I love coloring my soap with natural products and I try and keep them to be self-harvested if I can.. but this also means that sometimes you are trying things that might give you some very unpredictable results. If you google, you can find a good basic list of what things will give but then what happens is that a) you get told different things.. or b) what you want to use is in fact not on the list..

That’s where doing a homemade dye lye test comes in really really! handy.. I had hoped that the colors on this test paper that I am showing you would be more clear but we take what we can take..

So this is a elderberry juice.. now if you think about this what color would you expect? purple or blue or green right.. but that is where the test gives you a very good idea, now the colors of the oil you are using and if you are scenting, these can also effect, but you have to start somewhere right.. its going to end up a shade or two on either side of the test color, or at least that is what I have personally found..

So the dark purple juice is on the far left, then the juice with the lye (dark green), then 3 hours later, (Dark Brown)  then six hours later,(soft light brown)