Looking for a new natural green colorant

[musiccitysuds]

I've been using liquid chlorophyll to color my soaps green for quite a while and have been pleased as punch with it for the most part. The last couple batches started to develop DOS after a couple months of curing, though, and I'm pretty sure the chlorophyll is the culprit (one of the soaps has a green swirl and only went orange on the swirl). So I find myself searching for a new colorant. I try to only use food-grade colorants, so was wondering what everyone's experience has been with powdered chlorophyll, dill, parsley, sage, etc. Any reviews or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[ToniD]

I have used parsley. I find it slows down a bar getting firm. I made a salt bar with parsley and it did not get hard for a day and 1/2. Regular bars even longer. But once they do get firm, they get as hard as normal.

I get a nice green in a ungelled bar in which I use water as the liquid, but in a milk soap I got a odd muddy brown.

 

[busymakinsoap!]

Green Tea. Its not really a 'true green', but kinda an earthy one.

 

[Relle]

I haven't tried it yet, but what about Comfrey for a nice green.

Relle.

 

[soapbuddy]

Green clay. It's the only one that I know of that will stay green long term.

 

[wiseleyusedherbs]

I use powdered sage...but it is a dull green. Which suites my soaps just fine.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

Green French Clay. :wink:

 

[Elly]

I've had success with wheat grass (powder) which does not fade quite as much or as fast as other greens and has not caused DOS in any of my soaps. I agree green clay does not fade but the green produced is a bit dull.

 

[see]

3rd the green clay. i use calcium bentonite.

 

[bluevervain]

I also love the french green clay for the pretty minty green. I don't know if it is exactly food grade although there are some old-school natural health people that consume clay to detox.

I also use nettle sometimes. Have you tried nettle? It's definitely consumable. You can get a deep, dark green. You can either infuse the nettle in your water or just add dried nettle to your soap for deep green speckles. You can buy it powdered as well but I haven't tried it.

 

[bluevervain]

I also love the french green clay for the pretty minty green. I don't know if it is exactly food grade although there are some old-school natural health people that consume clay to detox.

I also use nettle sometimes. Have you tried nettle? It's definitely consumable. You can get a deep, dark green. You can either infuse the nettle in your water or just add dried nettle to your soap for deep green speckles. You can buy it powdered as well but I haven't tried it.

 

[dcornett]

I've used spirulina and got a green that was green as grass, nice and dark, but it did fade to a dull color over time.

 

[falldowngobump]

I've used dried parsley that I put in my small food processor and ground into a powder--mixed with part of my measured oils to do a swirl. The soap cured out and now the swirl is not as apparent, very faint, but still green. I think I should have used more.

 

[musiccitysuds]

Thank you all so much for the great recommendations! Let the experiments begin.

 

[paillo]

french green clay is my favorite, and i also use nettle...

 

[Katie's Creations]

Spirulina OR peppermint leaves

I have used Spirulina in my tea tree HP soap and it looks fantastic and has never faded colour.

I recently put ground peppermint leaves into HP soap and it looks delightful.

 

[SilverFox]

I just used French Green Clay yesterday. Very nice color. I used Spirulina once and the color was fabulous, BUT a friend of mine said it made his bathtub slippery when showering. I may have used too much.