Natural colorants from grocery/health stores

[dixiedragon]

I like beta carotene. 1 capsule in 4 lbs makes it yellow, 2 or more for orange. BTW, you have to snip them open, the capsules won't dissolve.

French Green Clay is a very soft green. The brand at my local health food store is NOW.

Red Sandalwood Powder - maroon/purple. Definitely has a sandalwood scent, so you want to make sure your scent will go well with that. BTW, it's not Indian Sandalwood, so it's not endangered. I found it at a healthfood store with an extensive herb selection.

 

[QueenBeeSoap]

I found that turmeric, paprika, and parsley powder all faded badly over time, to the point where I could barely tell soap coloured with them apart from uncoloured soap. All of these natural colourants were also scratchy when added directly to the soap batter. Spirulina faded from a gorgeous sea green to a speckled off-white which was really disappointing.

Steeped rosehip tea (as a water replacement), pumpkin puree, grated lemon peel, coffee / coffee grounds, cocoa powder, and annatto seed powder (yellow/ orange depending on the amount added) all retained their colour in my experience. Oatmeal and honey imparted a light tan colour. Cinnamon worked as well, but can be a irritant so I did not add much.

 

[lenarenee]

I used celery herb to get a nice green. I infused it in oil and then used the oil. I ended up with a pale green, but if I had infused say all of the oil I'm sure I would have gotten a bright green. I've also used infused basil for green, but it was more of a tan-ish green. The one from the celery was really gorgeous, I wish I had taken a photo of the infused oil. I'll probably do it again some time.

Hi Lin,

What is celery herb? Is it processed in a bottle from a health food store or an herb sold for cooking?

 

[Lin]

Sold for cooking, in the spice section. I had researched natural colorants and went to the grocery store with a list just to see what I could find, for a last minute idea. I bought a $1 bottle and dumped the entire bottle in with a couple cups of olive oil. It was an awesome green, if I was to do it again I'd use more oil (infusing all or nearly all of the oil would be very nice I think) and maybe more herb. But I also only infused it for a day, I kept it sitting next to me to shake frequently since I wasn't infusing it for too long. Longer infusion or using some gentle heat would probably get more out of it. Like I said, the color of the oil was awesome and I really regret not taking a picture! Strain the oil, there are pieces that would not be pleasant to end up in the soap. I just used a mesh strainer so tiny soft pieces were still in my soap which I liked. If wanting a completely smooth color without speckles using a nylon or the like would work I think.

The end result of only infusing a couple cups of oil was a milky minty green. Once the soap was used for the first time it looked less milky, almost translucent quality with the same shade. The picture bleaches it out a bit, and I'll see if I can take a picture of the used bar. I sprinkled extra pieces of herb on top: http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e103/Lin_171/Soap/20131121_031846_zps6e7110f5.jpg

 

[lenarenee]

Lin, I am definitely going to try that - thank you so much!

Dennis: that's an impressive range of green you have - I can't wait to experiment and see what I can come up with.

Thank you all for all of the ideas - dixiedragon...with your beta carotene idea. Once I find the right way to make brown, green and yellow, I'm going to try a layered soap: If I were selling, I'd name it "sun and earth".

Wow. I'm going to have to pick up some more lard! I plan on being very busy this weekend!!

 

[Lin]

I was just remembering, I did have a lot of ash so thats probably the difference between the milky green and the more translucent looking green- the ash was washed off! Especially because I've got a "puck" of soap I made from the scraps and you can see the difference on it between the milky and translucent green even though it hasn't been used yet. I made large tree embeds out of this soap, and had a couple trees left over that I'm using as small hand soaps.

 

[bodhi]

I have not responded on the green, since my main source of green is indigo, and this is not found in the grocery store.

Recently I started adding pureed sea kelp to soap, and it seems to add green but I an unsure how much since I also used indigo on those soaps. I have a soap planned that will use it just by itself, so I'll post if it is a nice green.

The green in the soaps below is from a blend of indigo and infused annatto.

beautiful soaps greensoap. how did you get the mabled look?

 

[vuladams]

I used paprika to color my soap. Will the scent remain or fade over time? It smells a bit strong to me. (I used 1 tablespoon).