Natural Green color
- Thread starter Cal43
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I've had success with French green clay. In fact, your post inspired me to look at a soap I made almost exactly 3 years ago where I used it, and it is still green as ever.
The batch I made just prior to that batch used wheatgrass powder. And while the wheatgrass held its green for quite a while (a little over a year), the green is now a faded memory 3 years later and it is a light brown fawn color.
The batch I made just prior to that batch used wheatgrass powder. And while the wheatgrass held its green for quite a while (a little over a year), the green is now a faded memory 3 years later and it is a light brown fawn color.
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You might try chlorophyll or nettle leaf powder.
https://marsbalms.wordpress.com/2017/11/15/natural-green-soap-colorants-part-2/
https://marsbalms.wordpress.com/2017/11/15/natural-green-soap-colorants-part-2/
Zany_in_CO
Saponifier
Depends... What are you making?
For lotion & liquid soap, food coloring works well. Some say it fades, but I haven't had that problem. My foamers sit at the sinks in a rainbow of colors depending on the season -- or how I feel when making them up -- or what fragrance I use.
For CP, I love both comfrey leaves or dried parsley, infused in oil, strained before soaping. Here's some info from my File -- "It Isn't Easy Getting Green"
To Get Greens
Spiralina (this does fade after about 6 mos, not my first choice)
Chlorophyll (also will fade over time, not my first choice green)
Stevia Leaf (best if you infuse this on in hot oil)
Comfrey Leaf (best if you infuse this on in hot oil) Excellent Green, dark and loden colored.
Parsley, leaf of ground. VERY GOOD GREEN. This is a wonderful grass green. It does not fade badly, and holds up well. The leaves do not discolor, letting you mimic 'peppermint' leaves in CP soap.
Eucalyptus Leaves, cut small - good green! Light loden shades and subdued olive greens achieved.
SOURCE: Kelly Bloom of Soapalooza.com
Last edited:
Wow 3 years, thank you!!!
Thank you. So the dried parsley leaves that can be bought in the store will work? Do I infuse the leaves in oil? The leaves are not in powder form.
Clay stays the same green over time, so it's great for soft greens and sage colours.
Pulverizing dried parsley to a powder, to distribute as a physical colour (like charcoal) does hold the colour longer than using the herb fresh. This can be done in a coffee grinder or in a mortar and pestle, or you can create parsley "dust" by vigorously rubbing the parsley between your (gloved) hands ... dehydrated parsley is soft enough that it crumbles easily when completely dry.
Parsley will add speckles if it is not ground up into a dust/powder (the colour doesn't tend to spread much into the surrounding soap).
Infusing dehydrated parsley in oil will not extract much green from them.
If you want a parsley "oil", then blanching the parsley for a few seconds, to make the green vibrant, towel and air drying (remove residual moisture) and then covering in oil and leaving it for a week before stick-blending it to a smoothy texture would bring out the green, but fresh greens tend to brown (chlorophyll changes to tan in soap), so test this in a small amount first, if you are going to try it.
This link has pictures of pieces of dried parsley in soap: https://blog.thesage.com/2011/08/11/parsley-in-cold-process-soap/
This link has lots of natural green testing: https://marsbalms.wordpress.com/2016/05/15/testing-natural-green-colorants-in-cold-process-soap/
Pulverizing dried parsley to a powder, to distribute as a physical colour (like charcoal) does hold the colour longer than using the herb fresh. This can be done in a coffee grinder or in a mortar and pestle, or you can create parsley "dust" by vigorously rubbing the parsley between your (gloved) hands ... dehydrated parsley is soft enough that it crumbles easily when completely dry.
Parsley will add speckles if it is not ground up into a dust/powder (the colour doesn't tend to spread much into the surrounding soap).
Infusing dehydrated parsley in oil will not extract much green from them.
If you want a parsley "oil", then blanching the parsley for a few seconds, to make the green vibrant, towel and air drying (remove residual moisture) and then covering in oil and leaving it for a week before stick-blending it to a smoothy texture would bring out the green, but fresh greens tend to brown (chlorophyll changes to tan in soap), so test this in a small amount first, if you are going to try it.
This link has pictures of pieces of dried parsley in soap: https://blog.thesage.com/2011/08/11/parsley-in-cold-process-soap/
This link has lots of natural green testing: https://marsbalms.wordpress.com/2016/05/15/testing-natural-green-colorants-in-cold-process-soap/
I did not have luck getting green with parsley. I tried three ways to obtain color and none effectively resulted in a long-lasting green color.
My one fun result with using a botanical to create green was spinach. Although it faded quickly (within two or three months, as I recall) it came back quite brightly when I boiled that soap. Why, you may ask, would I boil soap? One doesn't usually boil soap, right? I was salting out some soaps, and that's when I discovered that soap with faded to white spinach soap when added to boiling water surprisingly starts to become green again, much like spinach becomes brighter when boiled while cooking.
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