Yellow and Red Soap Colorants

by Angela
(East Texas)

What is the best way to get a bright red bar (cp) of soap using a natural colorant? What about a pale yellow?

Answer:

For a list of natual ingredients used to colour handmade soap, visit my page on Herbal Natural Soap Ingredients.

Pale yellow can be achieved by a number of means.

Infuse olive oil with calendula petals or carrot root powder or annato seeds and use that oil in your recipe in place of the regular olive oil. You can also add these ingredients at a trace if they are a very finely ground powder.

You can also use african palm oil instead of regular palm oil. African palm oil is orange in colour and when added to the recipe will give your soap a yellow tinge...the strength of the yellow will depend on how much you use.

Achieving a bright red colour is more difficult...especially using all natural ingredients. I haven't found anything all natural that will do that.

I have used red oxide in cp soap to get a pretty bright red but you have to be careful since too much and the lather will have a red tinge to it.

Happy Soaping,
Cathy