To color microwave soap I use ultramarines
and oxides. They are available through many online soap suppliers,
create beautiful effects in soap, and are very economical to use. To use
them I mix 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoons of the powdered colorant with about 1 tablespoon
of castor oil. I find that most of the time this is enough to swirl
color through a 5 pound batch. I
use castor oil because I find it helps the pigments to disperse better
through the soap than just water which has a tendency to either evaporate
or soak into the soap. You could use just about any other oil, but
I use castor because the thickness of it helps keep the pigments suspended.
I don't count the little bit of castor in the lye calculations of a recipe.
Add the colorant mixture after the soap is done cooking. To
create swirls I take a small amount of cooked soap out of the pot and mix
it with the colorings, then add it back into the soap. The swirls
aren't as graceful as they can be in CP soap, but it creates a nice marble
effect that is not possible with CP soap. Because the soap is so
thick when the colorings are added I have had some success with swirling
a few different colors. The thickness of the soap helps to prevent
the colors from blending into each other.
This is a scanned image of some lavender goat milk soap I made.
I swirled it with some lavender
ultramarine that I bought from the Pigment Lady. The soap is white
because I added powdered goat milk mixed with a little water at the end
of the cook. To
add scent to your soap you will need to use very little of either an essential
or fragrance oil AFTER the soap is done cooking. Stand back from
the pot as you are adding the scent as the vapors can be a bit strong.For
most essential and fragrance oils I use 2 ounces per five pound batch of
soap. Stronger ones, like cinamon and mint I use much less.
It only takes a few teaspoons of either one of these to adequatly scent
a batch of soap. I add most scents a tablespoon at a time and stop when
the scent is strong enough. Don't dump a whole bottle of scent into
your soap. Add a little at a time to avoid soap that is too strongly
scented. I do not
recommend using cirtus essential oils, like sweet orange, grapefruit, tangerine,
lime and lemon oils in any soap (CP or HP). The scents fade out of
the soap in about a month. To get citrus scented soap you are better
off using a fragrance oil, or another essential oil, like lemongrass that
will stay in the soap longer.