Colouring Soaps

Herbs & Spices:

When using herbs and spices to colour your soap, the colour of the ingredient will not necessarily create the same colour in your finished soap. The saponifcation process can make herbs and spices change colour, and flower petals will tend to brown.

The intensity and darkness of the colour will also depend on the amount used. Start by adding a tsp of herbs or spices to a bit of water and then adding it to your batch of soap at a light trace.

Here are some commonly used botanicals in soap making, and the colours they make.

Botanical Colourant:	Makes:
Beet Root Powder	Earth brownish soap
Bladderwrack	Gray-green soap
Burdock Root	Warm brown soap
Cayenne Pepper	Salmon colored soap
Chickweed Herb	Rich green soap
Cinnamon Ground	Caramel to brown speckled
Comfrey Leaf	Sage green soap
Curry Powder Madras	Yellow soap
Dulse Powder Choice	Green soap
Elder Berries	Caramel brown soap
Henna Blonde Powder	Light brown soap
Henna Black Powder	Green soap
Henna Red Powder	Sage green soap
Kelp Powder Atlantic	Gray-green soap
Neem Leaf	Textured deep brown soap
Nettle Leaf	Lime green soap
Paprika	Salmon speckled soap
Rosehips	Speckled pink & tan soap
Stevia Leaf Powder	Yellow-green soap
Spirulina Powder	Green-yellow soap
Turmeric Ground	Peach-orange soap
Walnut Hulls	Yellow & brown speckled soap

Clays

Clays are a beautiful way to naturally colour your soaps while also adding skin care benefits. A rounded tsp. per 4 lb. batch of soap will generally give the soap a nice colour.

We add the clay to a tbsp of water to make a slurry first, then add the slurry to the soap at a light trace. Continue to whisk or stick-blend the soap to distribute the clay evenly with no lumps or streaks.

Clay:	Makes:
Australian Pink Clay	Dusty pink
French Red Clay	Brick red
French Yellow Clay	Mustard yellow
French Green Clay	Light grey-green
Bentonite Clay	Pale grey

Pigments, Oxides, Ultramarines, Neon Powders & Micas

Commercial colourants such as Ultramarines, Chromium Greens, Iron Oxides, Neon Powders and many of our Micas will give your soaps beautiful colours in varying shades depending on the amount that you add to your batch.

To use these colourants in your soap, simply make a concentrate by mixing together 1 tsp. of colourant with 1 tbsp. water, then add the liquid bit by bit when your soap is at a light trace, continuing to mix until you reach your desired colour and trace level.