Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Sappanwood Sapped Out

By the time I got around to making the soap (about 8 hours after mixing the wood chips with the lye water), the vibrant red pigment (shown in the previous post) had already morphed to a muddy reddish brown.  When I reluctantly mixed it into the oils....I fully expected what I got.  Creamy caramel brown.  Like many other natural colorants....so...very...disappointing.  Sappanwood still might have potential for melt and pour soap and lip balms and the like, but it's plain to see there's not much future for it in cold process soapmaking.  The hunt for a nice natural red pigment goes on. Any bright ideas?

Brought to you by soap bartender at 6:57 AM
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2 comments:

Cindy Hoyt said...

Hi Maggie,

Some time ago (years actually) I used alkanet as a natural red dye. Have you tried that?

Cindy Hoyt

Oct 11, 2009 8:13:00 PM
soap bartender said...

Thanks. Yes, I have....years ago. As I recall, alkanet root turned our soap a very dark purplish blue (almost black)...not a bad color I guess, but not red. I've also used red sandalwood for a brownish purplish red, but again not a true red. So the search is still on.

Oct 12, 2009 9:24:00 AM

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