Madder not infusing?

[FlybyStardancer]

So, a couple weeks ago I put some of my powdered herbs into tea bags and set them in oil, for a cold infusion. The alkanet and annato started strongly coloring the oil within a day. Two weeks later, the madder root oil was still the same color.

So today I tried doing a warm infusion, setting it in a pot on the stove in water, with the burner on low and letting that go for a little bit. Still nothing!

Anything else I can try?

 

[Seawolfe]

That's odd. My only difference is that I don't strain mine, it's loose in the jar. Made it from warmed oil ages ago and shake it up before I use it. I guess I should have worried about scratchy bits, but there aren't any in the soap. Is yours a very fine powder?

Maybe try shaking it up? I shaould think it would work in the tea bag, but I'm just a nub cake.

 

[tinytreats]

I've done this. So save you the time....I've had madder hanging out in some oil for about 6 months now, and there is absolutely no change in the color of the oil. I've been thinking of perhaps grinding the madder in a blender and see if that helps with infusion.

 

[Seawolfe]

Forgive the lousy iPad photos, but if just took these snaps of my little infusion jar that's been sitting a couple months with random shakes. I can only post one pic per post on the iPad so here's the unshaken first, you can see the powder at the bottom, but the color is there even though this has been undisturbed for maybe a month.

 

[Seawolfe]

This is after I shook it, and how I used it in my last soap (the amount missing is what I used to color about a lb of soap).

 

[FlybyStardancer]

Well, gentle swirling did nothing... So I grabbed a bamboo skewer and swirled it, and that started to get some color. I'm heating it up again to see if I can get some more. If not... Oh well.

 

[lenarenee]

Excuse me for butting in, but I'm about to start infusing a bunch of botanicals myself. I use evo from Costco, which is green...so I have no problem using the green thing (dandelion, spirulina, etc) in that. But do you know what happens if I use evo with alkanet or madder root?? I'm wondering if I should find a different oil. Thanks.

 

[FlybyStardancer]

I don't know how Kirkland oil will turn out, but that's the OO I use too.

 

[Seawolfe]

Lenarenee - I use the Cosco pure Kirkland OO, and thats one reason why - the lack of green. That was the carrier oil used in these pics.
I'd read that using EVO as opposed to plain OO offers no benefit other than perhaps label appeal, so the cost decided me I've heard that olive oil pomace is even better for soaping for some technical reason that I can't remember.

 

[FlybyStardancer]

Pomace traces quicker and is higher in unsaponifiables. I don't use it because I don't like the idea of it being chemically extracted.

 

[Seawolfe]

Pomace traces quicker and is higher in unsaponifiables. I don't use it because I don't like the idea of it being chemically extracted.

Thanks for that! I didn't realize it was chemically extracted.

 

[Obsidian]

Has anyone tried making tea with madder? I wonder if the lye would drastically change the color.