Many of the ingredients can be found in your kitchen, your grocery, or from soap making suppliers. Many of them are already used to color common foods and drugs. (Annatto is what gives macaroni and cheese its orange color. Cochineal is used to color Hawaiian Punch.)
Here are some of my favorite options, and the color they impart:
- Alfalfa – medium green
- Alkanet – steep in oil first - deep purple to muted blue
- Annatto Seed – steep in oil first - yellow orange
- Beet Root – muted pinkish beige to muted pinkish dull brown.
- Bentonite clay - off white to a light ivory-green
- Black walnut hull - speckled purple-brown
- Ground Calendula Petals - yellow
- Carrots, shredded or ground - yellow to orange
- Carrot juice (black) - light pinkish brown
- Ground Chamomile – yellow-beige
- Chamomile (German) essential oil - light pastel green
- Chlorophyll - medium greens
- Cinnamon - tan to brown – can be an irritant
- Cloves, ground – brown
- Cochineal powder – light to deep red depending on amount used
- Cocoa powder– brown
- Coffee/coffee grounds - brown to black
- Comfrey Root – light milky brown
- Cornmeal, blue - purplish-blue-brown
- Cucumber – bright green
- Curry powder - yellow
- Elderberries – steep in lye solution – light brown
- Green tea powder - brownish-greenish - speckled
- Henna, ground - olive to deep drab green - brown
- Indigo root - deep blues - caution, can stain
- Jojoba beads - come in many colors, and add exfoliation too
- Kaolin Clay - white to off white
- Kelp/seaweed - green
- Madder root - rosy red - purple
- Milk (goats or cow's) - tan to brown, depending upon sugar & fat content
- Morrocan Red Clay - Brick Red
- Olive leaf powder - warm ochre/brown color
- Orange juice - used in place of water for lye solution - nice pastel orange/beige
- Paprika – light orange peach to orange-brown - can be an irritant
- Poppy Seeds - Blue-grey to light black specks
- Pumice, ground - grey
- Pumpkin, pureed - lovely deep orange Example
- Rattanjot – light lavender-brown to deep purplish chocolate brown
- Rhassoul clay - a light speckled gray-brown
- Rose Pink Clay - Brick red
- Rosehip seeds, ground - light tan to deep brown
- Safflower Petals- yellow to deep orange
- Saffron - yellows
- Sage - green
- Sandalwood powder (red) - deep purplish brown - nice speckles
- Spearmint - greenish brown
- Spinach – light green
- Spirulina/Blue-Green Algae – light pastel green to blue-green
- Titanium Dioxide- bright white
- Tree lichen - nice light pinkish beige - varies on type of lichen
- Turmeric – golden brown to amber
- Wheatgrass juice - lovely deep green
- Woad powder - bluish green
Note: Unless you've used this colorant before, or are following someone else's recipe, it's important to do some simple tests before you throw a bunch of carrots or seaweed into your soap.
Check out Testing Natural Colorants in Soap for more information.
