Glycerin soaps can be created in a day. Health and beauty benefits can also be quickly and easily added. The sky is the limit when it comes to combining ingredients, designing scents and mixing colors. There are various qualities of products at a wide range of price points. Pouring your first batch of glycerine soap is affordable and relatively inexpensive as well.

Once you decide on the type, amount and source for your glycerine soap base,  you can begin thinking about the soap colorants that you want to buy. Liquid colors in squeeze/dropper bottles are the easiest to use, but require several drops to obtain rich colors. I have been using soapmaking colors that are found at craft stores like Michael's, Hobby Lobby and Joann's.

Color mixing for glycerine pour soaps.

The Candle Science page for soap making support says, Any water based liquid dye can be used to color your soap. You can also use mica, oxides, clays, or natural colorants. These should be diluted in a small amount of rubbing alcohol first to avoid clumping in the soap.

I currently have a 3-pk of yellow, turquoise and lime, Life of the Party Soap Dyes, which Hobby Lobby has. They also have large, 1 fl oz bottles of Crafty Bubbles soap dyes.

Crafty Bubbles Soap & Cosmetic Dye

Michael's has Artminds Soap Colorant. In reading feedback at the site, some complain that a couple of these moderately-priced soap colors were not true. I have not used them.

ArtMinds Soap Colorants

Bramble Berry has high quality colorants, including pigment blocks and mica powders. Scrape off shavings of the color blocks into melted soap base, or sprinkle in mica powder.

Bramble Berry pigment blocks for soap making.

Bramble Berry mica powders for soap making.

Bramble Berry mica powder sample packs for soap making.

Food coloring can also be used, as Martha Stewart shares in her quick tutorial. From a public Etsy forum discussion on Techniques & Materials, I found these very important tips about using food coloring,

• some claim that it can stain skin, towels and bathroom fixtures,
• others say if used in small quantities it does not stain,
• the colors are known to fade,
• food-safe is not the same as skin-safe though it may be harmless to skin,
• best to stick with cosmetic/soap colorants,
• there can be unwanted bleeding when more than 1 color is used.

If you have pre-made glycerine soap bars, you can use pieces of them or shavings to color your batch. Remember that if you are adding the ingredients to labels, you will need to know the composition of those glycerine soap pieces as well.

Rose scented glycerine pour soap by Artsy Craftery Studio.

I prefer the transparent liquid colors because I like my glycerine soaps to be crystal-like jewel tones. I don't want any opaque or muddy colors, unless I am using a soap base like olive oil, clay, goat milk, etc. Because food coloring has the transparency of liquid soap colors they make good colorants. Since they are edible, they will not hurt the skin or body.

Artsy Craftery Studio glycerine soap with embedded botanicals.

I have heard that some crafters use crayons for colorants. While I can see using them in candle making, I prefer not to use them in soapmaking. They are not cosmetic grade, not made for health and beauty purposes, and they are opaque.

The website FaveCrafts suggests using various spices for colorants, such as paprika, basil and turmeric. Among other good soapmaking tips, they suggest adding the coloring after the scents have been added.

SoapQueen by Bramble Berry gives tips on adding mica powders or pigments blocks as colorants. For the micas, they suggest adding them straight to melted glycerin, or pre-mixing with a tablespoon of isopropyl alcohol.

Whatever colorants you decide to use, make your melt and pour soaps your own by trying unique combinations of scents, colors and bases.






Liz at The Cape Coop gives some great points on the pros of making glycerine soaps versus the traditional cold-process soaps.



Information Sources:
Support.candlescience.com
Soapplace.com
Hobbylobby.com
Michaels.com
Bramberry.com
Marthastewart.com
Community.etsy.com
Favecrafts.com
Thecapecoop.com