Natural colorants

[SuwimolJ]

What the soapmaker use nature color to make this deal green color?
Anyone please recommend!

 

[Catscankim]

The person that i know that best knows natural colorants is @Dawni Hopefully she can help you

 

[Dawni]

Is that Ojai Botanica? I think it is..
Sometimes she lists what she uses. Let's see if we can dig it up from somewhere haha

Thanks for the vote @Catscankim but I've not used anything that gave me that particular green yet. Any idea @szaza?

Edit: I noticed you've asked her @SuwimolJ but maybe she's too busy to respond? I know she does answer every now n then.

Also, note that her visuals are enhanced. Her charcoal always looks blue even if it isn't. Makes me wonder if this shade of green is something common but just looks different in her picture.

She did say the soap was made with "redwood needle powder" but I have no idea what that looks like. Does anyone here know?

 

[SuwimolJ]

Is that Ojai Botanica? I think it is..
Sometimes she lists what she uses. Let's see if we can dig it up from somewhere haha

Thanks for the vote @Catscankim but I've not used anything that gave me that particular green yet. Any idea @szaza?

Yes that photo from Ojai botanical ! I just been try wonder what she use to mix this color as I’m looking to make this color but not getting there yet!

 

[Dawni]

What have you tried?

Sometimes it's a hit and miss but you could try mixing two different colorants. I was recently successful with mixing indigo and manjistha to enhance a purple soap (but that doesn't always go as planned haha) that used ratanjot but wasn't purple enough.

Maybe test a small batch of a mixed blue and green? Very less blue maybe..... I'm sorry I have no further help to offer.

 

[SuwimolJ]

What have you tried?

Sometimes it's a hit and miss but you could try mixing two different colorants. I was recently successful with mixing indigo and manjistha to enhance a purple soap (but that doesn't always go as planned haha) that used ratanjot but wasn't purple enough.

Maybe test a small batch of a mixed blue and green? Very less blue maybe..... I'm sorry I have no further help to offer.

I am a new soapmaker and I just been try a Spirulina power and indigo root but yep.. not getting that green yet!

What have you tried?

Sometimes it's a hit and miss but you could try mixing two different colorants. I was recently successful with mixing indigo and manjistha to enhance a purple soap (but that doesn't always go as planned haha) that used ratanjot but wasn't purple enough.

Maybe test a small batch of a mixed blue and green? Very less blue maybe..... I'm sorry I have no further help to offer.
[/QUOTE I will try two color mixing blue and green , thank you for recommending and if you have a result please let me know!

 

[Sas]

Hi,

Sorry Im a bit of a sidetrack here but where do you guys buy natural colorant? I am a newbie and color I found online are synthetic. Thank you in advance.

Best,
Sas

 

[SuwimolJ]

Good question I would love to know that too!

 

[Dawni]

Yeah.. I'm not sure how natural these colorants are actually. I have a feeling the ones sold as soap supplies are already altered in some way to give more color...

Reason I say this, is that my stuff from the spice shops, dye shops, supermarkets result in soaps that are rarely as saturated as the soaps I've seen online no matter how much I use. Could be my recipes too but I'm gonna say maybe a bit of both factors lol

For example, my madder root is an actual root, as in lil sticks, and so is my ratanjot (cousin to alkanet). My red sandalwood and moringa aren't fine powders, and my turmeric is really pungent (much more than I've seen in other people's kitchens lol). None of these were sold as soap colorants.

If you guys have Indian/Pakistani spice shops near you I'd start there for some things - madder, turmeric, red sandalwood, ratanjot and/or alkanet, paprika, moringa - but some of these can be found in most supermarkets too I think, like the food stuff. There's also spirulina, chlorella, annatto, nettle leaf powder, etc. that you could also probably find in supermarkets.

Good luck! And remember to test in small batches first.

 

[Sas]

Yeah.. I'm not sure how natural these colorants are actually. I have a feeling the ones sold as soap supplies are already altered in some way to give more color...

Reason I say this, is that my stuff from the spice shops, dye shops, supermarkets result in soaps that are rarely as saturated as the soaps I've seen online no matter how much I use. Could be my recipes too but I'm gonna say maybe a bit of both factors lol

For example, my madder root is an actual root, as in lil sticks, and so is my ratanjot (cousin to alkanet). My red sandalwood and moringa aren't fine powders, and my turmeric is really pungent (much more than I've seen in other people's kitchens lol). None of these were sold as soap colorants.

If you guys have Indian/Pakistani spice shops near you I'd start there for some things - madder, turmeric, red sandalwood, ratanjot and/or alkanet, paprika, moringa - but some of these can be found in most supermarkets too I think, like the food stuff. There's also spirulina, chlorella, annatto, nettle leaf powder, etc. that you could also probably find in supermarkets.

Good luck! And remember to test in small batches first.

Thank you so much for your respond @Dawni! and one more question for you, how do you usually at those in your soap recipe? In oil or after mixing oil and lye?

 

[Dawni]

Thank you so much for your respond @Dawni! and one more question for you, how do you usually at those in your soap recipe? In oil or after mixing oil and lye?

Depends on a lot of things really. I've not done much testing on CP but if you HP I have several posts in the gallery.

Some I've tried in my lye water (my red sandalwood, indigo), most are infused in oil (my annatto, madder, ratanjot), very few I've tried adding directly to the batter coz I HP and they're difficult to mix in. A lot of these I think can be added directly into your CP batter, but my only experience with CP is with infusions.

I think you'll do best doing a search around the forum coz there's several threads with lots of info from different people on different colorants. That's how I started too hehe

 

[AliOop]

FWIW, charcoal almost always turns blue in my high-lard recipes. Not sure why, but it's happened enough that I expect it now. So my guess for the blue swirled top would be charcoal or else indigo.

"Redwood needle powder" is probably the dried and ground needles from a redwood tree. I didn't find any in an online search, just regular pine needle powder which would probably be similar (found that one Etsy).

Unprocessed indigo (like what I buy for doing my hair with henna) will give a green color instead of blue, but it is more of a grass green. Bentonite clay gives a grey-ish green for me. Probably you could darken either one with charcoal to get closer to the darker green shown there.

Sounds like some fun experiments ahead!

 

[Sas]

@AliOop Thank you for the tips! And I agree a lot of experiments ahead

 

[Zany_in_CO]

I buy herbs and spices from Monterey Bay Spice CO in CA. Look for "Bulk Herbs & Spices" in the menu. They have a large selection. But, whatever you do, DON'T buy a pound of anything. I bought a pound of Calendula once. I needed a very large container to store it in. I didn't think I would ever use it all up but eventually I did. Years later.

The best way is to purchase the 4 oz. size of a few different items for the best shipping cost. The only downside to buying from them is that they are not geared to soapmaking so you need to know in advance what works for a natural colorant.