Question: What is the difference between a lake and a dye color?

Answer: Dye colors are water soluble and can be man-made or natural. These colors produce very vibrant hues and stay clear in clear bases.  

Lake colors are man-made and an oil dispersible combination of dyes and a substrate material such as aluminium or barium. They tend to slightly cloud clear bases.

Both dye and lake colors will migrate in multicolored melt and pour soap. They are colorfast (not UV-stable) and when sold in stores require special packaging such as soap boxes to protect the colors from fluorescent lighting.