Woad powder
Pale blue-green to deep denim blue. Lovely Greens supplier or guide
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
Woad powder is a plant powder used to colour soap. Lovely Greens gets a much darker colour from it in the lye solution than at trace.
Lovely Greens supplier or guide, Lovely Greens supplier or guide
How much
- 1–2 tsp per pound of oils filled in Lovely Greens supplier or guide
- 0.94–2.82 tsp per pound of oils (from a published recipe that adds it to one part of the batch: the lower figure over the whole batch, the higher within that part) Cable, The Natural Soap Making Book for Beginners primary source
The calculator fills in 1 tsp per pound of oils: 8.8 g for the 1000 g of oils in its starter recipe.
When and how
- Usually: into the lye solution.
- Also used: at light trace.
- Stir it in as it is.
Lovely Greens supplier or guide, Lovely Greens 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
- Stirred into the hot lye solution, it gives a deeper colour than at trace. Lovely Greens 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, Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009, Annex IV primary source
Spoons and drops
- 1 tsp ≈ 4 g
- 1 tbsp ≈ 12 g
- 1 cup ≈ 192 g
Lovely Greens supplier or guide
INCI name
Isatis Tinctoria Leaf Powder
Guides that discuss it
Sources
Lovely Greens, woad soap: "4 g woad 1 tsp" in the lye solution for 455 g of oils; "You can get a much darker color if you add the powder to the lye solution"; woad "will naturally tint soap from pale blue-green to pale blue to deep denim".
Lovely Greens, natural soap colorants: cinnamon, "use up to 1 tsp ground cinnamon powder PPO. Be aware that cinnamon leaves a slightly gritty feeling"; beetroot, "Warm to dull brown", "Unfortunately, beets do not color CP/HP soap red"; black walnut hull powder, "Add powder at trace and be aware that they create a scratchy or exfoliating texture"; red sandalwood, "Add 1/4-1/2 tsp powder PPO at trace after premixing in a little oil. Can be very scratchy if you use more than this"; woad, "Add 1-2 tsp powder PPO to the lye solution"; rose hips, "Up to 1 tsp ground rosehip powder PPO"; nettle leaf, "muted green", "Premix dried and powdered nettle leaf with a little water and add at trace. Use 1-3 tsp PPO"; kelp, "Dark green", "at trace at up to 3 tsp PPO. Pre-mix in an equal amount of distilled water"; sage, "muted green that fades with time", or "1 tsp PPO dried sage at trace for dark speckles"; peppermint, "1 tsp PPO finely ground peppermint leaves at trace"; liquid chlorophyll, "stunning greens from using about 1 TBSP PPO", fading "into a greeny-yellow"; cucumber, "initially green but usually fades to a muted yellow"; chamomile, "Infuse flowers in distilled water and use the strained liquid to make the lye solution"; green tea, "Brown-green"; rhassoul clay, "Brown"; French green clay, "pale pastel green to earthy green"; "plant-based greens tend to be fugitive". PPO is per pound of oils.
Kelly Cable, The Natural Soap Making Book for Beginners (Althea Press, 2017): "Replacing 25 percent of the water with juice gives the bar a more golden color without browning or causing sugar difficulties"; most juices "turn a dark color within the soap, typically brown"; juices frozen "to a slush" before the lye; "when adding purées, always remove the same weight in water"; 2 ounces of puréed strawberries at light trace for 33 oz of oils, all of it in half of the batch, where "the sugars from the purée can cause this soap to possibly overheat"; "Beet root powder starts off a pretty, bright pink, but when added to soap, it turns brown"; "most herbs turn brown when added at trace. If you want to avoid this, add them to the top of your soap right before it sets"; "Make sure your herbs are very dry before adding them to the soap, as moisture left within herbs can bleed into the soap over time, leaving a brown halo". "Green can be made with spirulina, comfrey leaf, and parsley leaf". Activated charcoal: "Add 1 teaspoon per pound of soap". Recipes, per 31–35 oz of oils: "2 tablespoons ground turmeric" blended into the whole batch (32 oz), and "3 teaspoons ground turmeric" in one of four equal parts (31 oz); "2 teaspoons woad powder" and "1 tablespoon white kaolin clay", each in one of three equal parts (34 oz); 1 tablespoon of dried nettle leaf, or 2 tablespoons; 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon; 1 tablespoon of dried peppermint flakes, "plus more to sprinkle on top"; 1 tablespoon of steeped chamomile flowers at light trace and 2 on top; comfrey, "1 heaping tablespoon comfrey leaf powder" infused in 8 ounces of olive oil, 3 ounces of that oil in the recipe.
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.
Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009, Annex IV (colourants allowed in cosmetic products), consolidated text of 18 May 2026: entry 98, CI 73000 (indigo), blue; entry 116, CI 75810, the copper complexes of chlorophylls, green; entry 148, "Beetroot red" (E 162), red. None carries a condition that excludes rinse-off products.