Learn How to Color Soap Naturally

Extracting Color from Nature: a soap maker's guide to using botanical extracts in handmade soap
Featuring 30+ lessons and videos with color updates and bonus content.

In my book, The Natural Soap Color Palette, I explore how botanical ingredients can create beautiful natural colors in soap. The extracting color from nature tutorials expand on that foundation and show exactly how I extract color from plants and use those pigments in cold process soap.

Working with botanical colorants often starts with macerations such as infusions, teas, decoctions, and slurries. Each technique pulls different pigments from plant materials, which can then be incorporated into soap to produce natural colors.

In the Extracting Color from Nature classes, I demonstrate the methods I use to extract color from botanicals and how those extracts behave in real soap recipes.

Here are just some of the topics covered in the Extracting Color from Nature series:

  • Understanding macerations (how to create and use teas, decoctions, infusions, and slurries)
  • Comparison of hot vs. cold infusions
  • Learn my hybrid infusion technique that will provide rich colors in as little as one week!
  • Various mini-tutorials along the way, including painting soaps with tinctures, swirls, and top decorations.
  • Using slurries to color and scent your natural soaps.
  • Micro-batch testing
  • and more!

How Do You Extract Color From Plants for Soap?

Many natural soap colors come from plant pigments that must first be extracted from the botanical material. Soapmakers typically use oil infusions, water-based extractions, or powdered botanicals depending on how the pigment behaves in soap.

Oil infusions are often used for fat-soluble pigments such as annatto or alkanet. Water-based extractions like teas and decoctions can be used when pigments dissolve better in water. Some botanicals can also be added directly as powders or slurries.

Each plant behaves a little differently in soap, which is why experimentation and testing are an important part of working with botanical soap colorants.

Start Learning Natural Soap Colors

If you want to go deeper into botanical soap colorants, these courses walk through the exact techniques I use to extract color from plants and apply them in cold process soap.

You can start with oil-soluble infusions, explore water-based extractions like teas and decoctions, or dive into specific botanical color experiments in the digital edition of my book.... or get them all in the master class bundle!

Showing all 9 resultsSorted by average rating

Frequently Asked Questions About Natural Soap Colors

Quick Summary
  • Many plant pigments must be extracted before adding them to soap
  • Oil infusions and water-based extractions are common methods
  • Some botanicals can be added directly as powders or slurries
  • Different plants behave differently during saponification
  • These techniques are demonstrated in the Extracting Color from Nature classes
Soapy Friends
Independently verified
4.97 store rating (90 reviews) | 4.96 product rating
Shopping Cart

Start typing and press enter to search

Scroll to Top