Other organic colorants

[Kiwi2:)]

What color does the pomegranate give? Is it red? And what state is it in when you use it? How do you use it? I’d love to have another variety of red

Hi -

Have you tried Australian Red Reef Clay? (I believe there is also a French Red Clay but I haven't tried that one). I used that for the first time recently and got both a rich red (scant 1/2 tsp clay dispersed in a tiny bit of water to half a cup of batter) and a really pretty pink (mixed equal quantities of the rich red batter with white batter with a titch of TD - but I guess you could use white kaolin instead of TD).

This is what I got - the red contrast is mostly on the outside of the loaf unfortunately but you can see it at the bottom of the bar -



Sorry, just realised that this is probably the wrong thread for a clay... ☺

 

[aquamorgan]

What color does the pomegranate give? Is it red? And what state is it in when you use it? How do you use it? I’d love to have another variety of red

My pomegranate powder turned reddish-brown - see the attached picture. Yellow is turmeric, speckles are pomegranate.

 

[shunt2011]

I use cocoa powder frequently and have no issues with it sticking. I have some soap that's 3-4 years old and still a nice chocolate brown. I've done paprika and turmeric in the past sadly they faded with time. I tried many others when I first started and wasn't happy so then the Mica and oxide addiction began. I still use cocoa powder for my brown.

 

[szaza]

Paprika and tumeric fade quite quickly for me when infused, but paprika added to the lye or at trace seems to hold up better. Someone on here told me tumeric held its color better when the powder was added straight to the batter vs. infused, but I haven't tried that yet.
I have tried curry powder added at trace, but was a bit underwhelmed by the color.
For yellow/orange, annatto infusion and freshly grated orange peel work well for me and the color sticks (there's only one batch of annatto that faded a bit after a year and there's a slight amount of browning of the orange peel soap after +- 3 years).
I've recently tried tomato puree which turned a lovely peachy pink color, but can't say if it'll last.

Green colorants tend to fade to brown when the colorant is added straight to the batter or lye water. Matcha only gives green when infused in oil, otherwise it'll turn brown.
In terms of natural greens, spirulina added at trace or to lye water holds up the best for me (it's possible to infuse, but the color will be a lot lighter and might take a week to show). Adding sugar and salt to the soap while keeping the temps low seems to help prevent fading of spirulina soap, although keeping the soap away from light is the most important way to protect the color of your naturally colored (green) soap.
I also had quite a bit of luck with freshly pureed, frozen pandan leaves blended in at trace. The color is sticking around for almost a year now. I tried to redo this with frozen spinach, but the soap smelled a bit weird.

Most natural reds/purples (like fruits and berries) aren't pH stable and turn brown in soap. A lot of people on here have had success with madder (or manjistha) root powder. Clays also work well.
Alkanet infusion works for most people to produce a purple soap, but alkanet powder added straight to soap batter will turn brown.

For blue, indigo extract works well when added to the batter or lye water, but be sure to read the label so you know what species of indigo you have, some are more greyish blue (I use indigofera tinctoria, which is denim blue)

Like some others, I have good experiences with cocoa powder, but a small piece of melted dark chocolate also works to color soap chocolate brown.

Activated charcoal works well for grey and black.

Hope this helps!

 

[artemis]

Turmeric fades for me, too. It starts quite a bright orange, but ends up a sandy, light tan. So, I use it for a sand layer in a beach soap.

 

[SPowers]

I've tried Tumeric, Pomegranate, Cocoa Powder - all of them are great and colour stays. The cocoa powder I used is almost pure black, it gives your soap super dark brown.



I've tried Tomato paste yesterday and it works wonderfully. I am into natural colouring my soap and so far, Dandelion infused oil gives out very vibrant yellow color and I was very surprised.

Is the pomegranate a powder or a liquid?

 

[aquamorgan]

Is the pomegranate a powder or a liquid?

I used powder form. It gives the soap some tiny reddish spots, it looks pretty and acts as exfoliate agent in the soap

 

[SPowers]

like that a lot.

 

[AlexanderMakesSoap]

I've used the following so far:

French green clay - green soap (go figure!)
Rose petal powder - brownish soap
French Red Clay - pinkish orange soap, just used a bit of it
Activated Charcoal - black/gray (obviously)
Australian Black Clay - gray soap
Rhassoul clay - light brown, just used a touch (and Rhassoul can come in diff colors)
Chamomile flower powder - brown soap
Sea buckthorn oil - orange soap
Pomegranate oil - orange soap
Raspberry seed oil - orange soap (I used these last three, in small amounts cause they're pricey, together to make a nice orangey soap).

 

[Kathymzr]

How about fresh cranberry juice? If I cook it down, and use in place of water, will it color last or will it just fade and turn brown (found some in my freezer!)?

Same with pomagranite juice?

What if I mix together beet juice, Pom juice, cran juice?

 

[GemstonePony]

How about fresh cranberry juice? If I cook it down, and use in place of water, will it color last or will it just fade and turn brown (found some in my freezer!)?

Same with pomagranite juice?

What if I mix together beet juice, Pom juice, cran juice?

Juices are all primarily carbohydrates and water, so I expect them to do one or more of the following: burn and turn brown, burn and turn orange, not impact the color at all, or briefly turn pink but quickly fade as first the lye then the soap degrades the colorants.
However, the only way to know for sure is to make soap and find out.

 

[AliOop]

I've used the following so far:

French green clay - green soap (go figure!)
Rose petal powder - brownish soap
French Red Clay - pinkish orange soap, just used a bit of it
Activated Charcoal - black/gray (obviously)
Australian Black Clay - gray soap
Rhassoul clay - light brown, just used a touch (and Rhassoul can come in diff colors)
Chamomile flower powder - brown soap
Sea buckthorn oil - orange soap
Pomegranate oil - orange soap
Raspberry seed oil - orange soap (I used these last three, in small amounts cause they're pricey, together to make a nice orangey soap).

To add to the list...

Carob powder: tan to brown soap, depending on usage rate (just like cocoa).

Activated charcoal: besides grey and black, this often turns blue-grey for me, similar to what others get with indigo. Plan to test and see if it is the vinegar in the lye solution that does this, since I have no other explanation at this point.

Australian blue clay: grey soap

Saffron: light yellow soap (found an old expired jar in cupboard when moving, so of course, it moved to the soap cabinet).

Alkanet root powder infused in OO: when I used small amounts, there was no color change at all. When I bumped up the percentage, the purple was so dark that it looked black. Need to find a happy medium.

 

[penelopejane]

Spirulina fades to cream but it still retains enough zing to cause a crazy skin reaction in me and I imagine I’m not the only one in the world who is effected. I get extremely itchy wherever the soap or suds touch. I have to reshower with another soap and scrub my skin. It still itches for a while later.
I threw out all my spirulina soap and powder as the reaction was so bad I figured my family would probably react the same way and maybe others too.

 

[MarinaB]

I make oak bark soap. Oak bark essence gives brown color to my soap.

 

[Dawni]

To add to the list...

Carob powder: tan to brown soap, depending on usage rate (just like cocoa).

Australian blue clay: grey soap

Most of the clays don't really give much color it seems - at least mine don't. They're too pastel-ish as dried powder to begin with and just give a hint of color in the soap. My green clay soap looks more yellow than green even lol. Been looking at blue clay so thanks for this. Thank you for the reminder to check out carob too lol

 

[penelopejane]

Coffee gives varying degrees if brown and coffee grinds add an exfoliant and an artistic textural element as well. You can experiment with instant coffee in the water or in the batter and used and unused grinds in the batter if you like brown soap. You need to find the right combination so it doesn’t seep brown liquid.

 

[AlexanderMakesSoap]

Most of the clays don't really give much color it seems - at least mine don't. They're too pastel-ish as dried powder to begin with and just give a hint of color in the soap. My green clay soap looks more yellow than green even lol. Been looking at blue clay so thanks for this. Thank you for the reminder to check out carob too lol

I did get a nice subdued green from French green clay and a pinkish/red/orange from French red clay and I really didn't use much of either - though I'm assume these colors I'm getting aren't as pronounced as other colorants would be.

I'm going to try French yellow when I get my hands on some.

 

[Kathymzr]

Love all these replies! What happens if you put an avocado in soap? Is that any different than avocado butter??

 

[AlexanderMakesSoap]

...

 

[AliOop]

The Australian blue clay does give a nice grey that looks good against swirls of AC and gold mica.