Yellow Dock Experiment

[debbism]

I am trying sooooo hard to get a great raspberry pink botanically and am now obsessed with yellow dock (root) powder (YDP). After reading Surfer Girl's posts, I think the issue was not using enough of the stuff in my infusions nor did I use enough of that oil either. Last go round, I used 2tblsp YDP infusing in 22oz rice bran oil - rice bran oil was about 45% of my total oils This resulted in a light pink that stayed tan-ish in placed where the color took quite some time to develop.

So I am trying twice the YDP this time but in olive oil and olive oil will be somewhere between 70-75%. I am going to try the infusion as well as adding YDP at trace to the soap with the infusion to get the same pink speckles she got in one of her soaps BUT I might try mixing in some madder root in the infusing YDP oil. I shall post pics as we do them. I amvery excited to see what happens.

We are infusing at the moment but will be ready to soap the oils on Thursday. Since we have a tome of regular scents that need to b done, we may have time for 1 or 2 experimental batches per session so it will be a slow process but I will try to get some good pics of each batch.

 

[judymoody]

I will be very interested in your results. Do keep us posted!

I have worked with yellow dock a little but I got more of a deep orange color after cure. Here is a photo right after unmolding:

And here it is in the cured soap:

I think the end result has to do with many factors, most of which you probably already know - gel vs. no gel, the color of your base oils, the % of superfat. This soap gelled and I'm pretty sure that all of the OO in the recipe had been infused (probably 40% of my total recipe).

You might also try adding the yellow dock powder directly to your lye to see what happens.

Have fun and good luck!

 

[debbism]

........You might also try adding the yellow dock powder directly to your lye to see what happens.....

What would be the advantage of adding the yellow dock to the lye over adding it at trace? Do you think they lye might intensify the color as some people say it will when coloring with clay?

 

[judymoody]

........You might also try adding the yellow dock powder directly to your lye to see what happens.....

What would be the advantage of adding the yellow dock to the lye over adding it at trace? Do you think they lye might intensify the color as some people say it will when coloring with clay?

That's my thinking. The heat and the chemical reaction might cause the dye to release more effectively. I did this with indigo (I think there was a tutorial on Soap Making Resource that suggested this). It did release a beautiful color but alas, as the soap cured, it turned from teal to a muted blue/gray.

 

[debbism]

So far, the yellow dock experiment is not going so well. I increased my concentration and got tan inside and dark orange outside. I am thinking that maybe olive oil is not the right oil to use with yellow dock since rice bran oil at half the concentration yielded pale pink.

Maybe I will try adding it to the lye as suggested

 

[Lilahblossom]

We have lots of yellow dock around here too. I'm following your posts. And Judy, what beautiful soap you have!