There is a touch of color on the curing racks at Annie’s Goat Hill Handcrafted Soaps these days. Spring is in the air, and with spring comes color!
I wanted to briefly touch on color in my soaps…
In the past I believed in adding nothing to my soaps that was not natural. For instance, if I had 25 varieties of soaps to sell, one would hold fragrance, the remainder of the soaps would be handcrafted with pure essential oils (and herbal and/or complexion clay for coloring).
I have steered away from that way of thinking, but only to a degree.
I have tested ultramarine colorants (blue, violet, green and some pink). These are skin safe colorants, but are created in a laboratory.
Some of the yellow colorants are supplied by oxides, also skin safe.
As it stands, there are certain scents that simply cannot be obtained via an essential oil (natural), such as lilac or cherry. These types of scents are fragrance oils.
My newest line of soaps will give a variety of choices: colorants, fragrances, all natural (essential oils, herbals and natural colorants), and some with no scent or color at all (unscented goat milk soap, oatmeal and honey goat milk soap).
The soap descriptions in the website’s soap store will state fragrance, essential oil, colorant (ultramarine) or pigment. My thinking is, whatever your skin needs, or your preferences are, you should be able to find something in the shop that suits your needs.
Enjoy!
Annies Goat Hill Handcrafted Soaps 
How lovely!
I love all the colors. Do you know if the labs test on animals?
A lot of thought and work goes into your choices to make and sell, and it shows Mary.
Joanna, I went to my supplier and asked that question, “No animal testing is done on our products.”
Thank you Amy and Kathy. I love my work.
Your curing wrack looks like a fabulous soap display =) and I love the soft spring colors!
I have a wonderful GM Soap recipe and my very own fresh GM, but my color’s are terrible. Where am I going wrong? I was wondering if the colors change while in the box? If they are too warm. I have made other soap w/o GM and those colors are always nice. Help
I’ll try to “help”!
As you know, goat milk soap has a mind of its own. We made non-milk soaps for a number of years, without any problems with color.
Different essential oils, and even fragrance oils, can cause variations in color in milk soaps.
The temperature of the lye/milk, prior to mixing, may also affect the resulting color.
As far as soap changing color in the box, I have not had that issue. I assume you are making cold processed soaps? What types of colorants are you using? Does your packaging allow the soaps to breathe?
Certain soaps, while stored at higher room temperatures, can change colors, generally they go lighter.
What types of color problems are you seeing when “my color’s are terrible”?
Thanks, Mary