Natural Dyes for Soap Making

[journey11]

I asked this over on SS since there's a lot of soapmakers on there, but I don't think there's as many gardeners. So maybe I'll get more feedback over here.

I've been sifting through some of the old threads on SS on soapmaking, trying to get some ideas. I am gearing up to try my hand at it and looked at some supplies yesterday. I did buy a few essential oils. My dad had brought me two very fat does this year and I saved up all the fat as we processed them and rendered it for tallow and came out with quite a lot! I still have to look at a couple places online to buy the coconut oil and olive oil pomace the recipe I have calls for. I'm going to try hot process soaps because I like the look of them.

What I would like to do is try to compile a list of plants (herbs, flowers, berries, wild plants) that are useful additives for imparting some color to the soap. For example, I know dried, powdered basil will give a nice green. I am not so concerned with the scent of the plants just yet, just the color. I garden and I forage, so I'd like some ideas, especially now that I am planning my seed orders for spring!

One thing mentioned so far (over there) was beets (duh, I should have thought of that!) I got a new dehydrator from my mom for Christmas and I think I could even dehydrate some and grind them into powder. Looking for stuff along those lines... Anything you've used for dye in the past, even in other projects would be great. Thanks!

 

[lesa]

Very interesting project! I really would like to try it, but every time I look it up, I get overwhelmed with all the additional ingredients... I was going to say beets- you could go for all shades of different pink. What about drying and grinding callendula? Not sure if yellow or orange soap would be appealing??
I would love it, if you could do a pictorial on this project, maybe I would overcome my fear! Good luck!!

 

[thistlebloom]

If you have mulberry trees the fruit makes a nice purply color, and this isn't helpful , but my Jacob Cline (Kline?) bee balm sure stained my siding where it leaned after a rain ! I love homemade soaps and know zero about it, so let us know what you discover!
My grandma and great grandma made soap with lye and I must have gotten the impression that it was some what risky... just a little kid impression I'm sure.
I'd use yellow or orange soap Lesa, 'specially if they were citrusy... mmmmm....!

 

[journey11]

Good ideas guys, keep 'em coming!

I am so excited to try this. I'm not too afraid of the lye. Couldn't be any worse than bees, fire, power tools or sharp knives (all of which I'm around regularly) if I take the proper precautions. Still gotta buy some safety goggles. I kept my old Chemistry goggles for a long time and now I wish I knew what became of them!

I'll definitely post pics and probably blog about it. I did find a blog post on it here: http://chickensintheroad.com/crafts/coloring-soap-naturally/ which gave me some more ideas for colors. Doesn't that look like fun?


I am reading that there are all kinds of different base oils and fats that you can use to make the soaps and all kinds of cool additives like honey, chocolate, oatmeal (sounds yummy, doesn't it)......that you can put in there. Looks like you could get really creative with it. I need to try some lotions and things with my beeswax too. It's just sitting around waiting on me to put it to good use.

This is going to be an awesome way to keep myself entertained while I'm cooped up this winter!
I will definitely be carting my 3-year-old off to Grandma's so I can concentrate on what I'm doing and not worry about her getting into the lye. Ha.

 

[bid]

This might be a crazy idea, but I wonder how walnut hulls would work? They would sure give your soap some color. I guess the question is would the color transfer to your skin when you used the soap? Might come out brown as a berry and have to tell people that it is a self tanning product.

 

[ninnymary]

Didn't the victorians use tea bags to dye their linens and laces beige? I wonder if it would do the same for soaps. Might give you a nice creamy beigy color?

Also, along the lines of beets, maybe the golden ones would give you a light orange? Would cherries give you pink? I just saw cherries at the grocery store, don't know if you would have some this time of year. Maybe strawberries give you pink.

Blueberries might give you a lavender type color. Just some ideas.

Mary

 

[journey11]

I would have never thought of walnut hulls! Although now that I'm thinking of it, years ago I used them to stain a walking stick I carved. They make a nice dark brown. I think they smell nice too.

Strawberries would make a lovely red! They have some sort of effect on the skin too, I'm trying to remember... Tea does too, I think.

I wonder what might work for a peachy color? If I dehydrated peach skins maybe they would be potent enough. Maybe some kind of flower might be a better route for that one.

I have a mortar and pestle and now that I have a dehydrator the possiblities are endless. I could make up all kinds of powders and have them in jars ready and waiting. Maybe even mix them to get new colors!

 

[barefootgardener]

I started making cold process goats milk soap this past year. I love it! I started using a basic goats milk soap recipe, with Lard, Coconut Oil, and Olive Oil. I did not use any colorants with the first batch and it made a nice hard bar of natural cream colored soap..

I experimented more with oatmeal/honey soap, and a milk and honey soap. The later turned a nice golden amber brown color from the honey. By the time the soap cured after 4-6 weeks it turned a darker shade of amber. Very nice.

I attempted a green swirl goats milk soap, by coloring half the soap after it came to trace..I used finely ground (powder) basil/parsely. mix My swirls need more practice, but the soap turned out a cream/soft sage green swirl..

I also made a ground exfoliating coffee soap, by using a coffee syrup to color and added finely ground coffee in the top 1/4 inch of the soap. I used Orange, Rose Hip and Lavender essential oil to give it a nice scent..I love this soap! It is a nice coffee color and smells yummy! The scent is not to strong. (When using your cured soap you will get a little bit of brown color with lather..it does not stain )

Some natural colorants to use:

White: Kaolin Clay, Titanium dioxide
Yellow: Ground calendula petals, curry powder, turmeric, gold saffron
Yellow/orange: pureed pumpkin, shredded or ground carrots..
Green: Ground parsley, sage, basil ,kelp/seaweed
Blue: Indigo Root (can stain), ground poppy seeds,will give blue/gray
Purple: Alkanet (steep in oil)
Tan and Brown shades: Ground coffee, cocoa powder, cinnamon (can irritate) clove, milk, comfrey root
Red: Red clay, rosepink clay, madder root

Remember, any time you use colorants, the color can change during the curing process..The same with natural scents and essential oils..the scent can change and end up faintly smelling like it started..The curing process changes that..

It takes lots of practice to get it right...Start out with the basic recipes and go from there...Also read books on soapmaking..

And always use a Lye/Soap Calculator to get your recipes right..and use a digital/food scale for measuring all ingrediants out..

Safety is important: Goggles/Safety glasses..Latex Gloves etc...

Have fun with it..I gave a lot of goatsmilk soap away at Christmas...time to make more..

Ginny

 

[RustyDHart]

How about Goldenrod? I have a friend that came to my farm and picked bunches and bunches of it for naturally dying her wool...could you do this with soap?

 

[journey11]

Thank you, Ginny! I will copy this out and put it in my notebook. I was thinking I would start out trying hot process soap, but I'm going to get around to trying cold process too eventually.