Gel Color Sampler

[moon01945]

Hi! I am looking to start coloring my CP soaps. I saw this on the chemistrystore.com and wanted to see if anyone else has used Gel Colors for CP soap

http://www.chemistrystore.com/product.cgi?product=97544&group=96820

If not what does everyone use? I see a lot of people use POP colors... I may just go get those instead. The Gel colors caught my eye cause I could get a bunch of different colors in one batch to test out with.

[moon01945]

No response:

How about a bigger question. What do you use to color your CP Soap?

[tracey11474]

I posted asking on another board if I could use Wilton cake coloring and was told yes...I used some of that as I had some on hand(and you can buy it at Walmart for cheap). I'm new to m&p as I usually make natural cp.

[moon01945]

i would be using it for CP

[tracey11474]

i would be using it for CP

I've used drops of liquid dye to do swirls in my cp and it worked great. I just had the cheap stuff made by Spa Indulgences.

[chuck_35550]

If you'll hang on, I intend to start using some "Liquid Gel Tone" colors from TKB. I got rain slicker yellow, relay race red and others. So we'll see how that turns out. I looked for colorants that are stable in high ph soap and that won't bleed. HTH.

Steve

[MissMori]

If the gel Wilton cake coloring (food dye) lists the ingredients, check first, but I don't see why not. I haven't looked at the label for the Wilton cake coloring, but have a funny feeling they are fd&c (Food, Drug & Cosmetic) dyes in a glycerin dispersal with something for preservative and to thicken the suspension. LabColors & Select Shades are fd&c and d&c dyes. The only concern is that the coloring contains something that either is not approved for use on the skin or would cause something funky to happen to the soap (seizing.) Someone else may disagree, but if you are making soap for personal use, go ahead. If you are going to market your soap, you may want to invest in something else.

I use fd&c, d&c dyes, oxides, ultra marines, micas, and some natural colorants.

[Kitn]

I use pop micas and um's to color my soap.

[smittenheart]

pop micas and celestial colors

[Starr]

chuck, in a desperate attempt to get REAL bright red in CP or HP I tried relay race. I was NOT impressed. Even with Titanium it did no better then the POP reds. I hope you have better luck, if you do, tell me how please.

As for what I use, almost nothing but TKB's POP colors at this point. Though I still have liquid dyes from C&S in just about every color, I've found that they're not reliable to hold true in HP (don't know if I've tried them in CP). So if I decide to use those, I'm usually having an all-about-me soaping session and I put color in first, see what color it turns into THEN pick a scent to match it. I've had the green turn reddish brown, I think purple turned pink, can't remember how each of them turned out now but that's when I decide to do surprise scents just for me and run like heck once I figure out what color it turns to get my scent picked, weighed, and in the pot.

[Rob K]

Getting back to the OP, I've used the Chemistry Store gel colorants in CP and they are fine for the most part. A couple of the blue ones morph a bit - one turns pinkish brown when you stir in the lye, but if you gel your soap it will turn back blue the next day. They are very easy to use. I generally mixed them into the oil before adding the lye.

One thing to note is that like all dyes, they bleed quite a bit. Not a problem for a solid color bar, but pigments would be a better choice if you want a well defined swirl pattern.

[moon01945]

thanks for the feedback from everyone!

i am going to try the celestrial colors first. then I woudl liek to try the pigments for swirls. One step at a time.

http://www.cherrytreescents.com/celestialcolors.html