Which type of coloring is best, and tips regarding coloring?

[ChristinaB]

I'm buying coloring today, but I'm a little overwhelmed! So many different coloring options and I don't even know where to start. Any tips, suggestions, or ideas will be very appreciated! Thank you

 

[LadyM]

There are a ton of beautiful natural colorants out there, clays, paprika, calendula petals, so many. You can find them on soap suppliers sites and browse through to see what you like.

I also use ultramarines which come in blue, purple, and pink.
They're super easy to use and have always been uniform and reliable for me.

Good luck!

 

[soapbuddy]

Try TKB Trading. They have lots of colors.

 

[TJ]

I really like ultramarines although I've only been able to find 3 different colors a blue, a pinkish purple, and a purple. They are less expensive than other colorants, you don't have to hardly use any at all to get a nice vibrant color, and they don't morph in CP that I've noticed. I also haven't noticed any "bleeding".

 

[Guest]

Coloring soap

I love to use the Clays, French Pink Clay, Madder Root, French Green Clay, Morracan Clay. They give the soap a great feel and the colors are so warm!

 

[cinta]

I am loving micas at the moment, particularly pop micas. You only need a tiny amount, and you can get some gorgeous effects with them.

 

[busymakinsoap!]

I love liquid dyes. No messing around with premixing, and no lumps of colour. My ones stay very true to colour also.

Ultramarines are also good.

Oxides are OK but take a bit of practice.

I personally prefer any that are water soluble, they seem to mix better and the added water can thin the batch making it easier to swirl

 

[lsg]

I like both ultramarines and clays. The clays produce a more muted and subtle color.

 

[Elly]

I've had good results with ultramarines & clays, other natural colors such as annato, wheatgrass etc are nice at first but they fade later on. I haven't had much success with pop micas they just don't color my soap that well, maybe there is a trick to using them?

 

[ChristinaB]

Thank you for all the replies! I'm not so much into the softer, earthy type colors yet although I'm sure I will be I love lots of color, and I'm anxious to play with swirling (I really love, love the look of the rockstar soaps). Also, I thought Pop Micas were being discontinued?

 

[alabama49]

I am wondering if you can use paste food coloring in your soaps? If not, why, if so, how much?

Thanks!

 

[TJ]

I am wondering if you can use paste food coloring in your soaps? If not, why, if so, how much?

Thanks!

I believe if you use the food coloring it will morph into a different color completely. I've also heard of them staining skin when used in soaps and bath bombs. But I don't use anything colored with food dye so I can't really give any experience on that. If I were to use food dye I would use the tinniest amount I could get away with coloring the whole batch with. Like just a drop, maybe two.

 

[cinta]

Thank you for all the replies! I'm not so much into the softer, earthy type colors yet although I'm sure I will be I love lots of color, and I'm anxious to play with swirling (I really love, love the look of the rockstar soaps). Also, I thought Pop Micas were being discontinued?

They're still available here in Australia, I order from Aussie Soap Supplies. They probably ship overseas

 

[Elly]

Cinta do you have any advice on how to best use pop micas? I am not having much success with them, only just bought some but cannot get them to color my soap, thank you

 

[cinta]

I don't usually use them to colour a whole batch, as you seem to need alot to get even a pale shade, so it's not very cost effective. I like to scoop a ladle-full of soap into a cup at very thin trace and mix about one teaspoon of pop mica into it. I've never had any trouble with it clumping or anything, and the colour remains vibrant and shimmery. I then mould the soap and swirl the pop-mica coloured soap on top...if that makes sense? I have a pic on my computer of a recent batch I made this way, I'll try uploading it here...brb!

 

[cinta]

Here is a batch of my soap swirled with pop micas (raspberry & tangerine) as described in my last post. I left the bulk of the soap uncoloured, as you can see between some of the swirls.

And here is a bar of soap from a 1kg batch which I tried to colour with the raspberry pop mica. I mixed about 2 tablespoons into it, and decided adding any more would be a waste of mica (and money!) as it just wasn't getting any darker than this. I think it's a very pretty shade anyway, but I'm sure there are more cost effective ways to get the same effect. The pretty shimmer is lost throughout the soap (which was to be expected), so I dusted the top with some white pearl mica - which was a learning disaster all of its own!

Now I just hope I've used photobucket correctly...technology is certainly not my strong point!

 

[cinta]

As you can see in the 2nd pic, all that mixing, trying to get a darker shade of raspberry, brought the soap to a really thick trace - hence the yucky gaps throughout the soap. I had to glop it into the mould & obviously missed some gaps & air-bubbles.

 

[Elly]

Wow you got really good colors particularly with the second pic, love it, I have not experienced anything like it with pop micas, but I realize now I have been using too little of it, I will now increase the amount and hopefully get better results. Thanks so much for taking the time to explain and uploading pics

 

[Dragonkaz]

Thank you for all the replies! I'm not so much into the softer, earthy type colors yet although I'm sure I will be I love lots of color, and I'm anxious to play with swirling (I really love, love the look of the rockstar soaps). Also, I thought Pop Micas were being discontinued?

They're still available here in Australia, I order from Aussie Soap Supplies. They probably ship overseas

I use pop micas in most of my soaps and love them. I use 3-5 gm of pop mica to colour 1500 gm of batter for my lemon myrtle soap. For swirls I use 1-3 heaped 1/4 teaspoons of pop mica.

I put the pop mica in a cup, then add a little oil and mix until it's smooth. When I've made the batter, before adding the EO or FO, I add batter to the cup and mix.

The colours are bright and fun!

 

[Relle]

Love to see the top one cut Cinta. The 2nd one is a very pretty dark apricoty/pink. I'm wanting to get some pop micas for some extra bright colours.