Green colourant?

[Zany_in_CO]

the green tea will turn brown, won’t it?

Found this in my uber obese file on natural colorants. So sorry, my bad... I didn't note the OP so I don't have the source for this quote: This is my Green Tea Silk Soap recently made with Spring in mind. It’s scented with Green Tea, because it’s got such a nice green & lightly floral scent that reminds me so much of Spring. The green color is completely from doing a very strong infusion of real green tea. I added a bit of silk to give it some nice silkiness to help wash away winter.

For the life of me, I can't imagine even coming close to that color with the green tea I drink! Sure is pretty, tho!

 

[Mobjack Bay]

That’s a pretty soap! Maybe we should not discount the potential of green tea.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

My personal favorite is comfrey leaf infused in oil... I used to grow my own and use it in herbal balms. Nice. Also in soap. Once again, this is not my soap and, bad on me, no notation on the OP.

QUOTE:

Comfrey infused in Olive Oil.
40% Oilve oil
25% Palm
15% Coconut
7.5% Avocado
7.5% Cocoa Butter
5% Castor
Scented with Patchouli/Lavender blend so it will darken a bit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There was a guy (Paul?) on Soapmaking Resource who did several testings of various natural colorants. Wonderful resource. Now sadly defunct. Here's a pic of his test results of comfrey leaf powder in CP:

​

 

[Zany_in_CO]

That’s a pretty soap! Maybe we should not discount the potential of green tea.

I agree. If you go back to Post #8, it's used in that soap also. Hmmm.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

(From this thread)I wanted to make an ivory soap with a light sage green swirly touch to it. I used a bit of French clay, but it was so light I added half a capsule of chlorella and when I left it, I was loving the color!!
View attachment 5911

From this thread

Nettle leaves give a very nice lime green colour. And the freckles dont discolour in time. Nettle leaves are everywhere. All you do is put your gloves on and collect a cup of young leaves. Then put them in the liquid part of the base oils and whizz with the stick blender until it becomes green puree. Mix your lye solution and hard oils first, then add this green oily puree and trace. peppermint, lime and rosemarry eo's go very well with this green. (use benzoin if using lime EO to fix it. otherwise i find it evaporates)

Found 2 more SMF threads on Green Colorant

Post #4 on this thread mentions eucalyptus leaves. Hmmm
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/natural-green-color.74111/

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/green.14072/

 

[Mobjack Bay]

@Zany_in_CO Those are pretty too. What has your experience been with the comfrey infused oil soap over time?

@KiwiMoose I was looking for threads about indigo, and this one has some thoughts about natural green colorants: https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/indigo.58076/

 

[Zany_in_CO]

@Zany_in_CO What has your experience been with the comfrey infused oil soap over time?

It's been a loooong time since I fooled around with natural colorants, but, if I remember correctly, the color stayed green... but not as pretty as the picture above. More towards olive like the top row, #3 from the left in the Soapmaking Resource pic in Post #23 above.

PS: @IrishLass makes an awesome indigo soap!
So does @TAS
Perhaps start an indigo thread? It's trickier than most... but well worth it when you get it right. Never tried it myself. Chicken.

 

[Dawni]

Oooh I think I can help with indigo and green.. In fact, I was gonna post my results from several soaps. Maybe that will give you all something more to think about...

 

[Cess]

Hi! I'm totally new to this, but I used neetle herb podwer. Super cheap on Amazon It{s a poder so feels like mica and gives the soap a dark olive green color, doesn't smell and, well, I don't know if it last long or not.... not yet! The pic is from my first time using green, I did it again yesterday and was muuuuuuch darker.

 

[Dawni]

One of my very first posts on this forum was a soap that used a very saturated green tea for the liquid. I remember initially it was more tan than green, but the color morphed when I added a lil bit of charcoal.

Several months later, the soap looks like this.

It's still green in person, but more muted than it was initially, if you noticed in the link above, although it doesn't show much on my screen.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Wow on the initial color in that soap @Dawni. It looks less green in the above photo. Can you take a pic with a white background? I know that our eyes can play tricks on us, especially with red and green together.

 

[KiwiMoose]

I want dark green on the bottom of my soap. I'm thinking I will use the spirulina AND mica AND charcoal.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

I want dark green on the bottom of my soap. I'm thinking I will use the spirulina AND mica AND charcoal.

Go for it, Kiwi! And good luck!

From my notes on spirulina (Note: *Unfortunately, the picture accompanying this info is no longer accessible):
SOURCE: http://learn2soap.com/?p=10
"Spirulina is a blue green algae. It contains loads of protein, vitamins, minerals and amino acids. *Here it is used in a cold processed soap recipe which produces a white soap bar. 1/2 teaspoon of Spirulina was used per pound of oils in this soap recipe. The soap is a bit dark, but the lather is still creamy and white. A hint of blue may be seen when the soap is first cut into bars, but that hint of blue quickly disappears. What you end up with is green soap. And the green color of the spirulina seems to last a very long time."

 

[Dawni]

The soap I made that had spirulina, chlorella and nettle didn't stay green for long though...

But maybe mixing with mica will help.

I'll have to come back with pics. My son is still asleep and can't access my soaps just yet lol

 

[KiwiMoose]

The soap I made that had spirulina, chlorella and nettle didn't stay green for long though...

But maybe mixing with mica will help.

I'll have to come back with pics. My son is still asleep and can't access my soaps just yet lol

Yes - I want that first green, but not the faded green

 

[szaza]

I've used spirulina in my lye water and at trace and found I need to use less and it seems to hold the color a bit longer when I added it to the lye water. Is wheet grass cheaper for you than spirulina? It gives me a very nice leafy green, though it fades like every other natural green colorant

 

[SideDoorSoaps]

I love making green soaps. I’ve used chromium green oxide and got a realllly green, green...so green it bled it the shower. I didn’t much care for spirulina because of the seaweed smell but it gave me an olive-yellow green and I didn’t like the fading. Nettle leaf is a lovely green, more on the drab side as well as comfrey leaf. I have a batch of French green clay from NDA that is a bit on the muddier side than another French Green clay batch I bought from Soapmaking Resource (no longer in business) that was a very fresh yellow-green. I can also get a green from using a bit of indigo. My fave green is from Nurture Soap, the truest green for me from the rainbow mica set, Lime Appeal. So vibrant!

the left side is the mica colorant and the right are the plant colorants. Nettle, comfrey and the latest indigo I used.

 

[DWinMadison]

I've had good luck with alfalfa powder. Here's a link to the product offered here in the states by Wholesale Supplies Plus. The photos here look more yellow-green than my experience, which was more of a new-grass green. I can send you photos of some older soaps I made with it from home. The other pleasant surprises about alfalfa was that the color didn't bleed and it also didn't fade as quickly as some natural colorants do. All-in-all, I recommend. https://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/products/alfalfa-powder.aspx

 

[earlene]

Daryl, I'd love to see your soaps with alfalfa. I've only used alfalfa once and did not get green or even yellowish green, but I also bought from a non-soaping supplier, so it's probably because of that.

 

[KiwiMoose]

Has anyone used Matcha at all? It look quite promising (despite the price tag).
I'm about to try my spirulina today - stand by.