Natural Madder Soap Tutorial (Cold Process) + Easy Madder Growing Tips

This is homemade madder root soap. It's based on a very simple cold processed soap recipe that normally would be a creamy white color. But with the addition of madder root, it's pink. And depending on the technique you use, the quality of the plant material, and the quantity, you can get soap that ranges from a pale pink to true pink to almost purple. I am going to show you how to make my favorite madder root soap recipe. It's a technique that's very easy. It will give you this exact color of soap and it makes five to six bars and best of all you can make it from the comfort of your kitchen. Madder is a weedy looking plant that we grow not for its beauty but for the incredible red color it hides away in its roots. It comes from the natural compound alizarin and Europeans have used it for hundreds if not thousands of years for dyeing wool, fabric and other textiles. Matter is an ingredient that soap makers tend to buy and you can get it as dried root pieces or as a powder so a root powder but you can also grow it yourself and that's what I've been doing in this birdie's bed here at the side of the house. It grows in temperate regions so think Europe, North America. I think technically zones five to nine if you're using the U.S. system but it loves a sunny place that is free draining and it likes to grow undisturbed for several years. It also does need quite a bit of moisture especially when it's in its early stages but if you give it that just forget about it and then you have your own supply of homegrown organic matter that you can use to dye wool and fabrics and to use to make handmade soap. You harvest the roots in late autumn once the plants are three or more years old. At that point the aerial parts might have died back telling you it's time to dig the roots. First cut the stems close to the crown and then lift the roots as gently as you can. It can be challenging though. Then wash the roots with water and remove all the soil you can. Chop it into small pieces and then dry it out completely. It can take several weeks if you leave them at a dry ventilated place out of direct sunlight. In soap making we tend to use dried matter root rather than fresh for a couple of reasons. The first is pretty obvious, we tend to buy it most of us and it preserves it for long-term shelf storage. The other thing is that when you dry the roots it concentrates that natural compound called alizarin that creates the natural pink color, the pink to red color. And so you do need to dry the madder root if you want the best effects for your handmade soap. And as far as starting off with something purchased, these are both purchased from a UK company, a dye stuff company. You can use so many different techniques to make matter root soap. One of the easiest is just adding the powder directly to your soap batter. But you can use both of these, the roots or the powder, to infuse into oil and then use the oil in soap making. You can add it to the lye solution. You can also use the powder to create pencil lines in your soap. I'm going to show you the technique that works the best for me. It doesn't leave any speckles in the soap. It creates a nice... Clean pink color and it is something that I use regularly because one of my soaps that I sell is made with madder root. So let's get to it. Before we start making a soap it's safety first. I go over soap making safety in depth in the natural soap making for beginners course but basically you need to wear eye and hand protection and work in a way that protects yourself and other people and animals from coming into contact with anything caustic. You should also measure all of your ingredients into separate containers As shown on the screen. We'll begin by making, and then cooling down, a matter infusion. Pour the distilled water into a small saucepan and heat it until it's at least scalding hot. There will be some water evaporation during this stage, so once the water is very hot, measure 113 grams back into the heatproof jug. Add the matter powder into the water and make sure that it's well mixed. Allow this infusion to cool to room temperature. It takes about an hour. Next, strain this infusion through a sieve lined with a cheesecloth. This will catch the matter pieces and stop them from getting into your soap. It's an aesthetic step and optional. If you wanted, you could have the matter pieces in your soap. In a well-ventilated place, pour the lye into the madder infusion and stir well. Don't breathe in the steam that rises from the jug and then allow the solution to cool down to 100 to 110 Fahrenheit. That's 38 to 43 Celsius. While it's cooling, melt the pan of solid oils on low heat. Stir and break the oils apart as they melt to help speed things along and do not leave the pan. It melts quicker than you would think. When the oils are almost completely melted, take the pan off the heat and allow the final pieces to melt. Stir the jug of liquid oils and gently pour it into the pan. Stir all the oils together and take a temperature reading. You want to cool these oils to 100 to 110 Fahrenheit, 38 to 43 Celsius. When both the pan of oils and lye solution are within this temperature window, Gently pour the lye solution into the oils. Stir well, then carefully place an immersion blender into the solution. I put mine in at an angle and burp it to get as much air out of the head as possible. Air can cause bubbles, froth, and splattering. You want to then alternate using the immersion blender as a spoon and stirring and holding it in one place and pulsing a few times on the low setting. When the immersion blender is moving ensure that it's not on otherwise it can cause splatters. Keep stirring and pulsing until the soap mixture begins to thicken ever so slightly then put the immersion blender down and swap back to hand stirring with a spatula. Stir until you see the faintest sign of trace on the surface of the soap. That's when you drizzle a little bit on top and you see the faintest little trail of soap left on the surface. At this point you can stir in the essential oil if you're using it and mix it in very well. Pour the soap batter into your mold of choice. A loaf mold is better for encouraging gel and showing off the pink color though. Then take measures to help the soap reach gel phase. You could wrap the soap with a thick towel taking care not to get it into the soap. What I tend to do though is put the soap in an oven preheated to 170 Fahrenheit which is 75 Celsius and then turn the oven off. The warmth will push the soap into gel and enhance its color. Leave the soap in the mold for two days before popping it out and cutting it into bars and just look at that stunning pink color. Once you've made your madder root soap and you've cut it into bars, you need to cure it before you use it. We've used a lot of water in the recipe and that water needs to evaporate out. That's one of the main purposes of curing. Now technically the soap is safe to handle and safe to use after 48 hours, but if you do use it, it can disintegrate, the quality of the soap won't be great, the lather won't be great, so it's just better to wait. And to cure it all you need to do is put down some greaseproof paper in some place that is out of direct sunlight, nice and airy, space out your bars and just leave them there. Forget about them for a month and that water will reduce, the soap will become more gentle, The lather will be incredible. And four weeks later, you can use the soap. And I would recommend keeping it stored in the same kind of place, so nice and airy, until you do use it. And that's how you make madder root soap. It's really easy. It is quite fun if you're a gardener and you like to grow plants to use in interesting recipes and interesting crafts. And if you are interested in learning more about making handmade soap, beginner soap making, I have an online course that I would really recommend that you enroll in. It's called the Lovely Greens Natural Soap soap making for beginners online course, and I'll put a link down in the video description And you'll find it over on lovelygreens.com and that will take you through lots of different types of natural ingredients and get you making handmade soap quick. If you've got any questions or comments about this recipe, leave me a comment down below or any questions about growing matter. And I will see you in the next video. Hope you enjoyed the recipe and see you then.