If you are new to making your own bath and body products and you do not know which type of colorant to use for your recipes, here is some information to help you.
Dyes – Dyes produce a color that is translucent in a clear glycerin soap bases (sometimes is referred to “Stained Glass” look). Powdered dyes on the market can be very concentrated, which means you do not have to use as much. The liquid dye bars and solid dye bars are most easily blended to make unique colors. It is very important that you do not use candle dye in your soap or any other skincare product that you create.
Cosmetic dyes are only produced and inspected by the FDA during certain months of the year. When the FDA approves a color for cosmetic use, you can be assured that it does not contain heavy metals that can be toxic if absorbed into the human body.
Dyes are most commonly used in skincare products such as lotions, cremes, bubble baths, bath salts, bath bombs and Melt & Pour Soap Crafting (MP). If you create soap embeds for your MP projects, you should know that some dyes will migrate from the colored soap embeds.
If you use liquid dyes in your cold process (CP) or hot process (HP) soap making process the color will change, fade or disappear altogether due to their reaction to active lye. There are certain food colorants that will completely change color entirely.
Liquid gel colors are another invaluable method of color delivery. They work great in the melt and pour method and can used in the CP or HP soap making process as well but with varying results. This type of colorant comes in a variety of colors. You may also find that you can get gel tones in primary colors so you can blend them together and create a variety of shades. And some of these liquid gels colorants can come in triple strength colors which are concentrated than others.
Dye type of colorant is also good for Liquid Washes, Lotions, Foaming Bath Whip, Bath Salts, Bath Fizzy Bombs, Lip Products, Oil based Scrubs.
Mineral Pigments
You can get incredible color by using mineral pigments such as ultramarines and oxides. These are basic pigments used in cosmetics and by artists who created their own paint. When choosing mineral pigments for your creations, make sure you are selecting pigments that are designated for soap and cosmetic applications. So do not buy them at art supply stores. The best thing is to purchase your pigments from responsible soap supply houses that sell only the kind of pigments that are safe to use in soap or for cosmetic uses.
Oxide Pigments – Oxide pigments can be either organic or inorganic. They are made to be water soluble or oil soluble. Since these pigments do not fully dissolve and therefore, cannot produce a “stained glass” effect like you would with a liquid dye. Instead the pigment will suspend or disperse in a formula to produce color. You will find powdered pigments are most commonly used in CP and HP Soap. Powder pigments will clump in MP soap therefore, liquid pigments are used. If you are planning to use liquid pigments, you should that that they will cloud MP soap but will also not migrate in layered mp soap. You may want to consider trying them for coloring your soap embeds.
Ultra Marines – Ultra marine colors are inorganic pigment that must be used in a product such as soap because it has a pH of over 7.5. If used in lotions or low pH products, it will produce a foul odor. Ultra Marines will cloud melt and pour soap but will also not migrate in layered mp soap.
These pigment colorants are good for CP and HP Soap.
Mica & Sparkles (Not Glitter) – Simply mica adds shimmer or pearlized look and come in array of colors. Mica colors can be soluble in water or oil. And the are actually a combination of ingredients that make the color. This combination can be dye, pigment, bismuth oxychloride, and/or titanium dioxide.
The effect is best used in transparent or translucent applications such as MP process. But they are also great to add color to your traditional body butters, solid body butters (ie massage bars, lotion sticks, exfoliating butter scrubs), but you will lose the shimmer effect . You may also consider add a small amount of mica powder to your dusting powder recipes. This will add a shimmer when you apply it to the skin.
When adding micas to your creations, you would add them the same ways as you would when adding mineral pigments (ultramarinas, etc). Stir a small amount of the color you want to use in your recipes (other than HP and CP). You can always add more. For example if you are planning to incorporate micas into your CP or HP soap stir in a small amount into a small amount of soap and then incorporate the mixture back into the main mass. Just to let you know that some micas will lose their color completely in the high alkalinity of lye soap, especially in the cold process method.
Mica colorants are good for CP and HP Soap, MP Soap, Dusting Powders, Body Butters, Liquid Washes, Salts.
Natural Color Sources
Nature provides use with beautiful colors that can be applied to soap. You can add planet material directly to soap mixture to create not only color but texture as well. Most plant material starts out green but will eventually turn brown. Some botanicals such as calendula petals will retain their color when added at the end of the process. If you create your soap by the handmilling (or rebatching process) you can use dried herbs if you really would like the color to last. But when you add herbal ingredients directly into the soap make sure that you remove any sticks, twigs and other sharp parts of the plants. There may be some ground spices such as turmeric that can be used to add beautiful color to your CP or HP soaps. I will look into this and see what can be used or not. And I will let you know.
For more information regarding color additives, it is best to check out the FDA website.
If you like to order any of these types of colorants, check out www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com or http://ziggurat.org/soap/infobase/colors.shtml. If you have any recommendations, please let me know.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment