“Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways. ”
― Oscar Wilde

The first thing anyone sees about your soap creation is its color and shape. The thing that will intrigue a customer and get them to pick up a bar of soap is not the scent; it’s the color. From LabColors, to micas, color blocks for melt and pour and pigments, there are many options for coloring your soap. If you prefer to use natural ingredients in your soap, you can still achieve vibrant, beautiful colors using natural colorants. Natural products that impart color include clays as well as herbs and botanicals.

For a comprehensive overview of soapy colorant options, check out this Talk it Out Tuesday: Colorants post. Another fantastic resource is E-Book Infusing: Herbs, Spices, Teas and Clays, which features an extensive chart of more than 104 herbs, spices, teas and clays, with tips and notes on their color outcome.

Using natural herbs in your soap can add benefits for the skin as well as providing color to soap and toiletries. A few of favorite herbs that impart color include Rose Clay, Indigo Powder and Paprika.

Rose Clay (right) This mild  Kaolin Clay not only gives your soap a soft pink hue, it’s also commonly used to purify the skin by drawing out impurities from the pores.

Indigo Powder (center)Extracted from the leaves and stems of the indigo containing plants, this natural colorant gives your soap a soft blue hue. For a darker blue we suggest reconstituting the indigo powder in your lye solution.  Using a palm free cold process recipe will help to achieve a more consistent coloring of the soap.

Paprika (left)Adding this natural colorant to your soap gives a vibrant, warm orange color. This colorant is actually considered a pepper, and because of this it’s believed to increase blood flow in the skin.

For all three colorants, the general recommended usage rate is 1/2 tsp. of colorant per pound of cold process soap. You can work up or down from there. Many more subtle herbs will require more than just 1/2 tsp of the natural herb or colorant. For melt and pour, start with  1 tsp. of colorant dispersed in 1 tbsp. isopropyl alcohol per pound of melt and pour base. Looking to use these colorants in your next batch of soap? Here are a few tutorials to get you going:

From left to right (clockwise): Charcoal and Rose Clay Spa Bar (uses Activated Charcoal and Rose Clay), Indigo Spoon Plop Soap Cold Process Tutorial (uses Indigo Powder & Paprika, Safflower Powder), Handmade Soap for the Gardener (uses Rose Clay, Kelp Powder).

There are several informative posts and resources regarding natural colorants on the Soap Queen blog, as well as additional tutorials using natural colorants. Check them out here:

• Natural Colorants Video at Bramble Berry
• Make it Monday: #Natural Colorants
• Natural Colorants for Melt and Pour Soap
• Rose Clay Sugar Scrub Tutorial 
• Going Vertical Cold Process Tutorial
• Using Herbs in Melt and Pour Soap
• Naturally Colored Eye Candy (results from a Make It Monday Natural Colorants Challenge)

Tutorial: Rose Clay & Pink Salt Bar from Otion

Here’s a video on adding herbs and natural additives to melt and pour (and reusing molds):

My favorite additives to soap right now are clays; here is a great starter pack of clays that add color to soap. A fantastic way to give your soaps color and texture is by using natural herbs and botanicals. A few of popular options are Marigold Petals (left) Lavender Buds (center) and Rose Petals & Buds (right). They add interest to any bar of soap – even when just sprinkled on top.

Have you used natural colorants in your soap before, or do you prefer other color options? Do you have favorites? We’d love to see photos on our Facebook Page and comments with the usage rate. The soft, muted tones of natural colorants can be truly beautiful!

The post Sunday Night Spotlight: Natural Colorants appeared first on Soap Queen.

What You’ll Need:

11 oz. Coconut Oil

2.2 oz. Mango Butter

13.2 oz. Olive Oil

11 oz. Palm Oil

6.6 oz. Sweet Almond Oil

6.1 oz. Sodium Hydroxide

14.5 oz. distilled water

ELF 4 lb. Wood Loaf Mold

Paprika

Safflower Powder

Natural Indigo Powder

Titanium Dioxide

1.1 oz. Rosemary Essential Oil

1.1 oz. Eucalyptus Essential Oil

.6 oz. 40/42 Lavender Essential Oil

Click here to add everything you need for this project to your Bramble Berry shopping cart!

If you’ve never made Cold Process soap before, stop here! I highly recommend checking out our FREE four part SoapQueen.tv series on Cold Process Soapmaking, especially the episode on lye safety. And if you’d rather do some reading, Bramble Berry carries a wide range of books on the topic, including my newest book, Soap Crafting. You can also checkout the digital downloads for that instant gratification factor.

SAFETY FIRST: Suit up for safe handling practices! That means goggles, gloves and long sleeves. Make sure kids, pets, and other distractions and tripping hazards are out of the house or don’t have access to your soaping space. Always soap in a well-ventilated area.

COLOR PREP: Disperse 1 teaspoon all colorants into 1 tablespoon of liquid oil (we like Sweet Almond or Sunflower). Prepping your colors in the beginning will allow you to work quickly and give you more time to work with your soap. Use the mini mixer to get all those clumps worked out smoothly.

FRAGRANCE PREP: In a glass container, combine the Rosemary, Eucalyptus and 40/42 Lavender Essential Oils. Set aside.

ONE: Slowly and carefully add the lye to the water, and stir until clear. Set aside to cool. If you’d like a harder bar of soap, you can add Sodium Lactate to the cooled lye water. Use 1 teaspoon of Sodium Lactate per pound of oils in the recipe.

TWO: Then, melt and combine the Coconut Oil, Mango Butter, Olive Oil, Palm Oil and Sweet Almond Oil in a large glass container. Once the lye water and the oils have cooled to 130 degrees or below (and are ideally within 10 degrees of each other), add the lye water to the oils and stick blend until thin trace.

THREE: Equally split the batter into three containers.

FOUR: Add one colorant per container in the following measurements:

• 3 teaspoons dispersed Indigo Powder
• 3 teaspoons dispersed Paprika
• 3 teaspoons dispersed Safflower Powder + 1 teaspoon Titanium Dioxide

Mix in the colorants using a wire whisk or spoon.

FIVE: Split the essential oil blend equally between the three containers and stir in with a wire whisk or spoon.

SIX: Use a large spoon (we like our Round Silicone Spoon) to plop spoonfuls of color into the mold. Repeat this process with each color, keeping the same color order, until you have about 1/5 of the soap remaining in the cups.

SEVEN: Using the remaining soap in the cups, pour lines of soap horizontally into the mold.

EIGHT: Insert a chopstick or dowel about 1/4″ into the soap and make a vertical zig-zag pattern down the length of the mold for that finishing touch swirl.

NINE: Using your chopstick or dowel again, make a series of small loops down the length of the soap. Once you’ve gone from one end of the soap to the other, make small loops back down the length of the mold. When you reach the end of the mold, create one big loop that carries you into the next row, and do a reverse loop back across the mold again. You may recognize this swirling technique from the Elemental Swirl.

Spray the entire top with 91% Isopropyl Alcohol to reduce soda ash. It is particularly important to insulate this soap for 24 hours because gel phase will help bring out a nice, vibrant color in the Indigo. Unmold after 3-4 days and allow to cure for 4-6 weeks. Enjoy!

The post Indigo Spoon Plop Soap Cold Process Tutorial appeared first on Soap Queen.