Coloring Cold Process Soap with Oxides, Ultramarines, Micas & Neons 

Wow, I watched this three times and took notes! So many choices for soapers just starting out and it seems like the sellers are reluctant to offer choices when talking about pre-mixing. Thanks so much for an honest and practical review. you've given me the confidence to purchase without worrying I'm going to waste money with soap I can't sell or use.

Thank you so much Amy--I have had a lot of hit and miss batches of soap due to colorant issues. This video has been so amazingly helpful. Can't wait to experiment!

Amy this was wonderful information. I have watched it before but learning soo much more now...YOu are a great teacher and love watching your videos. I have had everything to make soaps for a year and have yet to make a batch, but hopefully will soon. I have learned soo much from you.Thank you Sheryl

I watched your video several months ago. I just recently had that crackling issue and I'm not satisfied with my colors half the time. I remembered watching your video and searched for hours in my history to find it. Glad I did. Very good job and thank you for taking the time out to make this video.

Thank you so much Amy! This video sure will help me and other soapers. Even if you have been soaping for a while, it can't hurt to learn as much as you can about mixing colors. I had to learn the hard way! Lol. Thanks again for your wonderful helping videos!!! Your a doll! ;))). Carol

Thank you...I'm pretty new at soaping and color has been challenging. I watched one of Holly's recent videos & she recommended your tutorial. Really cleared up a lot for me. Thanks again.

Thank you for sharing all your knowledge. As a beginner in soap making and wanting to try my hand at colorants, i was very overwhelmed. Thank you for making it simple. :-)

Excellent guidelines and tips, Amy. This would have saved me a lot of trial and error when I first started. Thanks for sharing !

Awesome tutorial Amy, I know this will help tons of newbies!! So sweet of you to share this valuable info.. :-) Mel

I'm so glad you found it helpful!! Appreciate your comment - keep soaping!!

Very informative Amy. You did a lot of work on this. Thanks so much for making this video, and sharing all your experience.

That's a top notch video! Very informative and full of tips and hints. Thanks Amy!

great video Amy. I kept hearing you did this video but I never could find it. the update finally showed up in my feed today yay! I love using neons for pastels, they are much clearer and gentler to me then the washed out look you get from simply not having enough micas.

It's a great alternative, for sure!! Thanks for your comment, Melissa!

Thank you for your sweet comment, Carol!! I appreciate your feedback. :)

Amy, I would have been SO HAPPY to have that much awesome info. when I started, for sure! Bless your heart for being so sweet and helping with something that can take so much time and effort to figure out. :-) Mel

This just saved me. I had such a nightmare last night. Thank you so much for t his video.

Great video! Thanks so much for all of your coloring tips!

Amy, THANK YOU!! I have been having such a hard time figuring out how much colorants I need, because, like you said, I don't make single colored soaps. So far, I've had major fails. The soaps are pretty, but kind of muted and dull colored. This will be tremendously helpful for my future batches.

You're welcome!! Happy soaping!

Loved the video. Very informative. Thank you for these guidelines.

Thanks, Rebekka! Glad you like it!

Thank you so much for this information. It is so helpful for new soapers!

I love your videos! They are so helpful and informative!!! Thank you so much!

Thank you, Marie!! Hope you find it helpful!

Amy, I finally ordered colorants from nurture soap last night !

I love that neon yellow from natures garden.

I came back to watch a second time to make sure all my notes were correct. With this help, I think I will be able to now. :)

Glad to help! Best wishes to you!

OMG, thank U so much for a full explanation with examples. Good job.

You're welcome, Patti! Appreciate your comment! :)

Thank you, Rochelle! Hope it comes in handy for you.

Thank you so much for this video. It was very helpful !

THANK YOU!!! Made everything so much clearer for me 😊

Very valuable information!! Thank you so much!!

Thank you, Mel. I just know when I started looking for usage rate info, it didn't seem like there was very much out there. Or it was conflicting. I can't say my recommendations work 100% of the time, but at least it's a guideline to get people started!

Great video. Thanks so much for all the detail info!

so much useful info, thank you for sharing!

Appreciate your comment, Odie! :)

This was AWESOME! Thank you!

Thank you Amy for this thorough video. Very valuable information.

So much useful information, thank you so much!

Thank you so much this is really helpful for me,. I did make a soap and it looks like a lot of dots, Now i know why, thanks for the video.

You are very welcome!! Hope you find it helpful. :)

Thanks for the info, this saved me HOURS of tests XD

thanks for this priceless information and tips

Thank You for answering my question, I'm just now getting started in doing Homemade soap. I haven't done my first bash, but hopefully next week. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. But thank you for all your videos, it has really help to clear many questions I had. God Bless

Appreciate your feedback! :)

Thank you so much Amy, great information!

I'm not finished watching the video yet but I had to say; Colorants and me do not mix (Ha! Made a not so funny there). I am encouraged to try again thanks to you. I can't tell you how valuable your video is to me. I'm watching it again and taking notes. I plan on buying some soap in repayment for this brilliant video. Blessings to you.

I'll have to check it out! It's definitely a very common problem...

Verrrry helpful video - thank you.

Saving this video for later reference. Wow, there's a lot of information here that Soap Queen TV & Soaping 101 don't really cover.

Great Information... Thank you so much for taking the time. This isn't really covered anywhere. Now off to look for ricing info. Thanks again.

Actually, taking the oil from the soap recipe is the best way to do it!! Adding too much glycerin can definitely affect the final outcome. I had a soap that turned out softer than it should have because of the added glycerin that I used. But I was coloring the main part of the soap, and if I remember correctly, I decided to mix up more colorant and added it to the soap pot twice. :)

You mean the magic violet mica from The Conservatorie? It's a lovely mica in CP soap! I use it quite frequently. :)

Awesome lesson! Thank you!

Great info, thank you!

Very nice information - thanks!

This is a great video thank you for making it! I was wondering about premixing micas in oil or glycerine and how that would affect my recipe? I usually take a bit of oil from the recipe to mix them so I'm not sure how that would work. As for the glycerine I guess it won't affect the soap? Thanks again

Yes, I mean to mixing 2-4ozs of colorants (premix in oil, like glycerin, castor, etc) and keep in small jars and use when you need to color small batches of soap when your making cold/hot process. I'm sorry, I want to learn as much as I can before I jump into soap making. Thank You So Much for responding to my question(s).

For anyone watching this who uses melt and pour soap, if you mix your pigment powder or mica with some warm oil, it always does the trick and mixes well. Powders always mix well with a warm liquid.

Thank you Amy, im now thinking it may be if people are storing it mixed for a couple of weeks.

Great tip!!

Thank you!

It's very bright!!! :)

Loved it, thanks

Very informative. Thanks

thank you so much

Very helpful!

Mystery solved ! Thanks 👍🥰

Nice! Td crackle.....didn't know that about rbo. I use rbo in a lot of soaps.........and when the crackle hit....it looked planned so I left it as "a happy accident". So any advice on pigments...magic violet in particular?

oh my goodness! I'm so happy I found you!! this is so helpful to me as a new soaper!! you are a wonderful teacher! thank you so much! I am still learning the difference between soap processes, and was wondering if this will work the same with m&p? if it's different.

OMG THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

PS what do you do when even colors that are s'posed to be soap safe aren't stable in soap? I got the color set from Nurture Soap Molds which I think is supplied at least in part by the Conservatorie and they still morph on me!

Interesting. I just checked out their site, and they claim to have tested 100's of colorants to get the ones they are offering. Have you contacted them directly to see if they have any answers?

I'm not sure. The green turned brown. I had to use a bunch more of it then you would think, several tablespoons worth, to get a green color.

Chalk it up to poor research on their part! I haven't tried those yet - what happened?

Ok, great!

Wow! Thank you! I appreciate the info! I just my 2 big color orders from nurture soaps and mad oils! I'm about to make a batch of soap using a few colors!

Hey Amy! Thanks for your very informative video! I do have a question when working with titanium dioxide. While working on a swirl recipe I wanted my soap base to be white as possible. Is it safe to divide the soap base in thirds with the titanium dioxide already mixed then add my other two colors or should I do each one individually? Thanks I'm advance!

Awwww, so glad to help, Janet!! Hope you make lots of beautiful soaps!! :)

I had an ultra cheap frother once - wasn't from IKEA. It lost power really quickly though & I decided I wouldn't do that again!!

Excellent tutorial! Thank you for sharing. I have a whole batch of sample Mica and Oxides, so this is so very helpful. I was just wondering also, if you have ever used a liquid dispersion/liquid soap colour before? Can you just add those straight into the soap batter? Thank you!

Hi Amy. Thank you so much for your reply. I had much better results since using your usage rates. I want to try using clay as a colourant. Do you have a recommended usage rate? I am going to try Rose Clay and Kaolin White.

Onde comprar?

I'm having a terrible time creating anything but a settling pond green, and I found that your blog is no longer available. Do you have an updated that replaced it? Thanks for making great videos for newbs.

This was so helpful. I just made soap for the first time and mixed my micas in water but obviously it did not blend well. Looks pretty Chrisrmas glittery on the top on a few. Is it dangerous to the skin if used?

I’ve been reading a lot about the cautions of using titanium dioxide! It’s scary stuff. I threw mine away.

I'm new at soap making, could you give me your opinion on what color blue would be good for the ocean and where i can buy that exact color. I thank you in advance.

Hi Amy. I really like your video and found it very useful A few questions: Can I use a water soluble oxide pigment in oil? If I mix oxide pigments in water and store in bottles, how long can they be stored for? If an oxide pigment mixes with water to begin with but then later separates and sits at the bottom, is it water soluble or would it be worth mixing with oil?

Fantastic info. Amy ! So, why on the website Madoils to they say I should mix their micas with oil and not water?

I have a question, when mixing colorants with oil or water do I deduct that oil or water from my recipe?

After mixing my neons in classic olive oil (as light as I can get an OO to be) I noticed the color still separates and sinks to the bottom. Also, could I mix my neons in melted 76° coconut oil for my salt bars?

Hi I am really new to soap making and I was planing to make soaps with some kids using soap flakes/ powder so I was told it's re batching and all I do is add water to make the soap then you add colours I'm using micas and any fragrance but I won't be adding scents and was curious as to the best way to premix the micas do you have any suggestions? I just don't want the powders there incase they are spilled as I did buy enough to compensate for that s

Nevermind....I just found the word "ultrramarine" in really tiny letters on the label. Thanks....I'll go review that part of the vid.

I too watched it 3 times and took notes and will watch it again. Being a newbie, I am confused, all that mixing with water... I thought you couldn't add water to a soap batch without a preservative ? or it will go moldy ?

Hi Amy, I an new to using Neons. I was aiming for a really vivid 5 colour swirl. I pre mixed my Neons (Brambelberry) 1/2 tspn to 1/3 cup Glycerin. No trouble blending them in but they were faily pale and not what I expected. When I add 2 tspn to my 1 cup swirl pots it was still quite pale. As the soap cures do the colours get brighter or is what you see what you get?

If using the glycerin or oil to mix your colorants, how does that effect your base recipe? I think I'd prefer the glycerin but I'm concerned with the final effect on the soap.

I found out last night neon doesn’t always mix right in soap well . I’m curious on how well water soluble dyes work in soap do they all bleed