Coloring Soap

Add color to your soaps that will harmonize with their natural fragrances and
enhance the visual bathing experience.

Coloring soap might be viewed as one of the more "fun" parts of the project. Since
soapmaking involves a chemical reaction, there is always room for error along the
way. For this reason, it is best to perfect soapmaking techniques before
"muddying" the water with colors.

Why add color?

Adding color to your project is another peg in soap sophistication. Besides eye
appeal, it can enhance the overall effect you are striving for. A soap scented
with lavender might be nicer if a lavender color carries out the theme. A peach
scented soap might be more effective in a peachy shade rather than green. Color is
also an easy way to tie in your soaps with bath or kitchen decor.

A good rule of thumb is to keep the soap color subtle if you want to achieve a
natural look. However, if you're trying to coordinate for special holidays like
Christmas or Valentine's Day, brighter color s work best.

Coloring soap might be viewed as one of the more "fun" parts of the project. Since
soapmaking involves a chemical reaction, there is always room for error along the
way. For this reason, it is best to perfect soapmaking techniques before
"muddying" the water with colors.

Why add color?

Adding color to your project is another peg in soap sophistication. Besides eye
appeal, it can enhance the overall effect you are striving for. A soap scented
with lavender might be nicer if a lavender color carries out the theme. A peach
scented soap might be more effective in a peachy shade rather than green. Color is
also an easy way to tie in your soaps with bath or kitchen decor.

Coloring soap comes in different forms. The ones that are available in the market
today are the micas, dyes, botanicals, and the pigment. All these are what make up
the coloring soap that is used in one of those soap-making projects. If you want
to start your own soap making, then you better learn the soap colorant that is now
widely used.

If you want to go for the natural homemade soap, then natural soap coloring or the
botanical soap coloring is what you need. These natural colorants can work well
with natural essential oils. So if you wish to make natural lavender soap then you
can use natural colorants. These natural colorants are obtained from seeds, barks,
or petals. Natural colorants are also known as homemade soap coloring because you
can just extract the color of the herbs and spices right at your kitchen. Isn’t it
wonderful to know that you can actually use herb and spice colors for soaps? These
ingredient are totally safe to use ad are environmentally friendly as well.

Pigment is also used as a soap colorant. Pigments are mineral-based originally,

however there are already pigments that are manufactured in the laboratories;
these are what we call the synthetic pigments. The nice thing about the pigments
that are now commercially produced is that they are now free from harmful
chemicals such as lead, arsenic, and mercury. For those who want to use a pigment
for their soap making projects they better be sure that the chosen color has been
mixed thoroughly so that color lumping is avoided. Pigment is bet used in clod-
press soap making method because the pigment retains its color.

For a sparkling effect for your soaps especially if you are using Halloween soap
molds the micas are the perfect match. These micas are what make the glittery
effect of your lip balm, aromatherapy candles, nail polish. They are also mixed in
paints and plastics. Micas works best with transparent melt-and-pour soap making
method to allow the glitter to flirt with lights effectively. Just make sure that
the micas used in coloring are of cosmetic grades to ensure that the finished
product will not harm the skin.

Perhaps one of the most popular among the colorants that is used in almost
anything that needs coloring is the dye. Dyes are used in aromatherapy candle
making as much as they are used in soap making. Dyes are easy to mixed with other
ingredients, however a careful step is necessary to make sure that the dye does
not fade easily when exposed to the light or after several days of keeping the
soap.

Aside from the necessary colorants to one other important aspect of soap making
that all soapers should know is how to artistically apply the colorants into the
mixture. If you want your soap to go beyond from the ordinary one color you can
make your soap to look like marbles. The ripple effect can be done by not
thoroughly mixing the color with the mixture, thus only a portion is affected by
the color. Of course there are other techniques and perhaps you can make your own
experiment.