Lavender food color

[dobaym]

Hello kind soapmakers!

I've been making soap for almost 2 years now, but have never wanted to color my soaps. Now I need to make my lavender soaps purple on request.
I have recieved some very dark purple (rather dark blue with a light shade of purple) powder food coloring. I have just made my second test batch and got a strawberry yoghurt color both times, even though I put 2 times the amount in the second batch.
I make castile soap, but I don't think that should make any difference.

My question is, can anyone share their experiences, when do you pour the coloring in, before adding the lye solution, or at trace. I tried both, no luck yet.

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[agriffin]

Your coloring you got probably isn't stable in the high PH of soap. I would look for a CP soap stable colorant such as a mica or oxide.

I use this:

http://www.suppliesbystar.com/ulvipi1oz.html

and get a wonderful purple everytime.

 

[dobaym]

Hi Agriffin!

Thanks for your reply. I live in Hungary and I don't know of any good sources of soap colorant here.
Does anyone have any experience with food coloring, or maybe alkinin...?