Great Cakes Soapworks Challenge - Oil & Glycerin Swirl Soap Tutorial

Due to health issues we have closed down the business portion of Luster Canyon. Hoping this will be temporary, but for now this was the best decision for us. So I really haven't made anything for a couple of months now, and this week I felt the urge to soap for fun, and I come home to find over on Facebook Great Cakes Soapworks posted their new challenge...and that was all I needed to jump in.

This months challenge is an oil and glycerin swirled soap....cold-process soap with beautiful oil and/or glycerin swirls on top. I chose to use both oil and glycerin. Months ago I attempted an oil/mica swirl and I thought it came out pretty nice, and this time I chose to also add the titanium oxide/glycerin swirl.  In the tutorial Amy used the taiwan soap swirl, which is something I haven't done before so I stuck with that idea.

Since I am making for fun I decided to add a touch of luxe to the batch and put in some Tussah Silk which will add a "silky" feel to it.

You add it to your lye water, where it slowly just "melts" right in....

...And after stirring a bit the silk is completely dissolved.
 

 
I also added some Aloe Extract from Majestic Mountain Sage to my oils.

Now for my colors...looks like I am using something from just about every one of my suppliers on this batch lol....I used from TKB Trading Red Basics and Blueberry Pop and from Bramble Berry Titanium Oxide.
 

 
 My fragrance is Strawberry Jam from Bittercreek Candle Supply and since I am pretty sure there is vanilla content and I don't want this batch to brown I added Vanilla Color Stabilizer from Wholesale Supplies Plus.

I have my base and swirl colors ready....
 

And grrrr, just as Amy mentioned in the tutorial the yellow of the fragrance oil "greened" out my blue color a bit, so I am glad I added that extra smidgeon of blue mica and luckily this is still a blue shade I can be happy with.
 

The base color is poured...I am using my favorite birchwood mold from Bramble Berry.
 

...and my swirl colors glop/poured...because as you can see they thickened on me, but no worries, all is still good.
 

 
Now my oil and glycerin colors are poured about...

...and everything is swirled about. I probably should have made tighter passes for my swirls...something to remember next time.
 

 

 

So pretty!! I got a little heavy handed in pouring the mica/oil on this edge, but I think it will still be ok.

 

 

I put my dividers in... 

 

...and so far it is looking good.

 

They recommend not spraying the top with alcohol which I always do to prevent ash...so I am braving it and not using alcohol...and hoping the soap fairies are kind to me and keep the ash away!

Check back in a few days and see what we ended up with.