Natural colours

[specialgirl7876]

Hi
Can you tell me if it is possible to colour bath bombs with natural products? Just basic colours really - pink, green, yellow blue maybe?
thanks
Fran

[greenfairy]

I know this is an older thread but just wanted to post as I've also been researching natural colours for bath bombs, so thought my findings might be useful for anyone else who's interested in the same. I made some bombs last night - successfully coloured yellow with tumeric!

I made two-tone bombs, so I divided the mix in 2 seperate bowls. I only made a small amount, made 3 bombs and for that I used about 1 teaspoon of tumeric. I mixed it into the bicarb/citric acid before adding oil/water - it looked very pale but when I added moisture it went darker. To the other 1/2 of the mix I added a little cinnamon, which gave a browny tinge with fine speckles.

Apparantly you can use paprika to get a pinkish colour. I've also seen beetroot powder for sale on ebay, so I might try that too. There is also a herb called alkanet, which creates a reddy or blue colour (depending on what you're colouring), available from soapmaking suppliers and ebay. For green I'm not sure - I have a book which recommends grinding dried rosemary, but I'm also keeping an eye out for spinach powder!

I was worried the tumeric might give the bombs a funny smell, as it can smell quite strong in the packet, but it didn't - I can only smell the essential oils I added.

Healthfood shops are great for buying dried herbs/spices. They are usually much cheaper than buying online or from soapmaking suppliers, or supermarkets. They might not have the more unusual things like alkanet though, just the ones that are used in cooking.

Anyway hope that is helpful to somebody!

[woodenlady]

My husband uses food dyes, when reguired, for some antique restoration work - could these be used in bath bombs or not?
Woodenlady

[greenfairy]

I'm sure you could, are the dyes in liquid or powder form? I tried using the food colouring you get in little bottles from the supermarket, I found it didn't mix in properly so you got speckles instead of an even colour. I have just bought an oil sprayer though so might try mixing liquid food colouring with a little sweet almond oil, and spray it on to the mix - it might mix in more evenly then. The only way to tell is to give it a try I'm afraid Woodenlady! If you just make a very small batch you won't waste too much ingredients if it goes really wrong!

[Lomond Soap]

Perhaps Spirulina or Kelp powders would give you a green colour. It produces a green speckled effect in soap. They do smell of the sea though.
This page might help http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art50548.asp though again it is aimed at soapmakers.

[deedoo]

You are not supposed to be using food colours in any bath product. Cosmetic grade colours are needed.

[ElaineJ]

There are some food colours which are allowed - those which are DF&C rated (Drugs, Food and Cosmetics).

There are concentrated extracts of natural substances which are safe for colouring both food and cosmetic products; not really suitable for bath bombs as they're usually in paste form.

[greenfairy]

Deedo I'm not talking about making products to sell, I only make them for my own use so regulations about using food colours don't apply. Not all of us on here run businesses selling cosmetic products, it's just a fun hobby. I would assume anyone making bath bombs to sell would have fully checked out the regulations before selling them, rather than just following a hobbyist on a crafts forum. Sounds like you don't know the regulations as well as ElaineJ anyway!

[ElaineJ]

Rose petal powder is a soft pinky beige - goes a horrible colour in soap (lots of botanical stuff does) but should work ok in bath bombs, powdered pink clay might be better (I've never tried either though).

With liquid colours I'd try sprinkling a few drops onto the bicarb or citric acid crystals/powder and mixing thouroughly before mixing all the ingredients together.