Natural Soap Colorants Guide

Soapmaking success
with Natural Colorants

Using botanicals and clays, you can tint handmade soap every color of the rainbow!
Working with natural colorants is always something of an adventure. Because they’re derived from
nature and not mass-produced in a lab, there will be all sorts of variations between vendor and even
batch. You may find that a powder or clay purchased from one soapmaking supply shop is lighter or
darker than the same product purchased from another place, so it’s hard to 100% predict an exact
color your soap will turn out.
Oil types and temperatures play a part in final color too. Light colored oils, especially sunflower and
coconut oil, will help natural colorants show up best. Unrefined hemp or avocado oils will add a green
tint to your soap, which is a lovely addition if using natural green colorants, but will muddy other
colors such as purple and pink. Using extra virgin olive oil can also affect the end color of your soap,
giving it a yellow or yellow-green hue.
Some essential oils, such as litsea, lemongrass, orange and lemon, will impart a yellow tone to your
soap, depending on how much you use. Others, such as peppermint and lavender, are clear and
won’t alter the color of the final soap.
Colorants usually show up best in soaps that are covered or insulated and allowed to go through gel
phase. This is especially true when working with some botanicals such as alkanet or indigo.
Success with Natural Colorants THENERDYFARMWIFE.COM 1

When making herbal or floral teas to include in your soap, steep for only a short time, just until a weak
tea is created. Strong tea will darken your soap, giving it a brown tint that obscures natural colorants.
Some natural colorants fade quickly, while others last longer. Greens are particularly prone to fading,
so I try to layer more than one of them when I can. This might mean using unrefined hempseed oil in
a recipe, along with French green clay, which keeps its color for the life of the soap. That way, when the
natural colorant fades, there’s still some green to be found in the soap.
It’s especially important to keep naturally colored soap out of sunlight and away from direct
indoor light exposure to help maintain color as long as possible. Store in a cool dark spot with
plenty of air circulation and plan to use cured soaps up within a few months, while their colors are
still fresh and pretty.

There are 3 ways that I like to add natural colorants to my soap recipes:
• to the lye solution
• to the warmed oils
• at trace
There’s a fourth method that involves pre-infusing oils with colorants, but requires advanced time and
preparation. Since my soapmaking is often spur-of-the-moment, I don’t use this method much. If
you’re interested in learning more, I recommend checking out Jo Hausler’s excellent blog post for more
information: http://www.modernsoapmaking.com/join-jo-how-to-make-infusions-for-soapmaking/
Colorant in Lye Solution Method

Many colorants do well when added directly to the
hot or warm lye solution. This gives them plenty of
10 Natural Colorants for the Lye Solution
time to mix with the water so the finished soap has
an even overall color and there are no small clumps Barley Grass Powder - green
of powder left behind in the soap. In general, all Wheatgrass Powder – green
clays do well with this method. Cambrian Blue Clay – blue
Saffron Powder – yellow
Just make your lye solution as normal, then stir in Lemon Peel Powder – yellow
the natural colorant and allow the lye solution to Annatto Seed Powder – yellow/orange
cool. Right before pouring into the warmed oils, Red Brazilian Clay – brick red
stir the lye solution again, making sure to scrape
Rose Clay – pink
the bottom of the container to loosen any colorant
Purple Brazilian Clay – purple
that has settled. Some botanicals will give your
Madder Root Powder – purple/pink
soap a speckled look, while others won’t. You can
carefully strain the lye solution if you’d like to avoid
this look.

Colorant in Warmed Oils Method
Other colorants show their colors best when mixed
with oils instead of water. To include these in your 7 Natural Colorants for Warmed Oils
recipe, melt the solid oils/butters and combine
with the liquid oils to create a warmed oil mixture. Alkanet Root Powder – purple
Stir the natural colorant into the warmed oils and Madder Root Powder – pink
allow it to sit for as long as it takes for the lye solu- Orange Peel Powder – yellow/orange
tion to cool down. The action of the stick blender Oatstraw Powder – soft yellow/green
helps to evenly incorporate the color into the soap. Chlorella Powder – green
Just like the lye solution, if you find that some Moringa Powder – olive green
colorants leave undesired speckles, you can strain Alfalfa Powder – soft green
the oil through a fine mesh sieve before proceeding
with the recipe.
Colorant Added at Trace Method

When making a multi-colored soap, you’ll need to add the colorants at light trace or right before it,
at emulsion stage. Whether you mix the colorant with oil or water depends on the type used. (See
the chart included in this lesson for more details.)
For this method, prepare the soap colorants in advance in small containers, mixing with 2 to 3 times as
much water or oil as colorant. For example, if you have 1 teaspoon of clay, try diluting it with 2 teaspoons
of water. If a colorant needs to be mixed with oil, reserve some from the recipe for this purpose. Don’t
add extra oil or you might end up with a soap that has too much oil and not enough lye.

Some colorants don’t mix into oil or water easily, notably woad, indigo and charcoal. These do
well when mixed with 2 to 3 times as much glycerin instead, though woad and indigo will also
give beautiful shades of blue when mixed into the lye solution as best as you can.
To add a colorant to soap when it reaches trace, make your soap as normal, mixing just until an
emulsion is reached or at light trace. You can tell your soap is at emulsion if you let it sit for a few
seconds and an oily layer doesn’t immediately start appearing on top of the soap batter. If you see
that oily layer, blend for a few more seconds to help it further emulsify. Trace is when the soap has
thickened enough so when you drizzle a small amount of the batter across the surface, it will leave a
fleeting, but visible imprint or “trace” before sinking back in.
Divide the thin soap batter into separate containers and add the colorants as desired. Each one
will usually need a quick whirl with the stick blender to incorporate them into the soap batter more
evenly. I keep a bucket of water handy to wash off the immersion blender between colors, running it
in the plain water for a few seconds, then briefly wiping off the outside with a paper towel or rag.
Lumberjack soap Sea Salt & Seaweed Soap

End Notes
In this lesson, you’ll find two videos that demonstrate how I test natural colorants by adding
them to the lye solution and/or mixed into warmed oils. You’ll notice that the test recipe
uses just 8 oz (227 g) of oil. I make these batches small on purpose since I’m sometimes not
quite sure what will happen!
This is a great way to test out any colorant that you’re curious about, but don’t want to risk messing
up an entire batch of soap in case it doesn’t work well. I bought the handy 12-squares mold shown
from Bramble Berry https://www.brambleberry.com/12-bar-square-silicone-mold-p4908.aspx-
?bb=24, but you could also use small plastic containers or empty yogurt cups for color tests instead.

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Soapmaking success

with Natural Colorants

Success with Natural Colorants THENERDYFARMWIFE.COM 1

Success with Natural Colorants THENERDYFARMWIFE.COM 2

Colorant in Lye Solution Method

Success with Natural Colorants THENERDYFARMWIFE.COM 3

Colorant Added at Trace Method

Success with Natural Colorants THENERDYFARMWIFE.COM 4

Lumberjack soap Sea Salt & Seaweed Soap

Success with Natural Colorants THENERDYFARMWIFE.COM 5

Success with Natural Colorants THENERDYFARMWIFE.COM 6

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