At The Freckled Farm Soap Company we do whatever we can to ensure that we are making products that are good for you. One of the ways we do that is to never use dyes or other colorants in our soap. Yet, our soaps have very different colors. So I thought it would be a good idea to go over what it is that gives our soaps their color.
Many of our soaps end up being a nice tan/cream color. This is primarily due to the color that the milk turns when heated by the lye. We make our soaps at room temperature all year long, so there is always a little bit of variation in the exact temperature of the soap when it is set aside to cool.
Aside from the ambient temperature there are a few other factors that influence color:
Essential Oils: Though many essential oils come out mostly clear, some can have some natural color to them. The most notable of these in my mind is Orange Essential Oil. This is what gives our Sunrise Citrus soap its orange color.
Other ingredients: Of course anything we add to the soap has the ability to change the color.
We use a green tea powder to make our Lemongrass Green Tea soap since we don’t want to add any unnecessary water. This gives that soap a nice green/brown color. One thing to note about this soap is that due to the tea this soap is prone to oxidation before it cures. This can result in different shades of green and brown from the same batch of soap.
Rosewood Salt is made with Himalayan Pink Salt, which naturally colors it.
Deep Sea, is made with Kelp and Spirulina powders. The Spirulina especially gives that soap a deep green color.
Honey Oatmeal is a warm honey color due to…. well, Honey!
In the end anything that colors our soap, as nice as some of them are, are there only for their intended topical or aromatic benefits. The colors that those ingredients produce are just a nice addition.