Disappointing Color Fading

I use all kind of colorants to soap, some natural some synthetic.  Sometimes I run into situations where color morphs into an undesirable hue, or fades during the curing process.  It's very common that natural colorants fade in time because most of them are light sensitive.  I can make a batch of soap with the most vibrant beautiful colors just to find them unsellable at the end.  Let's see the runner ups.

Here is the soap made with Spirulina (a type of algae).  Spirulina is a deep green powder that smells fishy and when it's added into soap and then forced gel it produces this vibrant intense leafy green color.  Then a few weeks later that vibrant leafy green turned into yellowish olive green.

Here's another one using natural colorant, Gromwell root infused 72% olive oil soap.  Gromwell root is widely used in Asia mainly for herbal medicine.  It is infused in oil and butters to make slave or balms to treat various skin conditions.  It can also be used as fabric dye for purple color.  Soap color made with Gromwell root infusion can range from blue purple to plum purple depending on the harvest.  Again, the beautiful intense color didn't last...

Now this final one surprised me.  I've used this specific colorant before and never have it fade on me in such a short period of time!  It turned to barely anything in just 2 days!  Yellow #5 lake is a strong yellow dye, it's synthetic, not natural.  I suspect the fragrance I used for this batch has something to do with the yellow disappearing.

What colorants have you tried that don't last?

Natural Green - Spirulina

Spirulina is derived from freshwater algae, smells a little ocean-ish, like seaweed.  Using it to color cold process soap will give you a rustic more olive green color.  I was afraid that the fishy scent will effect the final smell of the soap, and since I'm using natural colorant I thought I might as well use essential oil to scent.  Have you heard of 4 thieves?  It's a blend consists of lemon, eucalyptus, rosemary, cinnamon, and clove.  There are many variations, you can mix up to your taste.  I also added some grapefruit to sweetened it up a little.  4 thieves oil has a very interesting story if you want to read: Thieves Oil History  This blend is said to be highly antibacterial, antiviral and anti-infectious, should be great for soap!

The mold I used to make this soap is FREE.  It is the empty carton of coconut cream I use for cooking and soap making.

 It is a bit hard to unmold, I just teared it up piece by piece.  Can I call this recycling too?!

I hope this green won't turn brown!

Natural Blue Colorant - Indigo

I usually use artificial colorants for my soap because I can achieve so much more design wise with the vibrant colors synthetic micas can offer.  I'm not opposed to using natural colorants but the problem is they tend to fade in time.  It's fairly easy to find natural colorants for the color of red, yellow and green, but it's hard to get a good blue.  Indigo has long been used in Asia as a natural blue dye, it produces an earthy muted blue instead of vibrant eye catching blue.  It's more like a pair of stone washed dark blue jeans.

This is my first soap of the year 2014, after not soaping for more than a month.  I thought, why not start with something new too?!

 

The Indigo I got is not the typical powder form, it has been pre-treated with lye water then dehydrated to crystals.  Typically if you get Indigo powder you have to infuse it in oil and strain it out to prevent speckles, or if you like the speckle look add directly into soap.  Pre-reduced Indigo crystal is more concentrated than Indigo powder.  It had been reacted with lye water already, meaning what you see is what you get after adding it to soap batter.  All you need to do is dissolve it in a little water then add it to the batter.  I have to say it is very potent.  I only used a pinch and after forcing gel, it is as dark as my jeans!
Side note: it really stinks when adding to water... but no smell after saponification, phew~

Trying Out Soap Crafting Recipe

About 2 months ago I was invited to be a guest blogger for Soap Queen's new book Soap Crafting blog tour series.   Soap Crafting is a new book that shows how to make cold process soap from introductory basic to more intermediate/advanced design techniques and specialty soaps.  It also talks about using different soaping colorants and additives.  Instructions are simple, clear, and come with lots of beautiful photos, very easy to follow.  With this book you can make 31 different cold process soaps!  If you are interested it is available now on Brambleberry  Don't forget to check it out!

I'm very excited to be able to test out one of the soap in the book.  Since I soap mostly with artificial fragrance and vibrant colorants I chose to try something I don't do often, using natural colorant and essential oils.  Brambleberry is kind enough to sent me all the ingredients to soap including a small 2 lb mold with silicone liner.

I admit, I didn't totally follow the instruction included...  I'm a little restless that way.  I wanted a very saturated bright golden yellow.  Instead of following the instruction to warm infuse the annatto seed in additional 5 oz of almond oil.  Instead, I heat infused the whole bag of annatto seed with a small amount of the soaping oil.  Can you see the intense orange in that small plastic measuring cup?  I planed to use the whole amount into the soap for the deepest golden yellow I can get.  Also, I've never done a single note scented soap, I like mixing scents.  I felt the fir needle essential oil is a bit too camphor for my nose, I ended up add some sweet orange 10x and rosewood essential oils to round it up.  Sweet orange adds that extra juicy sweetness and rosewood grounds the mix as a base note.

I also mixed in some poppy seeds for texture and a little scrubbiness.  I reserved a portion of soap batter without coloring it with annatto to create some color contrast.

Topped off with some dried juniper berries.

It took a little longer to harden than my usual recipes.  I usually don't use that much liquid for lye solution as stated in the book.  But silicone liner really made it easy to release the log.

The recipe is very easy to work with, plenty of time for even fancy swirl.  The natural vibrant gold yellow from annatto seed is holding up very well, unlike turmeric I used once a while back, faded to caramel after cure.  If you are looking for a good natural golden yellow colorant annatto seed is the best.  And this is my interpretation of Soap Queen's natural colorant recipe, what's yours?