How To Get Vibrant Colors in Your Soap
Coloring your handmade soap gives personality and individuality to your product. Consider how much more visually appealing a bar of soap is when there are fanciful swirls or speckled dye or a deep, even color that evokes the ingredient used in the soap (blue for blueberry, green for lime, etc.).
When it comes to coloring your soap, the options are endless. You can choose a palette of neon oranges and greens or a more rustic palette of muted blues and ochers. There are a few factors that go into making vibrantly colored soap, so let’s investigate some of the most common ways people color their soaps.
Micas
Micas produce deep, vibrant color and are usually recommended for melt and pour soap recipes. They come in a wide variety of colors and even add a little shimmer to your soap. Mica colorants are made from coating muscovite mica flakes with heat resistant dyes, ultramarines or iron oxides.
Be sure to check with your supplier before using micas in hot process soaps, since their colors can become altered or faded. Micas can also be used to paint cold process soaps, which can result in great swirls and designs.
Pigments
If you use a lot of cold process soap recipes, pigments will allow you to achieve vibrant colors that stay true after your soap has set. Unlike micas, which have a tendency to react to cold process, pigments maintain their intensity. Some soap makers use pigments to create intense swirl patterns with psychedelic neon greens and pinks or use them to create themed soaps, like a fun, layered watermelon pattern.
LabColors
LabColors Dye Solutions from Bramble Berry are highly concentrated liquid dyes that offer a variety of PH levels that work in everything from melt and pour, to cold process to fizzy bath bombs. They require dilution before use but produce incredibly intense colors that are really visually pleasing.
Whatever colorant you choose, keep in mind that not all are recommended for use in all products. Lip and eye products will require specially formulated products.
15 Unusual Things to do with Soap Bars
1. Got a sticky drawer? Rub soap along the inside edges to help it slide more easily.
2. Lubricate screws with a bar of soap to make that DIY project a tiny bit easier.
3. Wrap a bar of scented soap in a fun scrap of fabric and make it into a pincushion.
4. Fill nail holes in your wall without the drywall kit by rubbing them with a bar of soap.
5. Discourage mice with bars of Irish Spring. They supposedly hate the smell!
6. Got a deer problem too? Irish Spring shavings around a garden’s edge can keep deer at bay.
7. If your mirrors take forever to de-fog, rub them with a bar of soap, clean them off and have fog free mirrors thereafter.
8. Get rid of the sweat ring on collared shirts by pre-treating them with a bar of soap.
9. Car tire looking a little soggy? Cover it with soapy water and the leaking hole will bubble.
10. Keep your plants safe from bugs by mixing soap and water and spraying the leaves.
11. Got a stuck zipper? Unstick it by rubbing a bit of soap between your fingers and coating the zipper.
12. Remodeling? Remove wallpaper glue by mixing soap and warm water and sponging it on your walls.
13. Use a sliver of soap instead of chalk to mark your hems on clothing and curtains, it will be easier to clean.
14. Rub nails in soap to help drive them into the wood easier without an increased risk of splitting the wood.
15. Put a little soapy water between squeaky floorboards to help them move easier and ease the squeak.