Teach Soap

I am working with a hazelnut fragrance oil and want to color my soap tan/light brown. Does anyone have any ideas for me? Adding a bit of vanilla would give me a perfect color, but I don't want to use it since I want just a pure hazelnut smell. I have also tried coloring with cinnamon, but I don't want the speckles it makes in my finished product. Thanks for the help!

Cocoa powder works great for coloring soap. Start with a very small amount and add to it until you get the color you want. The color won't change during saponification.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

Otherwise, you could add some honey or molasses to the batter, both of which will give a tan color.

For cocoa powder - will it clump or speckle like cinnamon?

And honey and molasses sound interesting. Should they be added at light trace?

I've never had a problem with cocoa powder clumping. You can always mix it into a bit of your soap batter before adding it to the rest of the batter. Honey and molasses can be added at trace or stick blended into your oils before adding the cooled lye water. The sugars in the honey and molasses will cause the soap to heat up more quickly so you'll need to watch it after you've poured.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

or you can add a small amount of cappuccino mica for a cooler toned tan.

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Linda

I learn so much when I can't leave well enough alone!

If you mix colors opposite on the color wheel, you'll generally get a brown. So you could use a titch of red and green.

Cocoa powder is great, black walnut hulls, vanilla powder (which will not really add scent, just color) and beet root powder will also give you a brown (beet root will give a beige to dull brown), or you can add some coffee as part of your liquid (or coffee grounds if you want a speckled exfoliant).
I prefer cocoa powder or vanilla powder, but vanilla powder is much more costly, so I only use it when I want the added zing of real vanilla. Whenever you are using a powder you can add a half cup to cup of batter to the powder and mix that well, then mix that batter into your larger batter to ensure a good mix. For any spice/herb that likes to speckle, you can either mix it like I just said or you can infuse it into an oil before you begin and then run that oil through a coffee filter (to catch all the particulates) before you add the oil to your batter. Otherwise, you can embrace the speckles and use them as part of your design.

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

I didn't use a colorant in my Hazelnut Toffee soap. My FO is from BB. Smells awesome! It naturally discolors to a nice toasty brown. Just some TD in the white swirls. This picture is of 5 day old soap. It has since gotten even a little darker. I am assuming that your hazelnut FO will have some vanilla in it as well. Enjoy!

Stacey
http://scatteredbathandbody.blogspot.com

Finally got to it this weekend. I added honey and it gave me an amazing color for toasted hazelnut. Thanks for all the advice!

Nice soap, Stacey! I bet it smells wonderful.

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Linda

I learn so much when I can't leave well enough alone!