Using Titanium Dioxide in Your Soap

Titanium Dioxide (TD) is a pigment used in soap making to turn soap into the color white.  This is especially useful if you are soaping with oils that will give your soap a yellow or greenish color.

Adding TD can give you a bright white color, and help your other mica colors look brighter in the soap too. For this you’ll need to color your soap white and then divide it up according to the number of colors you want to use.

TD is considered safe by the US FDA and no known side affects, however, there are different types of TD which include coarse, fine, and ultrafine.  You want to avoid the ultra fine (nano particle) type because it is so small that it can penetrate your skin.

How to use it:

To add TD to your soap, add 1 tsp TD to 1 TBS of light weight oil, and mix well to get rid of the clumps.

There are some types of TD that are water soluble too and for those you can mix  1tsp TD with 1 TBS of water. But you should know that your soap will be more likely to form glycerine rivers if you choose to disperse it in water.

I mostly color my soap with herbs and clays, but I thought of giving TD a try for this week’s article.

Here’s the soap I made.

I loved how bright the white color came out against the pink clay and black. But I think I may have used too much because I can certainly notice the glycerin rivers that formed only in those white sections.

Do you like to use TD in color your soap? Do you disperse it in water or oil? I’d love to see your creations. Be sure to tag @figarabia so I can feature your soap on my page.

Are you new to soap making? I wrote my Beginner's Soap Making Guide for anyone who would like to dip their toes into Cold Process Soap Making and get detailed instructions on each step of the process. Check it out here.