdock root, beet root and madder root powders.

Pour four ounces of distilled water into jars or heavy duty plastic containers.  Add about 1 teaspoon of lye and mix well until completely dissolved.  Next add a pea sized amount of your powdered color and mix well. 

Observe the results.  Some unexpected things happened to this test batch.

The madder root stayed an expected color but look at the yellowdock and beet root!  The beet root powder turned yellow and the yellowdock root turned a dark pink/red color.  Beet root powder contains betanin which turns to yellow or tan in an alkaline environment.  You can expect something similar to happen in soap.

This is a great way to get an idea of how your herbs or spice powders will react in the high alkaline conditions. 

Happy Soaping!

Amanda

Color Soap Naturally Series

Posted on by

Although I love making bright and colorful soap using micas, pigments, Lab Colors and other synthetic colorants, ever since I started making soap I’ve been drawn to using natural colorants in soap making.  To me there is a romantic notion that soap can be colored using natural herbs, spices and clays.

And if you sell soap…you probably know that consumers love the word “natural”.  Using botanicals and other natural colorants sounds great on a label.  “Colored naturally using alkanet and annatto seed herbal powders” sounds much better than “colored with Mica, Titanium Dioxide, iron oxide and Ferric Ammonium Ferrocyanide”.  

Over the past year and a half I’ve been experimenting with herbal powders, spices and clays and want to share my results with you.  We’ll start the series off today with how to test herbal and spice powders for pH stability and also how to make herbal infusions.