Guide to TKB Trading Liquid Colorants For DIY Cosmetics, Soap, Lip & Bath Products

DIY beauty crafters love to use our TKB-made, handcrafted liquid colors to add hue, pigment and mica to their craft and cosmetic projects.

Over the years, TKB has developed several types of liquid colorants to suit a variety of needs.

Wonder what kind of colorant works best for your latest project? Keep reading!

Three Types of TKB Trading Liquid Colorants: 

Lip Liquids™, Color Concentrate & Gel Tone

TKB Lip Liquids™ are easy-to-use dyes or pigments pre-dispersed in castor oil. Some people use them at 100% full strength to color their lips.  But, generally a Lip Liquid will be 30-40% of a formula for impactful coloring of a color cosmetic.  Less can provide a slight tint of color to a lotion.

TKB Lip Liquids™ are extremely popular to color lip gloss, lipstick and lip balm formulations;   They may also be used in any project which is oil-based.  

TKB Lip Liquids™ are vegan, gluten free and cruelty free (except for Carmine Dye Lip Liquid). For more tips on how to color lip products, read this article from our Support/FAQ page.

Click here to shop our uncolored bases for making lip gloss, lipstick and lip balm!

TKB Concentrates are pigments or dyes suspended in vegetable glycerine. They may be made of both cosmetic grade or craft grade color additives.  For this reason, they are generally appropriate for soap makers.  For our customers working with cosmetic projects such as lotion or color cosmetics they must make sure that a) their project is water friendly and b) they only pick the “cosmetic grade” TKB Concentrates (don’t worry, we state that information on each product page).

TKB Concentrates are not recommended for use in oil based products such as lip gloss simply because they are a water-based product and oil and water do not mix!

1 fl oz of TKB Concentrate will color approximately 24 pounds of soap to a medium shade.

TKB Gel Tones are very much like the TKB Color Concentrates.  They are in glycerine and they are in both cosmetic grade or craft grade.  The difference between the two is that the Gel Tones contain shimmery Mica.  As such, they are less intense than the TKB Concentrates.  

1 fl oz of TKB Gel Tone will color approximately 8 pounds of Melt & Pour Soap and 2 to 4 pounds of Cold Process Soap to a medium shade.

To shop all TKB soap bases, check out this link: TKB Soap Bases

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