Easter soaps - colors

[Iveta Pelá]

Do you make Easter soaps? I wanted to make some and try to work with colors on it. For the joy of children in the family. I would like to get some orange color for the carrots. What would you use from natural sources, or something at home, vegetables, spices? Annatto seeds, turmeric? I would also welcome any ideas for other Easter colors.

 

[dibbles]

If @curlycoat2 sees this and responds I don’t think you could get better advice anywhere else. Annatto will give you yellow. Paprika will give you orange.

 

[Savage Daughter]

• Safflower flowers will give you orange, or even yellow. I have a jar infusing on my shelf right now.

• Chlorella is something I use regularly for greens. It gives a very deep, intense green. You might be able to lighten that up using a more yellow color such as turmeric.

• Iolite clay - Holly uses it - also will give you orange.

• Mixing turmeric & a little bit of rhubarb root will also give you orange.

• Indigo or woad for various shades of blue.

• Madder root can give a nice orange. I have mixed it with rhubarb root before & gotten a very nice shade of it.

• Rhubarb root & kaolin clay - or just less rhubarb root - will give you a shade of pink.

• A little bit of indigo mixed with rhubarb root could give you a nicer purple than ratanjot or alkanet.

• Red palm oil infused with a strong turmeric infusion could give you a very nice, intense orange shade.

I'm giving you a lot of possibilities for orange LOL try mixing different natural colorants, play with them.

• I have tried indigo & chlorella to get a natural, muted teal but it didn't work as great as I had hoped.
__________

Recommendations for inspiration, in no specific order.

Holly's Soap Making: https://www.youtube.com/@hollysoapmaking

Check out SNIF Natural Soap Making on YouTube. I don't see any people sharing her videos in posts, but I LOVE her channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/SNIFNaturalSoapmaking

Also, Chas from Wild Plantanica works exclusively with natural colorants: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmQfA0cETSSUDOenQIeAnJg

And yes, @curlycoat2 - I'm sorry I forgot your name - also has some great info. I can't recall if she had a YouTube channel, although I know I did watch one video of her giving information as to how she infuses natural plant colorants. I seem to remember buying some natural colorant info sheets from her in the last year or so, though.
_________

I am beginning to experiment with mushrooms now, which is interesting. I thought this would be fun as I always have some kind of dried mushrooms in the house, for food or medicine.

I recently was experimenting with 'blooming' natural colorants overnight & then using them in soap to see if I could make them more vibrant, but without adding anything like micas, oxides or pigments. This is based on how people will drop a dilution of KOH (potassium hydroxide) I believe on wild mushrooms & check the color reaction as part of the steps used for identifying what type of mushroom it is. This then led me to thinking about how Original Peoples used so many natural substances for painting houses, masks, pieces of art, even their skin / hair / nails, mixing various substances, even ash or burned plant materials with other plant materials, clays & natural minerals to get specific colors. This stuff fascinates the #$@! out of me So I used some of my own plant material, a smidge of citric acid or vinegar (or both even), a pinch of salt, and enough distilled water to make a thick paste. I let this sit overnight, covered so it wouldn't dry out, and used the mix in soap the next day. I compared different concentrations & mixtures as well. This gave me quite nice results, and I didn't need to adjust my lye concentration for smaller batches. If I was doing a 16 pound batch this way, I would definitely recalculate to make up for the citric acid or vinegar. And yes, I DID weigh everything which went into these concoctions & made note of them. I also tried baking soda, which was useless in this case.

A very lengthy answer to your simple post about easter egg soap Have fun

 

[curlycoat2]

Oh orange is one of my favourites to make! Use sweet paprika and infuse it in oil - I guess with Easter so close now you would need to do a hot infusion (overnight in jars in a crockpot). I probably would do a fairly concentrated amount of paprika because time has run out for a long slow infusion. I think I would do 45g to 60g sweet paprika in a 500ml jar (453g jar in the US). I would also heat the infusion for a couple of nights. Turn the crockpot on low, put the jar/s in lids on (not tight) and fill water around the jars up to as high as you can. Turn the crockpot on low and heat for 8 hours. Turn it off, wait for the whole lot to cool down, shake the jar and put it back in and heat it again for another 8 hours.

When you use the infusion use at least 20% of your oil total and then see if you like the color when the soap is at least a week old. Probably you will know. before that. If you want it bright use another 10% ie 30%
- if too strong drop down to 15% and see how that looks to your eye. Everyone perceives color differently. I like my paprika bright! hahahaha you can see in the photo from my market I like bright

If @curlycoat2 sees this and responds I don’t think you could get better advice anywhere else. Annatto will give you yellow. Paprika will give you orange.

Dibbles you are Divine to say this, made my day thank you so much

• Safflower flowers will give you orange, or even yellow. I have a jar infusing on my shelf right now.

• Chlorella is something I use regularly for greens. It gives a very deep, intense green. You might be able to lighten that up using a more yellow color such as turmeric.

• Iolite clay - Holly uses it - also will give you orange.

• Mixing turmeric & a little bit of rhubarb root will also give you orange.

• Indigo or woad for various shades of blue.

• Madder root can give a nice orange. I have mixed it with rhubarb root before & gotten a very nice shade of it.

• Rhubarb root & kaolin clay - or just less rhubarb root - will give you a shade of pink.

• A little bit of indigo mixed with rhubarb root could give you a nicer purple than ratanjot or alkanet.

• Red palm oil infused with a strong turmeric infusion could give you a very nice, intense orange shade.

I'm giving you a lot of possibilities for orange LOL try mixing different natural colorants, play with them.

• I have tried indigo & chlorella to get a natural, muted teal but it didn't work as great as I had hoped.
__________

Recommendations for inspiration, in no specific order.

Holly's Soap Making: https://www.youtube.com/@hollysoapmaking

Check out SNIF Natural Soap Making on YouTube. I don't see any people sharing her videos in posts, but I LOVE her channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/SNIFNaturalSoapmaking

Also, Chas from Wild Plantanica works exclusively with natural colorants: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmQfA0cETSSUDOenQIeAnJg

And yes, @curlycoat2 - I'm sorry I forgot your name - also has some great info. I can't recall if she had a YouTube channel, although I know I did watch one video of her giving information as to how she infuses natural plant colorants. I seem to remember buying some natural colorant info sheets from her in the last year or so, though.
_________

I am beginning to experiment with mushrooms now, which is interesting. I thought this would be fun as I always have some kind of dried mushrooms in the house, for food or medicine.

I recently was experimenting with 'blooming' natural colorants overnight & then using them in soap to see if I could make them more vibrant, but without adding anything like micas, oxides or pigments. This is based on how people will drop a dilution of KOH (potassium hydroxide) I believe on wild mushrooms & check the color reaction as part of the steps used for identifying what type of mushroom it is. This then led me to thinking about how Original Peoples used so many natural substances for painting houses, masks, pieces of art, even their skin / hair / nails, mixing various substances, even ash or burned plant materials with other plant materials, clays & natural minerals to get specific colors. This stuff fascinates the #$@! out of me So I used some of my own plant material, a smidge of citric acid or vinegar (or both even), a pinch of salt, and enough distilled water to make a thick paste. I let this sit overnight, covered so it wouldn't dry out, and used the mix in soap the next day. I compared different concentrations & mixtures as well. This gave me quite nice results, and I didn't need to adjust my lye concentration for smaller batches. If I was doing a 16 pound batch this way, I would definitely recalculate to make up for the citric acid or vinegar. And yes, I DID weigh everything which went into these concoctions & made note of them. I also tried baking soda, which was useless in this case.

A very lengthy answer to your simple post about easter egg soap Have fun

no worries at all @Savagedaughter

I have also played with mushrooms, some wonderful ones here in Australia! I do use the lye test that I mention in my first ebook for everything before I bother making soap. Gives me a pretty good idea of what I will get. I dont have a YouTube too busy playing with plants and soap! ( I only use plants, I have tried mica, clays etc but my real love is plants in cp)

 

[Vicki C]

I second @dibbles advice about @curlycoat2 being the resident expert on natural colorants - thanks so much for joining the discussion! Look at your market photo, just beautiful.
Chas from Wild Plantanica has a video on making carrot cake soap (with plant colorants) that looks so fun - I want to copy her.

 

[Ephemerella]

@curlycoat2 This is so inspiring, thank you!!!

 

[AliOop]

@curlycoat2 your books on natural colorants are my absolute faves!

For those who are interested in purchasing one of her e-books, or her instructional video, they are here on her website.

 

[Iveta Pelá]

If @curlycoat2 sees this and responds I don’t think you could get better advice anywhere else. Annatto will give you yellow. Paprika will give you orange.

Thanks for bringing @curlycoat2 into the discussion

@curlycoat2 your books on natural colorants are my absolute faves!

For those who are interested in purchasing one of her e-books, or her instructional video, they are here on her website.

Thank you so much for the link to @curlycoat2's books on this topic, I'm very interested and will definitely use it

Oh orange is one of my favourites to make! Use sweet paprika and infuse it in oil - I guess with Easter so close now you would need to do a hot infusion (overnight in jars in a crockpot). I probably would do a fairly concentrated amount of paprika because time has run out for a long slow infusion. I think I would do 45g to 60g sweet paprika in a 500ml jar (453g jar in the US). I would also heat the infusion for a couple of nights. Turn the crockpot on low, put the jar/s in lids on (not tight) and fill water around the jars up to as high as you can. Turn the crockpot on low and heat for 8 hours. Turn it off, wait for the whole lot to cool down, shake the jar and put it back in and heat it again for another 8 hours.

When you use the infusion use at least 20% of your oil total and then see if you like the color when the soap is at least a week old. Probably you will know. before that. If you want it bright use another 10% ie 305 - if too strong drop down to 15% and see how that looks to your eye. Everyone perceives color differently. I like my paprika bright! hahahaha you can see in the photo from my market I like bright

The orange one is amazing, that's a real carrot

and the mushrooms are really interesting, that's the first time I've read something like that. I love mushrooms, we have a forest nearby... who knows... maybe someday I'll try colors too

@Savage Daughter , @curlycoat2, @Vicki C , @AliOop Thank you all so much for responding to my post and sharing valuable advice and experiences. I am happy for your answers. Natural ingredients are what I am drawn to and love. I have a fairly large garden and I grow various varieties, many of which are quite rare. Flowers, fruits and vegetables. And I am interested in their use, both for food and for cosmetic and medicinal purposes. At first, I made soaps without colors to test the properties of the oils and how each soap behaved. Now I would like to add colors, but I want to go the route of natural dyes. And best of all, what I could use from my garden, or what I could plant in my garden, or what I can find in nature. That's why your answers made me so happy. There's plenty of inspiration to explore and try out.

 

[glendam]

Not adding anything to the color making question, this just reminded me of a video I watched, it explained that rabbits don’t eat carrots, and how the myth originated. Found it curious.

 

[Iveta Pelá]

• Safflower flowers will give you orange, or even yellow. I have a jar infusing on my shelf right now.

• Chlorella is something I use regularly for greens. It gives a very deep, intense green. You might be able to lighten that up using a more yellow color such as turmeric.

• Iolite clay - Holly uses it - also will give you orange.

• Mixing turmeric & a little bit of rhubarb root will also give you orange.

• Indigo or woad for various shades of blue.

• Madder root can give a nice orange. I have mixed it with rhubarb root before & gotten a very nice shade of it.

• Rhubarb root & kaolin clay - or just less rhubarb root - will give you a shade of pink.

• A little bit of indigo mixed with rhubarb root could give you a nicer purple than ratanjot or alkanet.

• Red palm oil infused with a strong turmeric infusion could give you a very nice, intense orange shade.

I'm giving you a lot of possibilities for orange LOL try mixing different natural colorants, play with them.

• I have tried indigo & chlorella to get a natural, muted teal but it didn't work as great as I had hoped.
__________

Recommendations for inspiration, in no specific order.

Holly's Soap Making: https://www.youtube.com/@hollysoapmaking

Check out SNIF Natural Soap Making on YouTube. I don't see any people sharing her videos in posts, but I LOVE her channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/SNIFNaturalSoapmaking

Also, Chas from Wild Plantanica works exclusively with natural colorants: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmQfA0cETSSUDOenQIeAnJg

And yes, @curlycoat2 - I'm sorry I forgot your name - also has some great info. I can't recall if she had a YouTube channel, although I know I did watch one video of her giving information as to how she infuses natural plant colorants. I seem to remember buying some natural colorant info sheets from her in the last year or so, though.
_________

I am beginning to experiment with mushrooms now, which is interesting. I thought this would be fun as I always have some kind of dried mushrooms in the house, for food or medicine.

I recently was experimenting with 'blooming' natural colorants overnight & then using them in soap to see if I could make them more vibrant, but without adding anything like micas, oxides or pigments. This is based on how people will drop a dilution of KOH (potassium hydroxide) I believe on wild mushrooms & check the color reaction as part of the steps used for identifying what type of mushroom it is. This then led me to thinking about how Original Peoples used so many natural substances for painting houses, masks, pieces of art, even their skin / hair / nails, mixing various substances, even ash or burned plant materials with other plant materials, clays & natural minerals to get specific colors. This stuff fascinates the #$@! out of me So I used some of my own plant material, a smidge of citric acid or vinegar (or both even), a pinch of salt, and enough distilled water to make a thick paste. I let this sit overnight, covered so it wouldn't dry out, and used the mix in soap the next day. I compared different concentrations & mixtures as well. This gave me quite nice results, and I didn't need to adjust my lye concentration for smaller batches. If I was doing a 16 pound batch this way, I would definitely recalculate to make up for the citric acid or vinegar. And yes, I DID weigh everything which went into these concoctions & made note of them. I also tried baking soda, which was useless in this case.

A very lengthy answer to your simple post about easter egg soap Have fun

does it matter what rhubarb it is or does it have to be Rheum emodi?
Yes, a long post on my one and only, but I'm happy it's so long. It's all very interesting and useful for me. And I will come back to it gradually.
Those mushrooms are interesting. I wonder what it looks like in soap, what mushroom colored soap looks like...

 

[dibbles]

does it matter what rhubarb it is or does it have to be Rheum emodi?
Yes, a long post on my one and only, but I'm happy it's so long. It's all very interesting and useful for me. And I will come back to it gradually.
Those mushrooms are interesting. I wonder what it looks like in soap, what mushroom colored soap looks like...

I am not very experienced in using natural colorants, but rheum emodi (Himalayan rhubarb) is what I have used for pink/coral/red. It is fun to watch the color change when the lye is added. I have also been able to get a pretty pink from indigo. Holly’s Soap Making on YouTube has an excellent video on that. I can’t check my notes as I am away from home on the indigo variety I used. I have two, and one worked better than the other.
Himalayan Rhubarb

Paprika and Annatto

 

[Iveta Pelá]

I am not very experienced in using natural colorants, but rheum emodi (Himalayan rhubarb) is what I have used for pink/coral/red. It is fun to watch the color change when the lye is added. I have also been able to get a pretty pink from indigo. Holly’s Soap Making on YouTube has an excellent video on that. I can’t check my notes as I am away from home on the indigo variety I used. I have two, and one worked better than the other.
Himalayan Rhubarb
View attachment 76384
Paprika and Annatto
View attachment 76385

How beautiful are soaps with natural dyes... Thank you for showing the colors as they look in soap.

 

[Nona'sFarm]

I am beginning to experiment with mushrooms now, which is interesting.

Oh and I thought that was only in one's hippie phase.

 

[Savage Daughter]

Oh and I thought that was only in one's hippie phase.

Phase? Hippies ain't got nothin' on me LOL I think if it's a 'phase', it ain't actually authentic, just playing around until a person goes back to the regularly programmed societal expectations...and I do my best to always remain authentic

Have you not seen the amazing natural dyes which people who work with natural fibers - such as wool - obtain from various wild mushrooms??? My gawd, they are BEAUTIFUL! I saw someone at a mushroom festival a few years back with her naturally dyed skeins of wool - using MUSHROOMS - & my mouth dropped open....STUNNING is an understatement

 

[Savage Daughter]

does it matter what rhubarb it is or does it have to be Rheum emodi?

I have got 2 different types of rhubarb root...one is Himalayan & the other is Chinese, I believe. Holly did a video which showed her results from the 2. You might want to check her YouTube channel because I can't remember which video it was exactly.

Yes, a long post on my one and only, but I'm happy it's so long. It's all very interesting and useful for me. And I will come back to it gradually.
Those mushrooms are interesting. I wonder what it looks like in soap, what mushroom colored soap looks like...

I forgot to mention, although I talked about it elsewhere, I did use chaga fungus as a colorant in my coconut milk/coffee pull-through soap - which I didn't realize looked nearly exactly the same as Holly's in her coffee kaleidoscope soap until after I made it The chaga, which is a very dark brown-black color when in its powdered form (chunk form is different) - turned a beautiful rust orange color.

I will be trying red banded polypores, which grow on wood, tinder fungus (also a wood-growing fungus), artist's conk (wood fungus), turkey tail (likewise), and whatever else I happen to find. I have all at home due to the fact that I spend time harvesting & processing them every year for medicinal use, so why not?

When a drop of liquid KOH is put onto a mushroom, it's quite interesting. I am hoping that NaOH will do exactly the same.

 

[Savage Daughter]

I am not very experienced in using natural colorants, but rheum emodi (Himalayan rhubarb) is what I have used for pink/coral/red. It is fun to watch the color change when the lye is added. I have also been able to get a pretty pink from indigo. Holly’s Soap Making on YouTube has an excellent video on that. I can’t check my notes as I am away from home on the indigo variety I used. I have two, and one worked better than the other.
Himalayan Rhubarb
View attachment 76384
Paprika and Annatto
View attachment 76385

SOOOOOPER BEAUTIFUL!

 

[Cindy D.]

does it matter what rhubarb it is or does it have to be Rheum emodi?
Yes, a long post on my one and only, but I'm happy it's so long. It's all very interesting and useful for me. And I will come back to it gradually.
Those mushrooms are interesting. I wonder what it looks like in soap, what mushroom colored soap looks like...

I haven't tried Himalayan rhubarb, but I did dig up some rhubarb root from our garden and that root made a beautiful pink. It is brown or tan colored before the lye is added and the lye turns it pink. I have bars that are about 2 years old and when exposed to light they do fade.

 

[Savage Daughter]

I haven't tried Himalayan rhubarb, but I did dig up some rhubarb root from our garden and that root made a beautiful pink. It is brown or tan colored before the lye is added and the lye turns it pink. I have bars that are about 2 years old and when exposed to light they do fade.

I noticed the fading issue with my first batch that I included rhubarb root in. That was before I began adding salt, however. I did this to test out whether I preferred sodium lactate or salt in my bars for added hardness. The addition of salt makes the bars harder AND more opaque. That 'opaqueness' is what bumps up the color intensity & keeps it more intense for a longer period of time. Think the difference between colored glass & colored plastic.

I did finally remember where I saw someone mention salt helping with the opaqueness of soap AND scent retention...Auntie Clara's website. She made a comment in response to something someone else asked....and you guessed it, I don't have a link to the blog post she made LOL I think either @Mobjack Bay or @dibbles may have originally posted a link to this in another thread, which I saw quite a while after I had begun playing with salt. Maybe go to Auntie Clara's blog & search it for mention of salt in soap.

I also bought some of those specialty cardboard boxes which another person posted a photo of - was it @Ford ? - which I believe are meant to store collectible cards in. I store my soaps in these boxes now once they have fully cured to prevent color & scent loss before I am able to get them to retail customers. This is working very well so far & keeps them in pristine condition while greatly minimizing the space my cured soaps take up. It's also a great type of box to safely & securely transport my orders in. I will be buying more very shortly. They store flat until you need another one. I just assemble a new one as required.

 

[Cindy D.]

I noticed the fading issue with my first batch that I included rhubarb root in. That was before I began adding salt, however. I did this to test out whether I preferred sodium lactate or salt in my bars for added hardness. The addition of salt makes the bars harder AND more opaque. That 'opaqueness' is what bumps up the color intensity & keeps it more intense for a longer period of time. Think the difference between colored glass & colored plastic.

I did finally remember where I saw someone mention salt helping with the opaqueness of soap AND scent retention...Auntie Clara's website. She made a comment in response to something someone else asked....and you guessed it, I don't have a link to the blog post she made LOL I think either @Mobjack Bay or @dibbles may have originally posted a link to this in another thread, which I saw quite a while after I had begun playing with salt. Maybe go to Auntie Clara's blog & search it for mention of salt in soap.

I also bought some of those specialty cardboard boxes which another person posted a photo of - was it @Ford ? - which I believe are meant to store collectible cards in. I store my soaps in these boxes now once they have fully cured to prevent color & scent loss before I am able to get them to retail customers. This is working very well so far & keeps them in pristine condition while greatly minimizing the space my cured soaps take up. It's also a great type of box to safely & securely transport my orders in. I will be buying more very shortly. They store flat until you need another one. I just assemble a new one as required.

Oh that's good to know about the salt... I'll have to try it with the natural colors. I really loved the natural colors, but stopped using most after finding out I'm allergic to the ones I liked best.

@Iveta Pelá, I forgot to mention the rhubarb root needs to be harvested while it's dormant (no leaves) to get the best color.

 

[Savage Daughter]

Oh that's good to know about the salt... I'll have to try it with the natural colors. I really loved the natural colors, but stopped using most after finding out I'm allergic to the ones I liked best.

@Iveta Pelá, I forgot to mention the rhubarb root needs to be harvested while it's dormant (no leaves) to get the best color.

Good to know....I had no idea, but it does make sense!