Quietly Luxurious Soap with Clays & Botanicals

Nature gives generously. The earth gives clays already with their own natural colour, roots that will develop different tones in oil with time, herbs that release their own scent and powdered plants that bring their own pigment with natural differences. In my soap room these gifts from nature become more than decoration – they become part of a considered process that reflects how they’re grown and used.

Clays are among the most steady natural colours. They create gentle, earthy tones while also shaping the feel and structure of the soap. Some clays bring creaminess and others like kaolin clay a silky slip. They can give a gentle exfloiation and they can also help act as an anchor for essential oils helping them last a little longer. There are many natural shades like muted greens, deep reds and soft pinks. Even with their reliability there is still variation. No two batches of soap are ever the same and that is the attraction for me.

I especially love plant powders and infusions – another way of working with colour. Roots, leaves and botanicals slowly release their character into oils over time. Sometimes these infusions take weeks while they deepen gradually and develop complexity through patience. What started as one shade can shift during soap making, changing through the natural chemistry of the process. This is absolutely fascinating and I’m still sometimes surprised with the end result.

Some botanicals such as Alkanet can transform dramatically. A deep red infusion may move toward purple or blue as the soap forms, shaped by the environment within the soap. These chemical reactions are part of the soap – never controlled completely, something that makes sense once you’ve worked with them.

Activated charcoal becomes a soft black. Indigo powder brings blue that can shift with the oils used and how long it’s cured for. Comfrey leaf settles into a soft green. Turmeric becomes a warm yellow, sometimes deepening as the soap ages. Annatto, madder root, and spirulina give more variations of colours — earthy reds, clay-like pinks, and gentle greens — each changed by how it’s formulated and cure time of the soap.

Flowers and dried plants can also be used. Calendula petals, lavender buds, rose petals or rose buds and chamomile flowers can be added for texture rather than color. Pressed into the surface of the soap or blended lightly through the batter, they bring some contrast and texture to the top of soap . As the soap cures, some can deepen in colour, some fade, and some are brushed away before use. They are a simple, finishing touch that reflects the botanicals and clays I use.

I’m drawn to natural plant materials for colour because they feel alive for me in a way synthetics do not. Their tones are never completely uniform – they change in a way that can’t be controlled or repeated and the colour they give has depth and movement. Working with them feels different, using something that is grown, gathered and then it transforms as it settles into the soap. In my tallow soaps you can see this – each soap a small piece of nature to use and enjoy!

Several of these clays and botanicals appear throughout the Fatglow soaps, where their colours and textures quietly shape each batch.

Learn more about the process behind my work in Fatglow’s Story