This orange colour comes from adding a little Turmeric to the lye solution, and also at trace. I like it! Even more wonderful than this finished soap colour was the beautiful pumpkin orange soap mixture as it came to trace... now that colour was divine. I should have snapped a photo... If only it had have held in the soap. I also added poppyseeds for an Orange Poppyseed soap.
The truth is that I have really liked all three of the colours I have achieved with my orange experiments. I will use either experiment 2 (Annattto) or 3 (Turmeric) in my Seville Orange soap bar, or maybe a combination of both. I will decide once they have both cured and I have tried them. I want to make sure the colour holds nicely and that it doesn’t run in water.
When I first starting making soap (I have almost reached my 1-year soap-making anniversary!!!), I saw "soap-moulds" everywhere I went... then I settled into my favourite IKEA Molger log moulds and juice cartons just became juice cartons again. I don't know what got into me but the milk carton became a soap mould yesterday... you may notice the different soap shape of these soaps.
I think I am stopping for now with orange, at least until I get my 10-fold Orange Essential Oil order.
Will someone else try carrots?
Happy soaping!
Xo
Jen
11 comments:
I did a carrot soap in my earlier, more adventurous days. This pic is actually a carrot/honey goat milk soap...using baby food carrot puree:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=221818&id=288988365972&saved#!/photo.php?pid=7208806&id=288988365972&ref=fbx_album&fbid=473521420972
And this one used canned pumpkin puree:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=221818&id=288988365972&saved#!/photo.php?pid=7208810&id=288988365972&ref=fbx_album&fbid=473522160972
Both had a nice orange color but if I remember correctly the pumpkin one eventually changed to a dull brown.
Jen dear, I've done the carrot juice (fresh juiced organic carrots) with orange success in the past. It fades a bit over time to a quiet curry orange but is still quite wonderful. And carrot juice adds a creaminess to soaps which I'm rather fond of. I believe carrot colored soap is in one of my posts..
For you gals doing the natural colorants - Majestic Mountain sage recently did a whole slew of common kitchen herb, spice, and powder tests in CP soap. Wanted to share in case you had not heard of them . . . It began with the post below and went on for ten detailed experiments with recipes. Actually their blog is chock full of awesome recipes. Later gators.
http://blog.thesage.com/2010/08/24/kitchen-spices-in-cold-process-soap/
Loving the tumeric, wow. I have tried substituting fresh carrot juice in place of water and it does give a beautiful orange colour, but unfortunately it starts to fade over time, and becomes more of a yellow.
That turned out a great color! I have used carrot juice before and I ended up with a yellow instead of an orange. Have you thought to add tomato paste to your experiment? It lends a bit more of a "pumpkin pie" color than real pumpkin.
That is a nice colour. I did turmeric once but it didn't get as orange as that. I found that it faded after a while. I've also done paprika and that is orange-red. It might be clever to mix the two. I'm away from home right now so I won't be doing any soap experiments just yet. But I will resume soaping soon :)
Very pretty, Jen. I love the shape, too...really nice rounded corners. How does the turmeric smell? I'm doing some "fall cleaning" this week, so not much time for soap (have to clean when the mood hits, you know!)
:) ~Becky
p.s. love the new blog background -very splashy!
Great job with this color experiment! I love the added poppy seeds. I'm interested in how the turmeric smells too.
Hi Jen, I love the rounded corners, they must be really nice to hold in the shower!
Like the others, I tried carrot juice several years ago and ended up with more of a yellow. I think I like the annatto one the best!
Thanks for all the comments! I think I may like the Annatto one the best too.
Springvale... thanks for the photo links - gorgeous!
Cocobong - if carrot juice adds creaminess I will have to try it one day.
Courtney - I am going to check out this link. Thank you! I love any help to my natural colour experimenting!
Soap Sister and Anne Marie - There is no smell of Turmeric at all.
Between Friends - I liked the idea of the shape of these better than they have actually turned out. They are too huge to get your hands around. I may try another experiment with a pringles container.
Thanks all. Happy soaping! xo Jen
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