Annatto Natural Orange
Soft yellow to deep orange colour from annatto seeds infused into olive oil. No synthetic colorants, no micas, no oxides.
Annatto seeds (Bixa orellana) have been used as a natural dye for centuries — they're what gives commercial cheddar its colour. In soap, annatto delivers a warm yellow-to-orange that survives the high pH of saponification, unlike most plant pigments which fade or turn brown. The trick is infusing the seeds into olive oil for one to two weeks beforehand, then using that infused oil in your recipe. Heavier infusion = deeper colour. This is a palm-free, vegan, fragrance-free bar that proves you don't need micas to make a beautiful soap.
Ingredients (1 kg batch)
| Ingredient | Amount |
|---|---|
Olive oil Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil | 450.0 g (45%) |
Coconut oil 76° Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil | 250.0 g (25%) |
Shea butter Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter | 150.0 g (15%) |
Sweet almond oil Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil | 100.0 g (10%) |
Castor oil Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil | 50.0 g (5%) |
NaOH (lye) | 141.1 g (99% purity) |
Distilled water | 330.0 g |
Open the recipe in the calculator to scale up or down by gram, ounce, kg, or pound.
Expected qualities
Step-by-step
- Two weeks before soaping: combine 30g annatto seeds with 500g olive oil in a clean glass jar. Cap and store somewhere dark, shaking once a day. The oil will turn deep orange-red.
- Strain the infused oil through a fine cheese cloth or coffee filter to remove all seed material. Use this oil for the olive portion of the recipe.
- Standard CP procedure from here. Weigh and warm oils to 38–43°C.
- Mix lye-water and cool to similar temperature.
- Combine and stick-blend in short pulses. The batter will start a striking orange and lighten as it traces.
- Pour at light-to-medium trace. The colour deepens over the next 24 hours as the soap saponifies — don't panic if it looks pale at the pour.
- Cover and insulate normally; gel phase brings the orange out fully.
- Unmould after 24–48 hours. The bars should be a warm yellow to orange depending on infusion strength.
- Cure 4 weeks. The colour holds remarkably well — most natural pigments fade, but annatto is unusually stable.
Notes & troubleshooting
- Use a dedicated jar for the infusion — annatto stains plastic and silicone permanently.
- Stronger colour: leave the infusion 3–4 weeks instead of 2, or grind the seeds first.
- For a swirl, infuse only half the olive oil and use plain olive for the rest. Pour into the mould in alternating layers and swirl with a chopstick.
- Annatto is food-safe (FDA approved for cheese) so it's fine for a soap that touches skin. Pair with skin-safe EOs only.
- If you want red instead of orange, infuse alkanet root in a separate batch of olive oil — it produces a purple-to-red that's also heat-stable.
Regulatory disclaimer
FormulaNorth helps organize cosmetic formulation, label, costing, and CNF preparation information. It is not legal or regulatory advice and does not replace Health Canada guidance, professional regulatory review, or the maker's responsibility to verify product compliance before sale.
Selling in Canada?
Soap sold to the public in Canada is generally regulated as a cosmetic. Save this recipe to a free FormulaNorth account, then use the bilingual label drafter and CNF preparation tools to get ready for sale.
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