How to Make Annatto Soap (Naturally Yellow to Orange)

Annatto soap recipe showing how to make naturally yellow to orange-colored soap. The natural colorant used is annatto seeds from the achiote tree, a food-safe ingredient that is also brilliant for soap making. To make annatto soap, you first make annatto-infused oil using a liquid oil, such as olive oil. You then use that colored oil to make soap. You can achieve beautiful yellows to vivid orange depending on how strong the infusion is and the amount used.

Coloring soap is one of the most creative parts of soap making, and if you want to avoid synthetic dyes, there are dozens of natural colorants to use. Many of them are clay or plant-based and will give you almost every shade of the rainbow. Pastel blues, purple, pink, you name it. Natural soap colorants lean more towards soft or earthy hues, but a few really sing with color, including annatto seeds. Depending on how much you use, you can achieve soft to cheddar cheese yellows all the way to pumpkin orange.

The tutorial will walk you through making annatto-infused oil, different ways to do it, and how to use it to color your soap. You can use the technique for practically any soap recipe, though, so don’t feel compelled to stick to the one introduced. You could even choose to use soaping oils that are more golden in hue, like extra virgin olive oil, to contribute to the warmth of your final soap color.

What are Annatto Seeds

Annatto seeds are small and very hard red seeds used to naturally color soups, stews, and rice yellow. They are common in Latin American and Caribbean recipes, but you don’t eat them. Instead, you use the seeds to add color and then take them out of the dish. You can find annatto powder, though, and it’s an ingredient in some Caribbean spice mixes. Annatto has even made its way into Indian cuisine and is used in much the same way to color sauces, rice, and other savory dishes.

Annatto seeds come from the fruit of the achiote tree Bixa orellana. It’s a native of Central and South America and, besides being popular in cooking, is also known as the lipstick plant. Although the dried seeds color oils yellow to reddish-orange, the fresh juice can be squeezed between the fingers and used as a red lip stain.

Those fresh, juicy seeds are dried out before most of us can get our hands on them, though, and what you’ll likely be able to source will be dried annatto seeds. You can also sometimes find ground annatto or even annatto paste. Avoid the paste for soapmaking since it has a lot of ingredients aside from annatto.

Annatto Seeds Color Soap Yellow to Orange

The natural color of annatto is in the waxy coating that surrounds the seed rather than in the seed itself. So no need to grind it up to make use of that gorgeous color. You need good quality seeds to color soap, though, and you can judge the quality by its color. Annatto seeds should be brick red, but they fade into more of a brown when old. Old annatto seeds won’t color your soap as intensely, so to avoid disappointment, don’t use them.

Finely ground annatto seeds are coarse, so I don’t recommend mixing them into soap. The bits of annatto might not feel pleasant on the skin. Instead, you can steep a small amount of the seeds (or ground annatto seeds) in a carrier oil, such as olive oil, and then use the colored oil in your soap recipes. 

Naturally Coloring Soap with Annatto Seeds

To make annatto soap, replace part of the oil in a soap recipe with annatto-infused oil. Annatto-infused oil is any carrier oil (olive oil, sunflower oil, etc.) that has been left to infuse with annatto seeds long enough that it turns a deep and vibrant orange. Using annatto-infused olive oil instead of regular olive oil will create soap that ranges in color from soft butter yellow to electric orange. The color range depends on the quality of the annatto seeds, the ratio of seeds to the carrier oil, and how long you infused them together. It’s also dependent on how much infused oil you use in your soap recipe.

For example, using full-strength annatto-infused oil can give you a more vivid and darker color than oil that is only infused for a short while. The amount of annatto-infused oil in a recipe is important, too. The more you use, the deeper or more vibrant the color will be. 

One challenge to using a lot of annatto-infused oil to make orange soap is that the lather can turn yellow. It’s not a big deal if you’re using soap on your skin (in that it doesn’t dye your skin), but it can leave color on washcloths. To avoid having yellow lather from your soap, use no more than 20% annatto-infused oil in your soap recipes. 

Make Orange Soap with Annatto Seeds

Of course, I’ve pushed the button with that percentage and have made stunning pumpkin orange soap using annatto seeds before. Annatto is used to make red Leicester cheese, and that’s another description of how orange your soap can get. I didn’t notice too much of a lather color difference in this batch, even though annatto-infused oil made up 25% of the recipe. 

A little goes a long way with annatto-infused oil, and just a touch is enough to give you buttery yellows. I’ve found that a Tablespoon (13.3 g) of fully infused oil per pound of oil (base oils) is enough for soft to medium yellow. The colors you get may vary in intensity, though, depending on how you made your infused oil. That’s part of the fun and surprise of working with natural colorants.

Use Annatto Seeds to Make Infused Oil

To make an annatto soap recipe, you must first make annatto-infused oil. Place seeds in liquid oil, and it will slowly turn yellow, then deep reddish-orange over a month. Wait even longer, and the color can get even more intense.

You don’t need many annatto seeds to make annatto-infused oil, either. I generally use three to four teaspoons annatto seeds, or 1.5 tsp annatto seed powder, per pound (454 g) of liquid oil. 

Olive oil is my carrier oil of choice since it’s already golden and has a long shelf-life. It’s also a popular soap-making oil often used to make up to fifty percent of the oils used in soap recipes.

Once you make a batch of annatto-infused oil, you might only need a Tablespoon at a time to color soap recipes. If the annatto seeds have been in the oil for a long time, the oil may be potent with color. However, you’ll need to test your batch of annatto-infused oil in soap recipes to know how deep the color will be. At the very least, it can create a light yellow to orange-colored soap. If it’s really strong, it can make a darker orange color soap.

Annatto Infused Oil Recipe

Annatto infused oil is very easy to make, and there’s a slow method and a fast method. The slow method is better since no heat is involved, which means the oil will have a potentially longer shelf-life. Using indirect heat to warm the infused oil releases the golden color from the annatto seeds into the oil much faster. Whichever process you choose will work and be perfect for this annatto soap recipe.

You’ll need a clean and dry jam or canning jar with a lid, the main liquid oil from a soap recipe (olive oil is what I use), and annatto seeds. For every 125 g (4.4 oz) of liquid oil, I use 1 to 1.5 teaspoons of annatto seeds. Place the seeds in the jar, fill it with oil, seal it tightly, and allow it to infuse.

Slow-Infused Annatto Seed Oil

The best way to make annatto-infused oil is to place the jar in a dark but warm place and allow it to infuse for at least a month. A kitchen cupboard works well since the temperature will probably be room temperature to warm. Alternatively, place the jar in a brown paper bag and set it in a warm window. UV light can cause oil to go rancid, but paper bags help protect the oil while it’s warmed by the sun. Either way, give the jar a gentle shake every few days or when you remember.

Over time, you’ll see the oil gradually change from yellow at its lightest concentration to a deep reddish-orange at its highest. The longer you can leave the oil and annatto seeds to infuse, the higher concentrations you can get. Some of the best annatto-infused oil I’ve made was close to a year old. All it took was a teaspoon of it added at trace to create a buttery yellow batch of soap. 

When you’re ready to make annatto soap, strain the seeds from the oil using a sieve and/or cheesecloth. You can then use the colored oil to replace some or all of the oil in a soap recipe. However, it must replace the exact type of oil. For example, if you make the infused oil with olive oil, you can replace some or all of the olive oil in a soap recipe with annatto-infused olive oil.

Fast-Infused Annatto Seed Oil

You can also use the hot infusion method to make annatto-infused oil if you’re short of time. Place the oil and seeds into the jar as described previously. Next, place the jar into a slow cooker filled with hot water, turn it on to high, and leave for four to six hours. It’s best to put a cloth under the jar to protect the glass from heat.

If you don’t have a slow cooker (crock pot), you can use a sou vide. The ideal temperature of the water for making infused oil is 160-175°F (70-80°C). The moderate and indirect heat of the water helps the annatto seeds release their color much quicker than at lower temperatures. 

Add-at-Trace Method

Once you’ve made annatto-infused oil, you can use all or part of it to make handmade soap. The recipe below shows you how to make a simple single-color batch. It’s an all-in method and the easiest way to make the recipe. However, you could reserve the annatto oil to add at trace. That way, you can control just how yellow your soap will be. Just remember to ensure you make up whatever you don’t use in annatto-infused oil with non-infused oil. 

If you wanted to make swirled soap, you could also use the add-at-trace method above for that part of the batch. Separate the soap batter after emulsion/trace and add colored annatto-seed oil to one portion and regular olive oil to the other. Alternatively, you could create two soap batches of soap at once (one being annatto seed soap) and use each to make your swirls and patterns. Use this list of natural soap colorants to find inspiration for other colors.

Naturally Coloring Soap Yellow

This annatto soap recipe is one that you’ll use a lot if you’re trying to naturally color soap golden shades of yellow and orange. It’s stunning, vivid, and lasts a long time. There are plenty of other yellow soap colorants to explore, too, from carrot puree’s clean yellow to calendula flower petals’ golden yellow. Then there’s goldenrod, curry powder, rudbeckia, and curry powder. Here are more yellow cold process soap recipes to try:

• How to Make Carrot Soap
• Naturally Yellow Calendula Soap Recipe
• Pumpkin Spice Soap Recipe
• Daffodil Soap Recipe