Titanium dioxide (water-dispersible)
Opaque white. Wholesale Supplies Plus supplier or guide, 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
The same white pigment in a grade made to disperse in water; it is lighter by volume than the oil grade, 0.5–0.6 g per mL.
How much
- 1–2 tsp per pound of oils filled in Mad Micas supplier or guide
The calculator fills in 1 tsp per pound of oils: 6 g for the 1000 g of oils in its starter recipe.
When and how
- Usually: into the oils.
- Also used: into the lye solution, at light trace.
- Mix it with about three times its volume of the recipe’s water, held back for it: a teaspoon of powder to a tablespoon of water.
Mad Micas supplier or guide
What it does to the recipe
- It changes neither the lye nor the water: it is only weight in the bar.
Worth knowing
- It makes glycerin rivers, the pale streaks in some bars, more visible. They show less when it is dispersed in oil than in water. Soap Queen supplier or guide
- Caution: Do not breathe the powder: wear a dust mask when you weigh it. EU law bars it from products whose use can reach the lungs. Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 primary source
Spoons and drops
- 1 tsp ≈ 2.71 g (2.46–2.96 g)
- 1 tbsp ≈ 8.13 g (7.39–8.87 g)
- 1 cup ≈ 130 g (118–142 g)
KRONOS primary source
INCI name
CI 77891 (Colour Index number)
- CAS number
- 13463-67-7
- EC number
- 236-675-5
- US colour additive name
- Titanium Dioxide
Guides that discuss it
Sources
Wholesale Supplies Plus, soap colorants guide: titanium dioxide is "prized for its dense, white opacity", and "A single teaspoon is sufficient to lighten one pound of soap"; "half of this amount or even less for brown oxide and red oxide"; oxides "must be thoroughly mixed with oil before use"; micas offer "a spectrum of bright hues"; ultramarines have "potential to emit sulfurous odors".
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."
Mad Micas, titanium dioxide (water-dispersible): "1–2 tsp. per pound of oils", in hot water, "at any point before or after you add your lye solution".
Soap Queen, glycerin rivers: "more visible with pigments, especially titanium dioxide"; disperse it in oil rather than water.
Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009, Annex IV entries 143 and 144 and Annex III entry 321: titanium dioxide and zinc oxide "Not to be used in applications that may lead to exposure of the end-user’s lungs".
KRONOS, List of Grades (July 2026), p. 23: titanium dioxide bulk density 950 kg/m³ for the oil-dispersible grade, 500–600 kg/m³ for the water-dispersible grades.