Natural or Not?

[Stacy]

I hate to possibly start a natural vs not debate, and I understand that 'natural' is not a policed term (or maybe it is in Canada and I'm mostly reading US sources...)

Anyway my question is regarding colorants. I'm not strictly for or against 'natural', I just would like to learn at the start which are what rather than finding out somewhere down the road after I've worked on various formulas.

LabColors and various gels that companies carry are usually chemical. As far as I know that's a given.

Botanicals and natural additives (clays, activated charcoal, beetroot, alkanet etc) are all natural products. Again pretty much a given.

From what i understand, Mica is not a natural color.

Where I start to wonder is when I get into Titanum Dioxide, and Oxides. Are these all 'natural colors' or does it depend on the color/manufacturer. Or are they synthetic because they're nature identical?

If you're selling/giving someone a natural soap, do you use things like TD and oxides?

Please correct any mistaken assumptions on my part!

Thanks!

 

[CanaDawn]

hooboy. can open, worms everywhere. We just did some of this in the 100% natural poll thread.

You have to define HOW natural you want to be, and what it means to YOU and YOUR clientele. Are you ok with processing? Chemical manipulation to get an end product from a natural source? Strictly as it appears in nature? There is no legal definition for "natural", so this will be a critical first step to having satisfying answers.

For instance:

Activated charcoal - (straight from wiki, so apply the usual cautions re the absolute accuracy)
Activated carbon is carbon produced from carbonaceous source materials such as nutshells, coconut husk, peat, wood, coir, lignite, coal, and petroleum pitch. It can be produced by one of the following processes:

1. Physical reactivation: The source material is developed into activated carbons using hot gases. This is generally done by using one or a combination of the following processes:
   • Carbonization: Material with carbon content is pyrolyzed at temperatures in the range 600–900 °C, in absence of oxygen (usually in inert atmosphere with gases like argon or nitrogen)
   • Activation/Oxidation: Raw material or carbonized material is exposed to oxidizing atmospheres (oxygen or steam) at temperatures above 250 °C, usually in the temperature range of 600–1200 °C.
2. Chemical activation: Prior to carbonization, the raw material is impregnated with certain chemicals. The chemical is typically an acid, strong base, or a salt [11] (phosphoric acid, potassium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide, calcium chloride, and zinc chloride 25%). Then, the raw material is carbonized at lower temperatures (450–900 °C). It is believed that the carbonization / activation step proceeds simultaneously with the chemical activation[clarification needed]. Chemical activation is preferred over physical activation owing to the lower temperatures and shorter time needed for activating material.

 

[CanaDawn]

re Titanium dioxide " It is a white, opaque and naturally- occurring mineral found in two main forms: rutile and anatase. Both forms contain pure titanium dioxide that is bound to impurities. Titanium dioxide is chemically processed to remove these impurities, leaving the pure, white pigment available for use."
and here ftp://ftp.fao.org/ag/agn/jecfa/cta_tio2.pdf


So you see, you'd have to know if you're ok with the processing of a naturally derived or occurring substance.

Here's an article http://teachsoap.com/2012/03/24/soap-coloring-options/ that states:

"Pigments are manufactured in labs and have been since the 70′s. Apparently, pigments (oxides and ultramarines) used to be mined but the FDA stepped in and demanded some purity, so since then, these colorants have been manufactured in a lab – same molecular structure just a different way of processing." (the purity issue was to avoid heavy metal contamination, etc, which is natural....but not good)

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

^^^ what Cana said about it being as solid and tangible as a list mist on a windy day.

I always think that first and foremost we should do things with our customers in mind - be that paying customers or friends/family.

So if they want natural, what is natural to them? Micas? Oxides?

 

[Stacy]

It's a very difficult question since it seems that most people think that they have a strict definition of what is natural and not, but when you actually talk to them it gets muddy quickly.

It's a bit of a frustrating topic. I don't like the idea of not having firm ground to stand on if I say 'all natural', but it sounds like I'm going to have to build my own.

Thanks for the guidance, guys! I'm off to do much more reading ;-)