Soap colored with natural ingredients

February 1, 2009 Moon in Aries

As promised – some photos of my soap colored with natural ingredients -

Four Logs – Top to Bottom

Cochineal, “Confetti,” Madder Root, Indigo

“GreenMan”

Dye used: Indigo

Sometimes I have seen indigo referred to “indigo root” or “indigo stones” —  not so . Indigo is a “vegetal” dye – i.e. it is derived from the indigofera plant species. It is grown, cut down, fermented and allowed to dry into lumps which resemble small rocks. The lumps are then ground down into a fine powder.  Although I tried several different methods of incorporating indigo into soap I was disappointed with the outcome; while I did get a nice blue soap it created blue lather which stained washcloths! Less amounts of indigo gave me a nice green color; however if I am going for a green color I can obtain a stable green color by using oxides, micas or other vegetal dyes such as alfalfa, algae, dill, etc. Muller’s Lane Farm has some great ingredients and notes if you want to do your own research into vegetal dyes for soap coloring.

Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia –

A variety of plants have provided indigo throughout history, but most natural indigo is obtained from those in the genus Indigofera, which are native to the tropics.

Dye was obtained from the processing of the plant’s leaves. These were soaked in water and fermented in order to convert the glycoside indican naturally present in the plant to the blue dye idigotin.

Indigo is also used as a food coloring, and is listed in the USA as FD&C Blue No. 2. The specification for FD&C Blue No. 2 includes three substances, of which the major one is the sodium salt of Indigotindisulfonate.

“Cassia Breeze”

Dye used: Madder Root

On the lower right hand corner you can see some madder root, a dye much prized by textile artists, because it is one of the dyes that produces a nice deep, stable red. The dye produced from madder root is offten called “Turkey Red” because so many naturally dyed oriental rugs incorporate it. Madder was also used in India as a cosmetic ingredient. To get this color I ground my madder root (for fiber dyeing roots should be harvested when they are three years or older) and added the powder to my lye-liquid.

“No 5″

Dye used: Cochineal

On the lower right hand corner you can see some cochineal insects (before being ground up). Cochineal insects thrive on the cacti (genus Opuntia), and were used in Central and North America by the indigenous people prior to European colonization. Cochineal continues to be a valuable dye source for fiber, cosmetic and food products. For this soap batch I ground up the cochineal insects and added them to my soap oils. In the future I would like to try incorporating them into my lye-liquid. I would then strain my lye-liquid-cochineal and add to my soap oils.

Teresa Archuleta-Sagel

www.tastouchsoaps.com

soap@tastouchsoaps.com

~ by tastouch on February 1, 2009.