Hello again friends. I am looking for an all natural orange colorant for my soaps. I purchased Moroccan orange clay, but this ends up looking like a terra cotta color. I am having a hard time finding anything that isn’t too brown, terra cotta colored or yellow. I also tried Annato infused oil and pumpkin, but this end up being closer to dark yellow. Does anyone have recommendations?
Need help finding a natural orange colorant
- Thread starter Paulaenos
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You could try red palm oil if you're not opposed to palm oil. This was made with between 25-30% red palm oil. Stained my white mould a bit but looks very close to an orange colour.
I have had good results with paprika infused oil. This soap was made with different percentages of paprika infused oil and annatto infused oil (yellow).
Turmeric-infused oil might be another one, if you want a lighter orange. Here is a good video on that by Holly's Soapmaking.
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Have you tried pureed carrots? This would probably give you more of a yellow color. This could be substituted for part of the liquid. Here is a link to info on natural colorants.
https://www.mullerslanefarm.com/soapcolors.html
https://www.mullerslanefarm.com/soapcolors.html
artemis
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That looks like a beautiful cantaloupe -y color.
Bdab can I buy one of your soaps
Katsbe, thank you for your interest but I don’t have any of my pumpkin soap at this time. I usually make it in the fall and winter.Bdab can I buy one of your soaps
akseattle
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Ditto on red palm oil. It produces a very pretty, creamy looking orange. The soap on the left is with 32% palm oil and the soap on the right is 15% palm oil. The color of the photo on the left is not accurate. It doesn't do justice to the very pretty orange. The colors on the right (for 15% are fairly accurate. I used less palm oil as I was going for yellow, not orange. Even at 15%, it probably verged more towards the orange than I had hoped. The non yellow part of the soap was with a separate batch of oil, it is really hard to get white or blue if you are working with red palm . The red palm makes an orange suds. I haven't tried the batch on right yet, so can't say how it will behave in the shower. I don't think it stained my silicone mold. I'm still using the mold and it's still pink... with no traces of orange- I probably washed it with soap.
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akseattle
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What a cute owl!!
Thank you
curlycoat2
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To get a good orange color you are best off to use Paprika (sweet). Infuse it for a long time, make a strong infusion to begin with and leave it to infuse as long as you can. I dont even think of using any of my infusions before 8 - 12 weeks and I consider those young. I much prefer 6 months or more.
Paprika is long lasting and very successful with many shades of orange.
Turmeric is a ph indicator starting out red and going more of a yellow orange and finally a yellow. Annatto is what they use to color cheese and you can get an orange but again it would have to be a long strong infusion The two soap photo is annatto on the left and paprika on the right. Both using the Freya (alcohol) method. The line up shows all the shades you can get using turmeric, annatto, paprika and other plants once the soap is cured (8 weeks for me).
Paprika is long lasting and very successful with many shades of orange.
Turmeric is a ph indicator starting out red and going more of a yellow orange and finally a yellow. Annatto is what they use to color cheese and you can get an orange but again it would have to be a long strong infusion The two soap photo is annatto on the left and paprika on the right. Both using the Freya (alcohol) method. The line up shows all the shades you can get using turmeric, annatto, paprika and other plants once the soap is cured (8 weeks for me).
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I love this! Beautiful! However, I now need you to explain the "Freya (alcohol)" method. Google is not giving me much~ Thanks!
I've used paprika infused olive as a percentage of my total olive oil and made shades of peach to orange depending on the concentration. The only problem is the orange fades out to white over time for me. Natural colorants do crazy things.
Below are pictures of a soap I made when experimenting with natural colors. For this soap I used cocoa powder, turmeric in olive oil infusion, and sweet paprika in olive oil infusion.
First pic is the day of the cut, second pic is 3 days later, and third pic is 1 year later. They were kept in a shoe box in a cool dark cabinet from the time they cured. Unfortunately, out of sight, out of mind because I totally forgot they were under there for nearly a year.
Update: Oops! I just looked at my notes from when this was made and that wasn't cocoa powder, it was charcoal because I panicked when both the turmeric and paprika portions turned a blazing shade of Halloween orange, so I split off a portion of both and added a bit of charcoal.... and that portion turned brown! Like I said before, natural colorants do crazy things.
Below are pictures of a soap I made when experimenting with natural colors. For this soap I used cocoa powder, turmeric in olive oil infusion, and sweet paprika in olive oil infusion.
First pic is the day of the cut, second pic is 3 days later, and third pic is 1 year later. They were kept in a shoe box in a cool dark cabinet from the time they cured. Unfortunately, out of sight, out of mind because I totally forgot they were under there for nearly a year.
Update: Oops! I just looked at my notes from when this was made and that wasn't cocoa powder, it was charcoal because I panicked when both the turmeric and paprika portions turned a blazing shade of Halloween orange, so I split off a portion of both and added a bit of charcoal.... and that portion turned brown! Like I said before, natural colorants do crazy things.
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I don't infuse oils, but using sweet paprika straight in 1-2% of oil weight should give you peach to orange color, in my experience.
I know turmeric can produce orange, but so far I only got yellow and brown with it, depending on whether or not the soap gelled.
P.S.: All the soap photos above are beautiful!
I know turmeric can produce orange, but so far I only got yellow and brown with it, depending on whether or not the soap gelled.
P.S.: All the soap photos above are beautiful!
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