53 Natural Colorants for Soap Making

How to Color Soap Naturally

By
David Fisher
David Fisher

David Fisher is a highly regarded professional soaper with over 15 years of experience, sharing his knowledge of the craft, science, and chemistry of saponification. He currently owns Bath Rabbit Soap Company and is the author of "The Complete Photo Guide to Soap Making."

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Updated on 12/08/19
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While color may be a purely aesthetic feature of soap, it adds interest and variety, allowing you to show your crafting creativity. You can use micas, liquid dyes, and oxides, but consider these natural soap colorants instead, as they're more readily available––you might even have them on hand in your home right now. Though usually not as vibrant as synthetic colors, natural colorants can be just as lovely with their muted, pastel tones.

Natural Soap Colorants List

Nearly all of these ingredients can be found in your kitchen, local grocery store, or from soap making suppliers. Many of them are already used to color common foods and drinks. For instance, annatto is what gives macaroni and cheese its orange color, and cochineal is used to color Hawaiian Punch.

Illustration of natural soap dyes
Illustration: The Spruce / Bailey Mariner
  • 01 of 08

    Black and Gray

    Black activated charcoal powder in glass bowl

    Anna Chaplygina / Getty Images

    • Activated charcoal: gray to deep black color
    • Poppy seeds: blue-gray to light black specks
    • Pumice, ground: gray
  • 02 of 08

    White

    Ceramic bowl with green clay powder and fresh eucalyptus leaves on white background.

    Iryna Kaliukina / Getty images

  • 03 of 08

    Brown

    Ground cinnamon and cinnamon sticks

    Cappi Thompson / Getty Images

    • Cinnamon (can be an irritant): tan to brown
    • Cloves, ground: brown
    • Cocoa powder: brown
    • Coffee/coffee grounds: brown to black
    • Comfrey root: light milky brown
    • Cornmeal: blue, purplish-blue-brown
    • Elderberries (steep in lye solution): light brown
    • Milk (goats or cow's): tan to brown, depending on sugar and fat content
    • Olive leaf powder: warm ochre/brown color
    • Rattanjot: light lavender-brown to deep purplish chocolate brown
    • Rhassoul clay: a light speckled gray-brown
    • Rosehip seeds, ground: light tan to deep brown
  • 04 of 08

    Purple

    Macro close-up of Organic Alkanna tinctoria or ratan jot on the wooden top background and jute mat.

    ziprashantzi / Getty Images

    Continue to 5 of 8 below.
  • 05 of 08

    Red and Pink

    beetroot powder

    MichellePatrickPhotographyLLC / Getty Images

  • 06 of 08

    Green

    Directly Above Shot Of Ground Green Food In Wooden Bowl By Spoon Over White Background

    Nalinratana Phiyanalinmat / EyeEm / Getty Images

  • 07 of 08

    Blue

    Indigo powder

    Svetlana Monyakova / Getty Images

  • 08 of 08

    Yellow and Orange

    Turmeric Powder - Wooden Spoon

    Neha Gupta / Getty Images

    • Annatto seed: steep in oil first; it makes a yellow/orange
    • Ground calendula petals: yellow, speckled throughout
    • Carrots, shredded or ground: yellow to orange
    • Ground chamomile: yellow-beige
    • Curry powder: yellow
    • Orange juice: used in place of water for lye solution; nice pastel orange/beige
    • Paprika: light orange peach to orange-brown; can be an irritant
    • Pumpkin, pureed: lovely deep orange
    • Safflower petals: yellow to deep orange
    • Saffron: yellow
    • Turmeric: golden brown to amber

How to Use Soap Colorants

Natural soap colorants can be infused into the oil or water you'll be using to make your soap, added directly to the soap before setting, or used in the lye solution. Note that the type of process you use––melt-and-pour, cold process, or hot process––as well as the ingredients in your soap will influence when and how you color it.

Unless you've used a specific colorant before, or are following someone else's recipe, it's important to do a test run before you throw a bunch of carrots or seaweed into your soap. Make a small batch of soap before jumping in and committing to a large batch made with an ingredient you've never used before.