Natural colorants

I purchased some natural colorants from Soap Making Resource to start testing out and they came in this week.

My test with Paprika that I started weeks ago came out great, through infusion (lovely peach color) and direct addition (dark brick reddish brown) as a powdered colorant so I thought to branch out.

I got some Annatto Seeds (yellow), Alkanet Root Powder (pink to bluish purple), Indigo (denim blue), Madder Root (red), Nettle Leaf (green), Sandalwood (red to maroon) and woad (sky blue). They also threw in a grab bag with some more annatto seeds, some tussah silk and orange peel in small cuts (not sure when I am going to use that though).

I am really excited about these colors but am not quite sure what recipe to use. I need one which will give me the whitest base possible so that these additive's color qualities can be true. I really don't want to add TD unless I have to (I would have to wait until after the 1st of the month to get it).

Has anyone used any of these successfully in soap, swirled or not but preferably swirled? If so, what recipe did you use?

I tried a very small batch with the silk, woad and indigo but something was wrong with my lye. I think it absorbed some moisture from the air while it was sitting out, I think, and came out into the water as a clump and turned the mix rather yellow. The silk also did not break down and it never really got hot. Consequently I don't think this batch is going to turn out at all, I think it will still be soup in the morning. :-(

I prefer to infuse natural colorants in OO and use it as my base oil after straining very well. I use paprika without a good strain and my soap came out a little scratchy. I recently made a batch with madder root that was infused for a few weeks and the soap came out a gorgous deep red. At the moment I have both some alkanet and annatto infusing which I can't wait to try. My base soap typically comes out white (CO, grade A OO, palm, and maybe a refined butter) and that's what I used with madder root at a 30% of infused oil. If I could find my camera I'd post pics.

I hope you have soap not soup this am :smile:

I've just done 2 pringles tubes with madder infused olive oil and a little indigo powder as I wanted a nice purple. It came out a reddy purple which is nice but I know it could still morph through the curing process. I don't do many swirls but I can take a photo if you like.

If you need another colorant to use try Calendula flower petals - both fresh or dried. It is one of the easiest natural colorant to infuse in oil. The petals are bright yellow or deep orange and the infusion color is from yellow to deep yellowish orange.

kazmi said:

I recently made a batch with madder root that was infused for a few weeks and the soap came out a gorgous deep red. At the moment I have both some alkanet and annatto infusing which I can't wait to try. My base soap typically comes out white (CO, grade A OO, palm, and maybe a refined butter) and that's what I used with madder root at a 30% of infused oil.

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Here's pictures. Lighter side is only madder root. The darker side I added a little labcolor red that is pretty diluted. This soap was gelled and still got ash. Fragrance is BB apple blossom. Sorry the pics are large. Still trying to figure out how to better size them. Also these pictures don't really do the soap justice because they are quite nice but pictures dont show the beauty of the color.

Birdie Wife said:

I've just done 2 pringles tubes with madder infused olive oil and a little indigo powder as I wanted a nice purple. It came out a reddy purple which is nice but I know it could still morph through the curing process. I don't do many swirls but I can take a photo if you like.

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I would love to see some pics!

I went to my collection and did some play tests last night (this morning?), mixing a bit of each in some soybean oil (to get the truest color, OO would discolor because of it's green tint, I felt). I am getting excited about using the alknet, nettle leaf, woad and indigo for sure.

kazmi said:

Here's pictures. Lighter side is only madder root. The darker side I added a little labcolor red that is pretty diluted.

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Did you use a split divider in your mold to get the differentiation? I saw this technique on a video and loved it, yours turned out very well too and I really like the color variations. There is always something classic about a tone on tone color scheme, don't you think?

I think that Alknet is going to be more maroon than anything. What about combining the Alknet with some Indigo or Woad? OH! An experiment!

(2 minute lapse while washing up a beaker and mixing infused Indigo with infused Alkanet)

It worked! You get a nice, rich purple color!

Here are my tests results.

Kazmi, that soap is stunning!

So, now that we know these naturals do indeed work well, what would you say would be a good infusion ratio? In my examples above I used about 1/16 tsp powder to about 1 oz oil. The Nettle Leaf I had to add more powder to get the deeper color I wanted but that is ok.

I am rather still hazy on the use of infused colors in creating a multi-colored batch. I have heard that you use the colored oil in place of an oil in your recipe but that would color the entire recipe. What I want to do is to use about 1/2 oz of the infused oil in an uncolored portion of the batter to create a layer color. I fear that this will add to much additional oil to the batter in general so I have been tinkering with not superfatting my recipe when running it through soapcalc then use the infusion as the superfat.

Any suggestions?

It's the kind of soap that you look at and go 'Dang, how'd they do that?', and the gelled look makes the variances in the colours more pronounced. Like!

Thanks everyone! I just poured both sides at the same time and since it was at a medium to heavy trace and a small mold (1 lb) I didn't have to use a divider. A divider may be needed on a larger mold though.

I was thinking of doing a two layer with infused oil. Alkanet and Annatto. It would mean having to make two seperate batters since I think the only way to get good color saturation is by using a higher percentage of the infused oil than just adding in at trace. I may be wrong though and will have to read up a little more on this. Has anyone else tried adding in at trace and got good color?

When I use infusions I figure out what % of infused oil to use for specific colour strengths. The infused OO (I always use OO for infusions) is done at a rate of 3Tbsp per litre of OO and I find this ratio is excellent. To figure out your % you need to do it as a % of TOTAL OILS in your recipe.

For example - when I want a bright yellow bar from Annatto OO and my recipe calls for 100 oz total oils, I would then replace 10 oz of plain OO with the infusion for a 10% usage rate.

If you want to use the method you mentioned above simply subtract the total amount of infused oil you intend to use from the amount of plain oil. So if your recipe calls for 10 oz of OO and you want to use 3 different colours at a rate of 1/2 ounce each then subtract 1.5 oz from your OO.

I do a few layered bars and I have found through trial and error that making separate batches for each layer works better and keeps a sharper line. The bottom layer then has a chance to setup before I pour the next layer and I have never had bleeding layers this way. It's more work, but and a big but, your layers will look great!

100%Natural said:

When I use infusions I figure out what % of infused oil to use for specific colour strengths. The infused OO (I always use OO for infusions) is done at a rate of 3Tbsp per litre of OO and I find this ratio is excellent. To figure out your % you need to do it as a % of TOTAL OILS in your recipe.

For example - when I want a bright yellow bar from Annatto OO and my recipe calls for 100 oz total oils, I would then replace 10 oz of plain OO with the infusion for a 10% usage rate.

That's what I did for my madder root soap and used 30% of total oil in my recipe.

If you want to use the method you mentioned above simply subtract the total amount of infused oil you intend to use from the amount of plain oil. So if your recipe calls for 10 oz of OO and you want to use 3 different colours at a rate of 1/2 ounce each then subtract 1.5 oz from your OO.

I do a few layered bars and I have found through trial and error that making separate batches for each layer works better and keeps a sharper line. The bottom layer then has a chance to setup before I pour the next layer and I have never had bleeding layers this way. It's more work, but and a big but, your layers will look great!

Thanks, that's what I was thinking to get better color for each layer.

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If anyone has gotten good color using at trace please let me know.

kazmi, wondering what shade you ended up with with 30% madder root? I haven't played with it a whole lot yet and am hoping to find a good ratio for a pastel pink. My test batch was 1 tsp per pound of oils and I ended up with a deeper shade of pink (added the powder directly at trace).

NM! I just saw your pics in another thread!

I think if I wanted to make my madder root soap pink I would add some td to it.

I don't use td so I'll have to see what I can come up with playing with % and adding directly at trace.

This should help: http://www.soap-making-resource.com/madder-root-soap-making.html

There are pictures to show the results of various percentages and how it was used (infused versus added at trace, etc.). HTH

I add natural colorants at trace all the time. Just like using an oxide basically. There are quite a few older threads on natural colorants also that I am sure will be helpful.
The nettle will likely go tan or brownish with curing. But you can make green with indigo and turmeric or annatto. If you premix into OO it will have a longer shelf life and the little bit won't affect your color if you add enough. I have found that making infusions and allowing them to sit for weeks and weeks will give a much nicer color.

I go rather heavy on the amount I infuse. A stronger infusion means less oil has to be added to color the soap, or part of the soap that wishes to be colored.