# Annatto Seed Soap Making (Pics Included)...



## SoapMakingResource (Jan 31, 2011)

Hey Everyone!  My name is Steve.  I’ve been browsing these forums for a long time reading posts and looking at pictures.  I just thought I’d finally share some of my own with you all!  

I’m working very hard on creating a natural soap colorant database for myself and my fellow soapers. I will be making a ton of batches in the next few months experimenting with the various natural colorants and recording my results to share with you all.   

I am looking at how the percentage of infused oil in my batch will affect the color, how adding the botanical to the lye solution will affect the color, how adding the powdered botanical to the soap will affect the color, how my superfat percentage will affect the color, and how the gel phase will affect the color.  Yeah… It’s very thorough!  Hopefully though, it will be a helpful tool for soap makers who are interested in using natural colorants but don’t know where to start.

I will be taking a ton of pictures and notes and figured I’d might as well share them with you all.  I hope it helps in some way!

I just finished the annatto seed portion of the database.  Below are the pictures from that tutorial. Enjoy!

The first photo is a picture of all the shades I achieved with annatto seeds using all the different methods.  As you can see, you can get a lot of different hues all the way from a bright yellow to dark orange using annatto seeds.  I thought this was pretty cool to see them all side by side.







My infusion rate was 4 teaspoons annatto seeds per 8 ounces of olive oil.  I created this infusion by placing the seeds and oil in my crock-pot that was set at a low heat and then allowed this combination to simmer for exactly two hours. By the end of the infusion, the oil appeared to have a deep red color, however, the infused oil still produced a strong yellow color when dropped onto a piece of white paper towel.  

Here’s a before and after picture of my infusion. You can really see just how much the color changed:





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Side by side, you can really see the color difference between the infused oil and non-infused oil. Annatto infused oil is really very pretty! 






Here’s another pic…  This one is of me pouring the infused oil into my soap batch.  I just thought this was a pretty cool shot and kind of highlights the beauty of the annatto infused oil.  Again, it looks red at first, but even this batch quickly turned yellow/orange once the infused oil was mixed in thoroughly.   






Now for some pics of the final annatto seed soaps…  

Below is a picture of my soap batch that had 5% annatto seed infused oil.  What does this mean exactly?  Let’s say your batch uses 45 ounces of oils total…  5% of 45 ounces would be 2.25 ounces. So, 2.25 ounces of oil in your recipe would be annatto infused oil!  At this percentage, the color ended up being a pale lemon yellow.






Below is a picture of my annatto seed batch that had 15% annatto seed infused oil.  It ended up being a very nice medium orange color.






Next is a picture of my annatto seed batch that had 35% annatto seed infused oil.  I did this test to see if a high percentage such as 35% would “bleed” and give me colored suds.  It did!






Here’s a picture of me washing my hands with the 35% annatto seed infused oil soap.  As you can see, the color bled and the suds are orange. Not what I was looking for!






Next is a picture of a batch that I colored using annatto seeds soaked in my lye solution.  Awesome color!  For some reason, this one almost looked like a neon yellow.  I soaked 2 teaspoons of annatto seeds in my lye solution for approximately 3.5 hours.  Keep in mind that this was only a two pound batch, so if you are making a bigger batch, you will need to add more seeds if trying to get a similar hue!  The seeds of course were drained out using a stainless steel strainer before using the lye solution in my batch.  






Next is a picture of a batch that I colored using ground up annatto seeds.  I ground up 2 teaspoons of seeds in my coffee grinder and added them at trace to the two pound batch. The final soap was yellow, but had a ton of speckles in it from the seeds.  It didn’t look bad if that is the look you are trying to go for!  Because of the seeds, it may also be somewhat scratchy.






I also looked at how my superfat percentage would affect the color.  With some natural colorants, a higher or lower superfat will change the final hue.  Not sure why exactly this is, but I was thinking maybe it had something to do with PH levels?  If anyone knows, please feel free to chime in!  For annatto seeds, it appears that superfat percentages don’t really affect the final color of the soap.  If anything, the 12% superfat may have been a bit darker in color then the 5% superfat… but it was barely noticeable.    

Here’s the picture of the 5% superfat soap:






Here’s a picture of the 12% superfat soap:






Finally, I looked at the Gel phase and how that would affect the color.  For annatto seeds, the gel phase made the color much darker!  I did the test using the 15% infused oil batch.  One I forced to gel and the other I did not.  The gelled batch was almost as dark as the 35% annatto infused oil batch that had the “bleeding” issue and colored suds!  Gelling seems to be a great method of achieving that darker color without having issues like bleeding or colored bubbles.

Here’s a picture of the gelled batch:






Here’s a picture of the non-gelled batch:






These two batches above were literally identical… same recipe... same annatto seed oil proportions.  Only difference was one went through gel and the other did not.  It’s really quite amazing how much darker the gelled soap was!

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I hope you all enjoyed these annatto seed soap pictures and notes about using annatto seeds as a natural colorant!  Let me know what you all think.  

Like I said, I am working hard to build this natural colorant database, so hopefully I will have more findings to share with you all for the next colorant, which will hopefully be coming out soon!  Hahaha… it will probably take a LONG TIME for this thing to be completed as I can name more then 20 natural colorants off the top of my head!  It should be a ton of fun to create though!

Until next time....

Sincerely,
Steve P. Czapla


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## agriffin (Jan 31, 2011)

Very nice, Thank you for sharing.  I have not tried annatto yet.


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## AmyW (Jan 31, 2011)

Love this! Thanks for all the work testing and writing it up.


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## Elly (Jan 31, 2011)

Excellent work, thanks for sharing.


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## Sunny (Jan 31, 2011)

So much work!  Thanks for sharing that. I'm very interested in natural colorants and can't wait to see your chart that you're coming out with.


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## paillo (Jan 31, 2011)

Welcome to the forum, Steve! I'm a big fan of your SoapResource and thrilled that you're going to share your tutorials with us. Beautiful soap with the annatto, i've yet to try it but it's next on my list of natural colorants. Can't wait to see what you come up with for alkanet and woad, my two bugaboos


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## SoapMakingResource (Jan 31, 2011)

Hey thank you all for your comments! 

*Paillo...* Alkanet and woad are VERY high up on my list of colorants, so those should be built soon .  

I think though, in honor of valentines day coming up, I will probably do madder root or one of the other reds.  Not entirely sure yet though!

*Tash...* Thanks so much for your comments!  It's actually gonna be a bit more than a chart.  I'm writing pictured tutorials demonstrating the colorants in full and the resulting shades via the various methods of inclusion.  This is to be a full resource for each colorant, so I am trying to make it as thorough as possible and cover all the methods and variations (like gel or no gel/high superfat low superfat) as best I can.  Hopefully people will be able to use the colorant database at least to get a starting point for the natural colorant they wish to use. 

Thanks again everyone for welcoming me to the Forum 

Sincerely,
Steve P. Czapla


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## ewenique (Jan 31, 2011)

Wow, thanks for sharing your experiment results!  Have you seen this?
http://soapmakingforum.com/forum/viewto ... sc&start=0


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## SoapMakingResource (Jan 31, 2011)

Thanks Ewenique!  No I haven't seen that post.  Very cool and thanks for the link.  There are some colorants in that set that I havn't thought of, so I will have to eventually add them to the list!


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## paillo (Jan 31, 2011)

Welcome to the forum, Steve! I'm a big fan of your SoapResource and thrilled that you're going to share your tutorials with us. Beautiful soap with the annatto, i've yet to try it but it's next on my list of natural colorants. Can't wait to see what you come up with for alkanet and woad, my two bugaboos


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## Bubbles Galore (Feb 1, 2011)

Annatto seed was next on my list to try. Thanks for your research on the subject Steve.  :wink:


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## heartandsoap (Feb 1, 2011)

that's dedicated research Steve. Thanks for sharing!


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## JackiK (Feb 1, 2011)

Annato is also high on my list to try.   I've had some alkanet root powder infusing in oil that I'm going to try first.  Even though it appears red, research tells me it will give a purple hue.  I'd be really excited to see wht he comes up with for alkanet.

Jacki


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## c.a.p. (Feb 2, 2011)

Thanks, Steve.  I've been buying my natural colorants from you.  Please test the indigo and woad.  I'm having a heck of a time with them.  Can you also include in your testing, pics of cured soaps at varying timeframes?  That would be most helpful.

Thanks for all the work you've put into this.


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## SoapMakingResource (Feb 3, 2011)

Hey everyone!  

*JackiK*... I will definitely be doing a tutorial on Alkanet without a doubt.  Alkanet will offer a purple, but the shades can vary greatly.  

I will get an official test together that will be able to see the difference in hues depending on superfat percentage, gel, method of inclusion and proportions.  I've seen everything from red to a really nice blue with this colorant.  And all different shades of purple in between.  I look forward to seeing exactly what affects this colorant in soap as I know this is one of the colorants that is hard to get consistent results with. 

*c.a.p*... I will do this for sure.  I am keeping my soaps and will be reporting back with how the colorant did over time as far as fading goes. I will definitely be testing indigo and woad as well!  I can't wait to report on those 

Thanks again everyone for their comments!


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## Microdot (Feb 3, 2011)

Hi Steve, welcome to the SMF. I love your tutorials, I found you on youtube a while back. Thanks for sharing, I'm looking forward to seeing you here on the forum!

Dotty


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## Bubbles Galore (Feb 4, 2011)

JackiK said:
			
		

> Annato is also high on my list to try.   I've had some alkanet root powder infusing in oil that I'm going to try first.  Even though it appears red, research tells me it will give a purple hue.  I'd be really excited to see wht he comes up with for alkanet.
> 
> Jacki



Did you see my photos of ARoot coloured soap? If you don't add enough, you end up with grey. 

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22364&highlight=alkanet


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## ministeph (Feb 9, 2011)

Wow!!! thanks for sharing, especially with the photos! your molds look awesome too!!!

I used annatto for alll of my orangy coloured soaps. I love it.  It is the only natural colorant I've tried that has 0 drawbacks from being 'natural'.
on that note, I tried a green colorant made from chlorophyll and while it looked AMAZING for about a week.. with sun exposure it turns brown/yellow   The bottoms/backs/parts facing away from any sunlight stay nice and green though!


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## Dennis (Feb 9, 2011)

More stuff on my list of must try.  Thanks so much.  Where did you find all of that patience? :shock:


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## JackiK (Feb 12, 2011)

Hey Steve,

I finally got around to using some alkanet-infused oil.  Used 1 cup of olive oil and three tablespoons of alkanet power.  Let it sit for several days then strained.

I loaned my camera to a friend so I couldn't take any photos, but the result was really interesting.  When I first cut the log, it had a greenish center surrounded by a lovely purplish blue.  However, after letting the cut bars sit overnight, the green has now turned into the purple color.

Can't wait to see what you come up with.

Jacki


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## paillo (Feb 16, 2011)

steve, wow!!!! i'm finally getting around to trying the annatto seeds, am going to try a couple of batches, infused oil and in the lye solution. you went to a TON of work, and i, for one, really, truly appreciate it!


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## SideDoorSoaps (Feb 17, 2011)

I love the color of annatto seed infusion in my soap! We bought the natural colorant kit at Soap Making Resource and have loved the results of all the stuff we have tried so far. There's so many! We're only halfway through them all. By far my favorite so far is the French Green Clay. The green is so vibrant and beautiful, plus the clay in the soap has such a silky texture in the lather. Thanks for this kit, Steve!


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## JackiK (Feb 17, 2011)

Did you see my photos of ARoot coloured soap? If you don't add enough, you end up with grey. 

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22364&highlight=alkanet[/quote]

Learned that lesson, too.  Tried a small amount and ended up with gray soap.  YUCK.


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## c.a.p. (Feb 18, 2011)

I have had excellent results with Alkanet Root.  A nice lavender color every time.  Perhaps you are not using enough alkanet root?  The first time I used it, I only infused it for a couple of hours.  After that, I let it sit in a mason jar.  Results were the same each time.


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## Marie (Aug 1, 2019)

Steve, your research is wonderful an so extensive. I want to thank you for all your hard work and that we soapers receive the benefit. I've infused annatto seed and have the wonderful red oil all ready for soaping. Your research is a great help for me in deciding just how to incorporate. I'm also planning on grinding annatto to as fine a powder as I can,  for the exfoliating and visual benefits. Just a BIG thank You!

I am also thinking because Steve said the Annatto soap suds turned orange when he didn't put his soap batter through gel phase, that CPOP could be a great option. He said that when he put it through gel phase there was no discoloration in the lather. CPOP could give more vibrant color. I think that is what I will do with mine, so we'll see.


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## Relle (Aug 2, 2019)

Marie said:


> Steve, your research is wonderful an so extensive. I want to thank you for all your hard work and that we soapers receive the benefit. I've infused annatto seed and have the wonderful red oil all ready for soaping. Your research is a great help for me in deciding just how to incorporate. I'm also planning on grinding annatto to as fine a powder as I can,  for the exfoliating and visual benefits. Just a BIG thank You!
> 
> I am also thinking because Steve said the Annatto soap suds turned orange when he didn't put his soap batter through gel phase, that CPOP could be a great option. He said that when he put it through gel phase there was no discoloration in the lather. CPOP could give more vibrant color. I think that is what I will do with mine, so we'll see.



Marie, Steve is no longer here, so won't see your post to him, he hasn't been around since this post in 2011. This thread is 8 years old. If you'd like to start a new thread re this subject and link to this please do.


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