It’s really hard for me to make plain soap with just oil and water. I always want to add something, whether it be a different liquid, dried herbs and spices, charcoal, clays, or fruits and vegetables. Tomato has long been on my to-do list and last weekend I finally made soap with it!
I used a yogurt soap base made with olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil, rice bran oil and cocoa butter. I used tomato paste for the bottom layer, ground rosemary and green chrome oxide for the second, and a touch of titanium dioxide for the top layer (I think the cocoa butter and the rosemary oleoresin extract I use as an antioxidant for my oils give off a yellow tint).
I love how this soap turned out! Now I know tomato paste is the key to a natural orange color. I used annatto before, and while the powder is a deep orange, the outcome in soap is yellow. The tomato paste sets the soap batter quickly once poured into the mold, so it’s just perfect for a layered design with straight lines. I scented this with rosemary and litsea cubeba essential oils. It smells like fresh lemongrass to me.
Left to right: charcoal green tea, tomato rosemary, rosemary eucalyptus
Wow, that’s so cool! Looks like a terrine and with all those edible ingredients, you could almost eat it.
Beautiful how each layer is so clean and crisp.
You’re right, it does look like a terrine! Taking a little bit of what I learned from the Celine swirl but without the swirl, I spooned the 2nd and 3rd tiers into the mold so that the layer below it does not get disturbed. Glad you like the soap. Always a pleasure to hear from you, Monica! 🙂
This is so beautiful, Silvia!
Thank you, Natalia!
What a beautiful soap! I really love that deep yellow and how it compliments the green =)
That green layer is my favorite one. I love the little dots that and the pale green. I have not dared to try tomato in soap because one Finnish soaper got some kind of white stuff on her tomato soaps. It is not ash, it looked like mould or some other growth.
I have not tried annatto, but Cee from Oil & Butter made this lovely orange soap. And she writes that she infused whole annatto seeds in olive oil.
Thank you, Roxana! By gelling the soap, the tomato part becomes a deeper color. 🙂
Marika, thank you for your comment! I wonder if the finnish soaper used fresh tomatoes? I’ve only tried tomato paste thinned out with a little water. I have not been soaping long enough to experience a moldy soap, but I always remember what Mika (Savonnerie Mika) said that if there are vegetable or fruit lumps, the soap will spoil faster (she was referring to my spotty/lumpy aloe vera soap). Please let me know how your tomato soap turns out when you are ready to try it. 🙂 I have used annatto powder directly into the soap but have not tried oil infusion. I have to try it one of these days! 🙂
I checked, she used tomato juice as the liquid. Perhaps it was the high juice content that caused it? Tomato soap would be a beautiful fall soap. I have to think about it 🙂
I am puzzled too what caused the molds…. I used a 36% lye concentration with half water and half full fat yogurt. The batter was divided into 3, about 450 grams each. I then added 14 grams of tomato paste diluted with about a tsp of water to 450 grams of batter. I whisk first the tomato paste with a little soap batter, making sure it is very smooth, before adding the rest. I will observe how this soap ages. I hope it will be ok because I really like it and it is supposed to be good for the skin. Looking forward to your own experiment with it. 🙂
Gorgeous Silvia, each soap! I especially love the Tomato Rosemary, the beautiful color from the tomato paste and the speckles from the rosemary.
What a gorgeous soap! Great idea using tomato paste. I made a soap last year with a Tomato Leaf FO. It would have been fun to use tomato paste or juice in it!