Autumn Color Challenge Soap

Color is one of my favorite things to experiment with and I was excited to see that Amy was doing a color challenge this month. There were two color palettes to choose from and I chose the Mineral Autumn palette below.

Mineral Autumn Color Palette (Source: Design Seeds)

I decided to do a side-by-side challenge between 2 sets of colorants: oxide pigments vs. natural colorants (spices/botanicals/clays). For the pigments, I used burgundy oxide, brick oxide, black oxide, and yellow oxide. For the natural colorants, I used paprika mixed with red clay, madder root, activated charcoal, and yellow clay. Below are the colors after mixing. Some colors are similar, others – not so much.

This soap recipe used coconut, canola, palm and castor oils. In addition to the 8 colorants, I used the uncolored soap for the last neutral color in the palette.

I wanted to see the differences between the 2 color sets so I divided a slab mold in half and did a design with the oxides on one side and another design with the natural colorants on the other side. I mixed and poured the oxide colored soap first so the soap emulsion was very fluid. I then mixed and poured the natural colors on the bottom half of the mold. The second set of soap colors was considerably thicker but still pourable. Below is a picture of the soap after it was just poured. Interesting how light the paprika, madder root and clays look. I was curious to see what the colors would look like after gel phase. I covered and insulated the soap to keep it warm and let it go though gel phase.

Color Challenge Soap Just Poured

Wow – what a difference after 24 hours! The madder root morphed to a dark red color and the yellow clay and paprika/red clay sections look richer in color too. The oxide colored soap looked like the initial pour but had a little ash on top. I notice I tend to get more ash when the soap mixture is poured very thin. I am happy though that the batter was fluid enough to get workable design so that is the trade-off. 😉

Color Challenge Soap After Gel Phase (24 hours)

The soap was still very soft today so I will let the batch harden for a few days before cutting the bars.

Thanks Amy for another fun challenge! It was interesting to experiment with various colorants and it took a few trials to match the color palette sample. I may try the other (summer) palette someday. I look forward to seeing the other color challenge soaps! 🙂

22 thoughts on “Autumn Color Challenge Soap”

Beeautiful! Can’t wait to see the soaps cut!

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ecovioletsoap on July 19, 2014 at 5:03 pm said:

Thanks Natalia! I was eager to cut these but better to wait till a bit firmer. 🙂

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What a cool side by side comparison of natural colorants and oxide pigments. Can’t wait to see the cut soaps !

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ecovioletsoap on July 19, 2014 at 5:02 pm said:

Thanks Silvia! It was cool to do and interesting to see how the results came out. Now I want to see if some of the colors fade over time.

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Congratulations, J! Your soaps turned out great! Your colors are as the ones of the color scheme and I love how you did this comparisson. It is amazing how the soap changed after gel phase. The natural colorants part looks so much better than the pigment-colored one after gel. Very cool and very helpful. You have my vote in both categories!

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ecovioletsoap on July 19, 2014 at 5:00 pm said:

Thanks Maya, your comments are so sweet. I am in awe of your soap designs and strive to achieve that level of perfection. You always have my vote!

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This is a very beneficial and eye-opening experiment! I love the side-by-side comparison! Just goes to show that the natural colors can hold their own in these colors…now if we could just find a true blue and green that could withstand oxidation over time… 🙂 Beautiful soaps, Janet!!

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ecovioletsoap on July 19, 2014 at 4:57 pm said:

Thanks Amy – You really challenged us this time! I agree- it would be awesome to find blues and greens that don’t fade with time.

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Gorgeous! Was this a column swirl, or did you just pour them in the middle?

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ecovioletsoap on July 19, 2014 at 4:56 pm said:

Thanks Claudia! This is like a column swirl but didn’t bother with the columns (one less thing to clean up!) 🙂 I saw your soaps for the challenge and they are awesome! Love the design. I had trouble commenting on your blog so hopefully you will see this here.

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