Natural Powders for color

[DeeAnna]

I have not infused goldenrod flowers in oil, but a quick Google check for pics of oil infusions others have made shows this infusion is often a green-yellow. And a quick Google check for soap made with goldenrod infused oil resulted in a pic of a tan colored bar -- definitely not yellow.

You say this is your first infusion and you want yellow. I suspect the silence regarding your questions about goldenrod is that it's not something many people use for a colorant in soap. Why not try a botanical that has a proven track record? If you want a yellow botanical for soaping, I'd focus on something like calendula, turmeric, annatto, or ginger. More ideas: http://www.mullerslanefarm.com/soapcolors.html

If you are determined to stick with goldenrod, then do a test to see if it has some reasonable promise of working in soap. Try mixing a small sample of the infused oil with a bit of lye solution and see what happens. If the color morphs, it's not going to be a good choice for soaping, even if you were looking for a greeny yellow colorant.

 

[CTAnton]

I wonder about you cooking it...infusions can get TOO warm..try this...set up your infusions and put them in the oven with the light on...I haven't recorded the temperature but it seems nice and cozy...somewhere in the 80's I'm guessing...nice and slow heat....I overcooked a fewn infusions in my time doing it your way on a gas range....perhaps with electric you can get the temperature lower but not with gas...way too hot...even with a water bath....

 

[fionasfrightsoap]

Does the cocoa powder leave a scent? I am working on a soap that is brown but not sure a cocoa scent would mesh well with the blend I have planned.

 

[Spice]

Sorry I just got to this now. I used a water bath method to infuse my Goldenrod flowers. I used a half gallon canning jar and filled it Half full of Goldenrod flowers (ends only) and covered it with canola oil. Placed jar in pan of boiling water and cooked for about 3 hours. Let it sit overnight and strained it this morning. It's green. I wanted yellow to make a chamomile soap. I have heard you have to dry the flowers first and that you can use them in full bloom. Which is the correct way and was it
Always gonna be green and not yellow? Surely someone has tried it. Thanks!!

I will have to tried that method.

 

[Spice]

this is the paprika infused oil and this the results. It is different.

 

[DeeAnna]

"...I have heard you have to dry the flowers first and that you can use them in full bloom. Which is the correct way..."

It depends on what you want to do. There's no one right answer.

For medicinal/food infusions into oil, the usual way to do an oil infusion is to use the dried plant. The main reason for this is the water/juice that comes from fresh plant material can lead to the growth of botulism in an oil infusion. That's not good eats. Not everyone subscribes to that theory, but using dried material is probably the more conservative approach vs. using fresh. But for a short infusion to be used in soap, it's not all that important.

The other aspect of infusing dried plant material vs. fresh is simply that you can put more dried stuff into a jar than you can fresh.

Whether to use the flowers at full bloom or not again depends on your goal. For medicinal/food use, sometimes infusions are made just when the buds start to show color or are just barely opened. For using goldenrod as a colorant -- I don't know the answer to that one. Calendula blooms should be fully open, so it might be true for goldenrod too.

 

[debikers]

Well, my Goldenrod
Blooms were open, but
Maybe I did cook them hard. I am worried now about using the oil. Will The water from the plants cause
My soap to not
Turn out? I was going to get soaping
First
Thing this morning:/

 

[debikers]

I really wanted yellow but I'll settle
For
Anything at
This point just
So
Long as I didn't waste my oil.

 

[Susie]

Does the cocoa powder leave a scent? I am working on a soap that is brown but not sure a cocoa scent would mesh well with the blend I have planned.

Cocoa powder does not leave a scent. You don't use much of it- 1 teaspoon-1 tablespoon.

I have infused my oil with the paprika, it is dark orange. It has been sitting for 24 hrs now. Can paprika infused oil stain washcloths? :idea:

Looking at the pics, I would say you did not use enough of the paprika colored oil. It will briefly discolor the washcloth(rinses right out with no lingering color) if used in high enough concentrations. But you have to use a LOT to get it that dark.

today I will infuse paparika into oo and make ginger soap.I will post the soap in a couple of days, it will be HP...for now.

I usually infuse 2 tablespoons of paprika into 8 oz (by volume) of oil. Then it only takes about 1 oz (by weight) of colored oil to get a nice sunny yellow in a 2 lb of oil batch of soap, but more to get orange or darker. Using the whole batch of colored oil will result in a loaf that is spice cake colored. Sort of reddish brown.

Another way to get a nice yellow is to snip the end of a Beta Carotene capsule and stir that liquid into your oils. Warning on this, though. It stains your mold and everything else it touches before becoming soap. Not afterwards, though.

 

[rparrny]

I infused olive oil with carrot powder and it gave me a very nice bright yellow soap. You might have better luck getting orange with annatto powder.

Do you think if I made my own powder in the excaliber I would get good results?

 

[kumudini]

I really wanted yellow but I'll settle
For
Anything at
This point just
So
Long as I didn't waste my oil.

What you did was a heat infusion. Generally it's done in a double boiler on gentle heat or even directly on the stove top at low low settings.The water bath method as you described is pretty high heat, your oil is cooked for that long. I wonder if you covered the canning jar or not while infusing. We're there any bubbles within the jar? Fresh plant material give off their water which rises up from the oil as bubbles. You have to infuse till all the bubbles are gone to make sure there is no moisture., but if you covered the jar, the moisture would've kept recirculating. To me at this point, the moisture in the oil is not as concerning as the length of time the oil was cooked. It would more likely go rancid very fast and give you DOS in the soap. Do you really want to risk it?

 

[DeeAnna]

"...I am worried now about using the oil. Will The water from the plants cause My soap to not Turn out?..."
"...This point just So Long as I didn't waste my oil...."

It's pretty clear you're leaping into action and then deciding to do your homework. Given how worried and unsure you are about all of this and how many basic questions your are asking -- my suggestion for next time is to reverse the steps.

 

[Spice]

Point taken about using plenty of spice in the oil to ensure the infused oil is intensely colored. I have to say 1 TBL of whole annatto seed per 1 cup of oil is intensely colored enough for the soap I make.

But I'm not quite sure I follow your advice that "...you won't have to change the oil and lye amounts in the recipe to accommodate the color...".

If you need 18 oz of OO in the recipe and you've already decided to use 5 oz of infused OO, regardless of how intensely colored it is, and 13 oz of regular OO, you are kinda stuck using that particular combination of infused and plain OO. The only way to change it is if you ~do~ recalc the recipe to allow for adding more infused OO to the batch to intensify the color or more plain OO to lighten the color.

Also, sometimes an infused colorant doesn't show its "true colors" in soap until after the batch is done, cut, and sometimes even cured. In that case, it's hard to know if you need to correct until well after the fact. In that case, the only way to handle that problem is to adjust the amount of infused oil in the next batch.

Sorry have been busy making soap for the past week and getting ready for a street fair, at any rate, what I did was to use 10 oz of plain oo to 1 oz of infused. I want to see what one oz would do in 10 oz of plain oo. I knew that the 10 oz would either be to light but not to dark. I could go with a lighter soap. I gradually poured at 1 oz increments. When I got to 5 oz it was dark but I still had 3 more oz to go, that 3 oz was perfect for reducing the color and it never changed, even after cooking. I took notes of every step, then I took those notes and poured in 13 oz of oo and 5 oz of infused and made a second batch. I had a good second batch. So my notes worked out good. Thanks for the inspiration and advice, this will be my new soap. :clap:

 

[Spice]

Cocoa powder does not leave a scent. You don't use much of it- 1 teaspoon-1 tablespoon.



Looking at the pics, I would say you did not use enough of the paprika colored oil. It will briefly discolor the washcloth(rinses right out with no lingering color) if used in high enough concentrations. But you have to use a LOT to get it that dark.



I usually infuse 2 tablespoons of paprika into 8 oz (by volume) of oil. Then it only takes about 1 oz (by weight) of colored oil to get a nice sunny yellow in a 2 lb of oil batch of soap, but more to get orange or darker. Using the whole batch of colored oil will result in a loaf that is spice cake colored. Sort of reddish brown.

Another way to get a nice yellow is to snip the end of a Beta Carotene capsule and stir that liquid into your oils. Warning on this, though. It stains your mold and everything else it touches before becoming soap. Not afterwards, though.

Susie, why is that you think I did use enough paprika? I mean what do you see. Should this have been brighter orange?:???:

 

[Spice]

Susie, why is that you think I did use enough paprika? I mean what do you see. Should this have been brighter orange?:???:

I now see what you mean. It was not enough, I used the soap and it become a lighter color. Its still good, however, the color could be bright. Thanks:clap: