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LabColor Usage Rates

Filed Under: Cold Process Soap

We had a blast playing with pinks, purples, greens, blues and oranges in the LabColor range and thought you might want to see what we came up with (since colorant usage rate is a common question in customer service). We used the Bramble Berry LabColors in 4 ounces of unscented cold process soap using the 12 bar square silicone mold. Check out the usage rates below to get these exact same colors. For dilution rate, we did large size of Labcolor in 8 ounces of *distilled* water.  Can you tell where the gel phase is in the soaps below? I sure can! It’s the brighter middle parts of the soaps.

Row 1: Impatien Pink 2.5 ml, Flamingo Pink 2.5 ml, Pinkberry Sherbet 2ml and Fuchsia 3 ml (all ml sizing is in diluted colors)

Row 2: Easter Purple 4.5 ml, Royal Purple 4 ml, Purple Passion 5.1 ml, Purple Mist 3 ml (all ml sizing is in diluted colors)

Row 1: Emerald 4.5 ml, Blue Mix 5 ml, Royal Blue 5 ml, Red Velvet 5 ml (all ml sizing is in diluted colors)

Row 2: Green Apple 6 ml, Citrus Green 2.5 ml, Canary 5 ml, Berry Red 2.5 ml (all ml sizing is in diluted colors)

Row 1: Orange Sherbert 4 ml, Tangerine 3 ml (all ml sizing is in diluted colors)

Row 2: Orange 6 ml, Soft Orange 2 ml, Peach 3 ml (all ml sizing is in diluted colors)

Row 3: Vibrant Orange 3 ml (not Winter Orange) , Winter Orange Mist 2 ml (all ml sizing is in diluted colors)

I hope this helps you when you’re planning your batches and trying to get a great, happy, vibrant color.

Want more LabColor posts? See our other blog posts on the popular liquid colorants: Diluting Bramble Berry LabColors and LabColors and Gel Phase are Friends. If you’re looking to test fragrance oils or colorants, we have the perfect recipe (click here) for you! You’ll have plenty of time to work with the soap batter and the recipe  fits perfectly into the 12 bar silicone mold. Speaking of silicone mold, check out the FREE cigar bands that look so cute on these the square soaps.

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26 Comments

  1. Thanks Becky, I will try using a lot more of the color with both of these. These are wonderful colors! The Sky at Dusk I used before in a 3 color column swirl, scented with sage and spicy scents, along with a gold pigment and rose pink lab color. We (my granddaughter and I) called it Desert Sunset. Really beautiful and sold out at Christmas. I try to keep good notes, but I guess I underestimated the amount I had used of this color before, because it was wonderful in the Desert Sunset.

  2. I ordered Sage Mist and Sky at Dusk Lab colors. I diluted as directed. The first time I used them, the colors didn’t look right in the soap batch, but after going through gel, it looked fine. However, this past week I made a Sage and Lemongrass swirl, using the Sage Mist in part of my batch, and that part actually looked more bluish than green. Yesterday I made an Angel Wings scent, using the Sky at Dusk Labcolor in part of the soap, and ended up with a more greenish tint. To be sure that I hadn’t mixed the labels up on my bottles, I mixed a little lye water and tested each color. Got a beautiful green in one test and beautiful blue in the other, just as labeled. Any idea what is happening in my soap?
    By the way, I am not sure about the “what you see is what you get”. My lavender looks like a muddy gray before it overnights under covers, but comes out a beautiful purple the next day.

    • Hi Mary Ann!

      Thanks for the comment! Both the Sage Mist and Sky at Dusk are gorgeous colors to use in a soap batch. Could you tell me a little more about your soap recipe and I’d love to help you troubleshoot what is happening with your batch. Thanks! =)

      -Becky with Bramble Berry

      • It is a basic palm, coconut, olive, with shea butter and castor oil. I used about 1 ml of the diluted color to each 1 cup of raw soap. That is what I use for lavender, but I think it is not enough for the blue or sage. With the soap being yellowish anyway, I think the sky at dusk just combined with it to make a blue-greenish soap. I am thinking that maybe I should have used more of the sage in that batch as well. That is my next thing to try. Do you think that might be right? Thanks for replying!

        • Good morning, Mary Ann!

          That sounds like an absolutely lovely recipe, and so good for the skin! =) With LabColors, WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), so when we use them in cold process soap, we color the soap until the hue and shade looks good to us and then we make sure to gel so the soap brightens up by 10% or so.

          In this particular blog post, we ended up with closer to 4 mLs for most of the colors in just 4 ounces of soap, but for the colors you are using, I’d try up to 8 mLs diluted.

          Were you using any fragrance oil in your soap? Sometimes using a particular fragrance oil that discolors can affect the color of your soap as well.

          I hope this helps! =)
          -Becky with Bramble Berry

  3. I have used a few Lab Colors and are pleased with the results. In the past, when I have used them, I subtract the amount of water in my lye mixture, that I use for my colorant. For instance, if I use half an ounce of Lab Color (diluted in water), I subtract half an once of water from my lye mixture. Most of the time, I end up only coloring half the soap, or a portion of the soap, so I wonder if this is throwing off the balance of the recipe since the colored parts have more water. I hope this makes sense. It’s something that I have always wonde3red about. Thanks!

    • Hi Shelly!

      When we make our soaps, we don’t subtract (or give a water discount) any water from our original recipe if we are using already diluted LabColors. It shouldn’t throw off the rest of your recipe, have you noticed any problems? With LabColors, it really is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) type of thing. I hope this helps.

      -Becky with Bramble Berry

  4. I just diluted my first lab colors – gorgeous!!!! However, now I find myself wondering how much of the 8ml of color I should put in 2 pounds of CP soap. Can anyone out there help me with the formula?

    • Hi Heather!

      For using LabColors, it really is WYSISYG (What You See Is What You Get), and in each soap batch, it will be a bit different. If you look above (at the pictures), you will see that each of the soaps are in 4 ounces with different usage rates. I’d play around with your recipe in a small batch, to make sure you get the color you like. But, typically in a 2 lb. batch, you are going to want to add anywhere from 10-20 mL of color. I hope this helps. =)

      -Becky with Bramble Berry

      P.S. You can also check out these projects where we used LabColors to get a better handle on how it will turn out in your batch:

      http://www.soapqueen.com/tag/labcolor/

    • I would start with 4 ml x 8 so around 32 mls just based on the colorant charts above. What you see in the soap is about 90% of what you’ll get. The soap gets about 10% brighter after a nice hot gel phase.

  5. Hi, I’m beginner of soap making. I’m just wondering what’s the difference between diluted labcolor and mica& oxide. Need your help~

  6. You should use these images for the labcolors on the BB website. I’ve hesitated purchasing lab colors because I was unsure how they would turn out in CP. Such awesome colors! (especially the citrus green and the blue mix).

  7. Hi, I notice the royal purple turned out rather… Blue. I can’t seem to find a good example of it in clear melt and pour soap for some reason. Would it actually make a pretty deep-ish color in clear soap or would it also turn out heavily blue?

  9. I don’t know what is more fun, playing with all the colors or naming them! Pinkberry Sherbet, Winter Orange Mist….Love it! Thanks for the post!

  10. I received a sample of the fuchsia in a tiny bottle. Was wondering how much water to use to dilute. I don’t use a lot of color, but would love to play with this little bottle!
    Thanks!

    • Great! I’m glad this was a timely post for you then! That little bottle of colorant can go into 8 ounces of distilled water. Have fun! Fuchsia is probably one of my favorite pink LabColors!

      Courtney from Bramble Berry

  11. Is 4ml to much colour is 4 oz of soap? like you posted on top here? or is it ok to use that much colouring thanks

    • It’s 4 mls of fully diluted Labcolor in 4 oz. of soap.

      So a fully diluted labcolor is 20 mls of Labcolors concentrated color in 8 ounces of water.

      Many experienced soapers dilute into less water once they’ve got their recipe and colors down (I tend to) but when you’re first figuring colors out, definitely do the full normal dilution =)