Coloring with red cabbage

[Shahenaz]

Hi. I am new to soap making.
I am trying to use natural colorants to color my soap. I read that one can use red cabbage to get a bluish color. I boiled a head of cabbage and got a purple color.
My problem was how and when to add the coloring.
I tried 2 options and failed.
1. I froze the purple liquid color, then added the lye to the iced liquid. It turned orange reddish.
2. I concentrated the liquid to approx. 25 ml and added it after trace after mixing the lye to the water. It also turned orange.
Any advise how to keep the color purple.
Thnaks

 

[lsg]

Many times natural colors will morph in cp soap due to the high pH in cp soap. Try alkanet.

 

[ToniD]

Red cabbage will be red for high ph, as in the ph of lye, and will, or at least should, be a purple color at soaps finished ph. (Red cabbage is blue for neutral and green for acidic, if you want to know) That information just comes from my kids science experiment, I have not tried it in soap.

Anyway, the color might change as saponification takes place and ph goes down.

 

[juliet]

Wrong way round ToniD. Red cabbage is pink for acidic, purple for neutral and green for alkaline. You can test it by taking some red cabbage water and adding lemon juice to one bowl and baking soda to another.

Purple carrots aren't much better.

 

[soap_rat]

I did not try cabbage, but I did try:
hibiscus petal
rose petal (pink, dried)
geranium petal (pink, dried)
purple dulse
beet powder

and all turned brown in cold process, and I know the first 4 turned brown added at the end of hot process. I can't recall if I did beet as HP.

Alkanet will get you greys to dark lavender
Rhubarb Root will get you pinks
indigo will get you blue (although I have not tried it yet, I have seen it)
woad is supposed to get you lighter blues than indigo