How to Use Black Soap Dye

Soap dyes or tints vary in formulation, depending on the method of soap crafting, whether a dye will "bleed" into different layers of a layered soap, and come in liquid, powder, and solid block forms. You will learn how to dye both melt and pour (MP) and cold-process (cp) soap with this article, which are the most common methods of soap crafting, and illustrate techniques that carry over into rebatching and hot-process

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Gloves and other protective gear for clothes and workplace surfaces
• black dye suited to your soap crafting technique
• soap making/crafting ingredients
• molds
• spoon and/or spatula (non-reactive materials)
• rubbing alcohol in spray bottle (for MP)

1. Don your protective gear (especially if making soap from scratch), and lay down protection for your work area surfaces. Lay out all materials needed for your soap crafting. Ensure that all safety procedures or materials are handy before beginning. Weigh the soap you plan to melt down if using melt and pour or rebatching, and check the amount of soap your recipe will produce if using hot or cold process techniques. This will determine the amount of dye you will need- many brands specify a range of drops per pound of soap. Measure out the amount of dye needed for your batch, especially if it's a large batch. Use a non-porous container, or one that can be disposed of easily.

2. Start preparing your soap. If you are using the melt and pour or rebatching techniques, you begin by grating and melting down your block of existing soap. In cold or hot processing techniques, you will melt or warm the oils to the specified temperature, add the lye solution, and stir until the proper stage of saponification has been reached.

3. If using a solid dye with MP soap or rebatching, add the premeasured amount to the soap pot with the grated soap before melting. Once your soap is melted or at trace, measure out a small amount to test. Add a few drops of dye to the test soap. If the hue is satisfactory, you can begin adding the dye to the main batch. Some soap crafters dump the whole dye amount in and stir; others mix the dye in with a small amount of soap before adding the soap/dye mix to the soap pot. Stir thoroughly before pouring into the molds.

Tips & Warnings

• You can check the hue of your dye by adding a small amount to water- if the hue is off, you can correct it by using other color dyes, e.g. a red dye to counterbalance too much green.
• If you know your color theory well, you may be able to make your own black dye if you have red, yellow, and blue dye.
• Use non-porous and non-reactive tools, unless you want to dye all your tools along with the soap. Reactive tools, however, are most dangerous, as they can cause a chemical reaction with the soap or dye.
• I recommend liquid or powder dye, as it's easier to control.
• Especially if working with lye, read and follow all safety procedures.
• Even MP or rebatching can result in injuries- hot liquid soap can burn. The burns are not often serious, but make sure you have ready access to cool water.
• Keep small children and/or pets out of the work area.
• Wear a dust mask if using powdered dye.

Resources

• Wholesale Supplies Plus
• Soap Nuts
• Miller's Homemade Soap