Looking for a dark brown color?

[drdave46]

I am going to make "leather" scented soap... I need a good dark brown color and don't have a brown dye or mica, any suggestions?

thanks soapies for all your help.

Dave

 

[AmyW]

Cocoa Powder!

The bottom half of this batch is colored with cocoa powder:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=8 ... =529342663

 

[drdave46]

Brown...?

Will the soap have a cocoa smell? And can I get a dark brown if I use alot? thanks for your quick reply.

Dave

 

[krissy]

i have used cocoa mix. it does give a nice brown color. the scent does not come through. if you use cocoa mix soap cool and watch for overheating. i use about 1TBSP PPO.
when i have used it before, i have had an oily residue when i cut the bars but it went away while it cured.

 

[AmyW]

I used baking cocoa. I doubt the smell comes through. More should get darker. I used about 1T for 30oz of oils for that shade.

 

[judymoody]

You could also try using coffee (if you use it as your lye liquid, it will stink). Easier is to use instant dissolved in maybe a tablespoon of water and add as you mix your oils and lye. The smell will not survive. Neither will cocoa. Another option is powdered walnut hulls. And finally, if you want a more black brown shade, you could add a little ground charcoal.

A little goes a long way. If you add too much colorant, you risk brown lather. I'd start at 1 teaspoon PPO and go up from there to no more than 1 T PPO. Enjoy!

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Coffee (instant Arabica Espresso) gave me a nice dark brown. :wink:

 

[mmsigl]

I used cocoa in my chocolate peanut butter cup layered soap. In the gelled soap (a loaf pan cpom) it turned dark brown/blackish. The remainder of the batch was in single bar molds cooled on the counter; they did not gel and were a light warm color of milk chocolate. I'm very new to soap making but was amazed in the color difference within the same batch.

Moral of the story....... gelled cocoa soap = dark brown color

 

[leishs]

I used coco powder in my jaffa soap and it came up very dark brown colour.. (for scent i used a coco therapy fragrance oil and wow what a punch that was - lovely)
i loved the colour of it.. hope to make some more one day soon. good luck with your soap

 

[GreenScene]

I'll echo everyone else's advice. I've used cocoa and coffee with good results, and the scent doesn't come through with either in CP. If you want a nice scratch to your soap, a little spoonful of coffee grounds have worked well for me in the past, too.

 

[musiccitysuds]

I use a super-concentrated black tea to replace water in one of my soaps. After it gels, I get a great dark brown color.

 

[itsjustsoap]

yellow dock root powder - mountain rose herbs
makes a nice brown, i use when I do Nag Champa

 

[SideDoorSoaps]

You could also try using coffee (if you use it as your lye liquid, it will stink). Easier is to use instant dissolved in maybe a tablespoon of water and add as you mix your oils and lye. The smell will not survive. Neither will cocoa. Another option is powdered walnut hulls. And finally, if you want a more black brown shade, you could add a little ground charcoal.

A little goes a long way. If you add too much colorant, you risk brown lather. I'd start at 1 teaspoon PPO and go up from there to no more than 1 T PPO. Enjoy!

I've used coffee, walnut hulls, and cocoa powder. All at different concentrations but each lend to a different kind of brown. The coffee was double strength brewed and replaced as the water. oh, it so does stink!! And I put super fine ground coffee in the soap too, but it was really scratchy. Walnut hulls came out a nice earthy brown with no color bleed on the washcloth and the cocoa powder (1 tbs PPO) was a deep fudge color but it lathered brown and had no scent.