Madder root powder
Pinkish red. Fisher, The Complete Photo Guide to Soap Making primary source
Opens the calculator’s starter recipe, 1000 g of oils, with this additive at the dose it fills in, ready to change.
What it is
Madder root powder is ground madder root, whose colouring anthraquinones turn purple in alkaline conditions.
Voyageur Soap & Candle supplier or guide, Madder and pH primary source
How much
- 1–3 tsp per pound of soap filled in Wholesale Supplies Plus supplier or guide
- 2 tsp per pound of soap Faiola, Pure Soapmaking primary source
The calculator fills in 1 tsp per pound of soap: 6.6 g for the 1000 g of oils in its starter recipe.
When and how
- Usually: at light trace.
- Also used: into the oils.
- Mix it first with a little of the recipe’s oil, about a teaspoon of powder to a tablespoon of oil, so it spreads without specks.
Soap Queen supplier or guide, Faiola, Pure Soapmaking primary source
What it does to the recipe
- It changes neither the lye nor the water: it is only weight in the bar.
Worth knowing
- Caution: Madder contains lucidin, which damages DNA, and madder colour caused kidney and liver cancer in rats that were fed it. Madder toxicology (2009) primary source
- At soap’s pH it turns purple: gelled soap comes out redder, ungelled more mauve. Madder and pH primary source, Soap Queen supplier or guide
- In the EU soap is a cosmetic, and may be coloured only with the colourants in Annex IV of the Cosmetics Regulation. In the US the colour additives allowed in cosmetics do not include this one; a true soap sold as soap alone is not a cosmetic there. Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009; 21 CFR 73 primary source
Spoons and drops
- 1 tsp ≈ 2.1 g
- 1 tbsp ≈ 6.3 g
- 1 cup ≈ 101 g
Voyageur Soap & Candle supplier or guide
INCI name
Rubia Tinctorum Root
- CAS number
- 84650-16-8
- EC number
- 283-497-9
Recipes that use it
Guides that discuss it
Sources
David Fisher, The Complete Photo Guide to Soap Making (Creative Publishing International, 2018), p. 20: dyes "give a full range of hues—from subtle to bright and bold", but "can bleed between layers or swirls of soap, especially in melt-and-pour soap. Some are not stable in cold process soap, so test them first"; oxides "are very stable and strong in soap". Natural colours, pp. 82–84. In an infused oil: "Annatto: yellow-orange"; "Alkanet: light to deep purple, depending on the amount used"; "Paprika: orange-peach". In the lye solution: "Indigo: light to deep blue"; "Madder root: pinkish-red"; "Rose clay: deep rose pink". Added to the oils or at trace: "Activated charcoal: light gray to deep black"; "Black walnut hull (ground): speckled brown, also an exfoliant"; "Calendula flower petals (whole or ground): nice, warm yellow"; "Carrots (puréed or juiced): muted orange"; "Cinnamon: reddish tan to brown"; "Cocoa powder: tan to brown"; "Cucumber: pale yellow-green"; "Rosehips (ground): speckled reddish brown"; "Sage: muted green"; "Spirulina: pastel green/blue-green". For "a bright, white bar of soap": "Add titanium dioxide: about 1 teaspoon per 1 pound (454 g) of oils."
Soap Queen, madder root: "gel phase produced a red hue ... non-gelled soap is more mauve".
Anne-Marie Faiola, Pure Soapmaking (Storey Publishing, 2016), chapter 5, "Herbal and Other Additives for Soap", each at "2 tsp powder per pound of soap": olive leaf powder, "Yellow/green", "Will fade with exposure to light"; comfrey powder, "Light green", "Gel phase enhances the color. Will fade substantially with exposure to light"; nettle leaf powder, "Green"; spirulina powder, "Deep green", "Color is enhanced by a hot gel phase, but will fade substantially with exposure to light"; indigo powder, "Blue/gray", "added as a dispersed powder ... or added directly to hot lye-water before combining oils"; alkanet root powder, "Purple/gray", "Infusion will fade over time; dispersed powder is more color stable"; paprika, "Red/orange", "Gives a speckled appearance"; rose clay, "Rosy pink", "Disperse in distilled water instead of oil"; madder root powder, "Dark red"; yarrow powder, "Yellow/tan", "Dispersed powder can be added at trace, or the dry powder can be infused into lye-water to create a more yellow hue"; cocoa powder, "Rich brown", "Gel phase enhances the color, as does exposure to air". For the chart’s soaps "all powdered additives were dispersed at a ratio of 1 part powder: 3 parts oil"; "The colorants were added at trace and went through gel phase." Oil infusions: "most soapers use at least 2 tablespoons of herb for every 4 ounces of oil. I prefer to use a tablespoon of herb for every ounce." Clay in the water before the lye: "The heat reaction from the lye-water will produce a deeper color than will adding the clay at thin trace".
Wholesale Supplies Plus, madder root powder: "1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon per pound of base".
Lucidin in madder is genotoxic, and madder colour "exert[s] carcinogenicity in the rat kidney and liver" (PubMed 19793347).
Madder anthraquinones turn "purple in alkaline conditions" (PMC12428649).
EU: Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009, Article 14(1)(c), a product may contain as colourants only those in Annex IV. US: 21 CFR Part 73 Subpart C lists the colour additives for cosmetics, and turmeric, paprika and spirulina are listed for food only; under 21 CFR 701.20 a true soap, sold only as soap, is not a cosmetic.
Voyageur Soap & Candle, madder root powder: "Approx. Cups/ Lb: 4.5", 100.8 g a cup.