As we move towards the holiday and Christmas season, many of you may be contemplating making hand-made soaps and candles to hand out to friends and family as gifts. These items are fairly easy and fun to make, and even more special if you can add a splash of colour. Many of us don't know this, but natural plant dyes can be used to dye just about anything including yarns, fabrics, wood, shells, pebbles, stones, buttons, soap and candles. As they are plant derived many of our natural plant dyes also confer natural medicinal and cosmetic properties such as skin cleansing, healing and removal of dry skin which is particularly beneficial when colouring soaps. However, the point here is that rather than using chemical dyes for your soap and candle making, then please consider eco-friendly and natural options. Our natural dyes can yield a whole array of colours from yellows, oranges, yellowy/oranges, reds, pinks, purples, blues, olive greens, and shades of warm and rich browns amongst others. For soap making you need to simply allow the dye powder of choice to soak in the oil for adequate colour diffusion, and for candles, also diffuse and then add into the molten wax of choice.
This is a fun, natural and eco-friendly way to colour your handmade holiday gifts.
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