For my first batch of soap, I used a beautiful green mica. It was a stunning green sage shade. I was in love with it but I couldn’t stop thinking of my aunty Helena’s natural hot process soaps (another theme for a blog) it was pure white she did not use a single additive to make that white so striking.

So, I come across several articles talking about “Natural Colorants” for fabric, pasta, paper and soap. I was intrigued to learn more ways to have my soap completely natural.

I have been using clays and natural botanicals to dye our soaps and these also had added benefits for our skin.

Clays have been used in pottery since the prehistoric age. Clay is one of the most detoxifying ingredients and also cleansing to your skin. In soap making, it is a great natural additive to enhance colours and serves as a natural way to remove impurities from your skin and also as a gentle exfoliant. Super rich in minerals, it may help to clear blemishes and draw out impurities.

Just to name a few we use Kaolin clay, the mildest clay available on our lavender Soap bar. On our Calendula bar, we are using yellow French clay, great for dry and sensitive skin and also adds a subtle yellow hue.  All our soaps have the great addition of clay. You can notice all of our soaps have a kind mute, pastel colour due to the natural additives we use in our collection. Artificial colours are simply not needed to make beautiful soaps.

Another way we colour our soaps is the infusion of botanicals in Olive Oil. There are many botanicals and spices you are able to use to colour your soaps. Our collection is still small but we are not afraid to experiment and use more natural ways to add subtle colours.

You have many ways to infuse your botanicals and it is very simple as to add your dry botanical to an oil. Please be careful to use an oil that has got a long shelf life so your infusion will last as long as the expiry date. Also, use only dry botanicals. You can either choose to use a ‘cold infusion’ or ‘hot infusion’. So cold infusion is to place your botanical in a glass vessel with oil and let it infuse in a place for a minimum of six weeks. Hot infusion is to place your botanical in a glass vessel and add your oil of choice and slowly heat it up for several hours. It is my favourite choice of infusion as I am not patient enough to wait for six weeks.

Here are some botanicals and spices you may try at home on your small craft projects:

-alkanet root, madder, spirulina, nettle powder, lime peel, hibiscus, paprika, turmeric also you could add flowers to it such as calendula, chamomile, plantain, dandelion also will add a nice colour to your soaps but just be aware the colour will fade a little with time.

In our next blog, I will talk about hot process soaping versus the Cold process…

See you then Alex