Alkanet root

[Hausfrau007]

Nothing, most likely. Once again, I may have been too enthusiastic. But now that I'm in it, I have to see it through to the end.

 

[AngelMomma]

I couldn't help myself. I just took 5oz of OO and infused it with a TBS of turmeric. Oh the suspense!!



Btw, the alkanet powder I'm currently infusing in OO has turned into a thick solid layer on the bottom of the jar that wouldn't desolidify even with the sternest of shakes. I had to take a metal wisk and scrape the solid sediment off the bottom of the jar. I then shook the bejeesus out of it to teach it a lesson.

So when y'all say that the infusion needs a gentle shake every couple of days or so, I found this to be untrue. It needs a very stern rattling so the alkanet powder doesn't settle and solidify on the bottom of he jar, for me at least. Unless I'm doing something wrong??

Now I have to go check my jar and see if I have "sludge" :shock:

 

[Hausfrau007]

Yeah, tilt the jar to the side and look for solid sediment o the bottom. Mine wouldn't shake loose ... I had to dislodge it with a wire whisk.

 

[AngelMomma]

The powders do settle to the bottom of the jar....the ones I have used that behaved this way.......annatto, paprika, turmeric and now the alkanet. It did shake loose though. Guess I still have a little UMPH in these little muscles 8)

 

[2lilboots]

The powders do settle to the bottom of the jar....the ones I have used that behaved this way.......annatto, paprika, turmeric and now the alkanet. It did shake loose though. Guess I still have a little UMPH in these little muscles 8)

Angelmomma is a mover and a shaker, but Hausfrau is one tuff chickadee! She took a solid chunk and turned it into liquid! lol! I should have boiled this wine to make soap instead of drinking it...lol

 

[Hausfrau007]

Lol. I never should have posted the picture of that buster up bar!!

 

[Lindy]

So when y'all say that the infusion needs a gentle shake every couple of days or so, I found this to be untrue. It needs a very stern rattling so the alkanet powder doesn't settle and solidify on the bottom of he jar, for me at least. Unless I'm doing something wrong??

You don't know your own strength! Be careful with that jar...I've seen what you can do with a soap stamp! :shock:

You'll just have to filter out the sludge before soaping...no big deal.

 

[lizflowers42]

Bumping this thread because I used alkanet root powder for the first time in my soap today. I just added the powder at light trace about 1tsp to a 2lb batch that I added soap shreds into, so there is some color variance. It turned gray which I expected after reading through on this forum. It's been gelling for almost 8 hours and I took a peek...it's brown! The FO I used didn't mention that it had vanilla in it, so I wonder how it's going to look tomorrow when I unmold and cut!

 

[melstan775]

Interesting Liz. Let us know how the results go. I think alkanet is probably best used as an infusion replacing a fair amount of olive oil. You really need a big amount of it to really make it purply. I have some sitting in a wishlist somewhere, so when I get around to ordering it I'll do a testy batch and see.

 

[soapsydaisy]

Here is one I made using infused alkanet. I noticed that I get more of a plum color when adding the powder straight to the oils ITP.

 

[melstan775]

very pretty. I thought it was chocolate at first. By oils itp, do you mean soap buckets or added straight to other melted oils?

 

[soapsydaisy]

Mel, the picture makes it look more brown than it really is. It is more of a merlot color. When I added a teaspoon of alkanet to my oils it was more of a stormy plum color.

 

[Cherry Bomb]

If you gently heat the Oil and Alkanet Root in a jar in a hot water bath on the stove on low OR heat the Oil and Alkanet Root in a double boiler you can get quicker results...anywhere from 2 - 6 hours. I have also infused it in a crock pot on LOW for several hours. The trick is to heat the oil enough to soften the root fibers and extract the natural color...you just have to be careful not to overheat the oil.

If you set a jar of oil in a cool, dark place it usually takes 6 weeks or so, and that's with turning and gently shaking the bottle every couple of days. Some people set their jars in a window sill to gently heat the oil over the 4-6 weeks, but I'm not fond of doing it this way, as sunlight has a tendency to fade natural colorants (or colorants in general).

Amanda from Lovin' Soap had a great method for infusing oils with natural colorants:
http://www.lovinsoap.com/2011/07/color- ... nd-spices/

Thank you for this link! I was just about to start searching this forum on how to use this particular natural colorant! You are the best!

 

[sapone]

If you heat infuse your oils in a water bath this is a good way to keep the jar off the bottom of the pan. Just use twist ties to connect the metal jar lids. You could cover the whole bottom of the pan like this and infuse multiple jars at a time.

That is a good idea! I have been using a folded paper towel to 'float' on the bottom of the pan. I place my jar on it and then there is no jittering and banging against the pan....