Incidentally, I made soap with alkanet two or three days ago that is such a dark purple it's almost black. It's still so new, I don't know how it will look over time, but right now, to see the purple I need to hold it under bright light. It does have buttermilk in it and it did definitely gel.
I used 10 grams of alkanet mixed into the lye solution and then I pulled out half the batter to use as is. The other half of the batter was mixed with water infused alkanet. Both portions were then alternated in soap to see if there would be a color or shade difference over time. At the outset, I could see a difference between the two layers, but now it's hard, but not impossible to see the demarcation between the layers. But because I know where those layers lie, perhaps I see it because I am looking for it. I will be keeping an eye on these soaps to watch for changes. However, perhaps they will stay this dark.
I do plan to drop the amount of alkanet used by increments to see what gives me the shades I prefer and to see if consistency is attainable. And I will try an oil infusion as well, since I would like to do a comparison of methods.
But this is so much better than the grey soap I got when I used only 1/4 teaspoon the first time I tried alkanet. I was so disappointed with the results, I didn't try again for almost 3 years!
Edit:
Here is the alkanet soap I made on June 9 (3 days ago) in which I used some buttermilk (not a lot):
The cannabis leaf soap actually looks almost black in poor lighting. And it looks like dark chocolate in kitchen lighting at night. And with a flash from my camera it looks like the above deep purple. If I hold up to the light from my kitchen window it looks a bit darker purple than the flash shows here.e
And here is the soap I made in which I only used 1/4 teaspoon and got grey:
See why I was disappointed? Of course there was also Borax in that soap so I suppose it's possible that also makes a difference, but I don't really know.
)
