Great Cakes Soapworks Challenge - Holly Swirl Take 2

Try #2 at the "Holly Swirl" as this months challenge from Great Cakes Soapworks. My black cherry didn't go so well...lets see how my pumpkin can come out.

Again I used a sample fragrance I received, gathered my supplies...mold, lye, oils, orange and white colorants and this time I have my fragrance oil separate. it will brown the soap batch so I don't want to add it until after I pour off my colors.

This time I refrained from action shot photos to ensure I stayed focused and got the colors more evenly dispersed in the batch this time. Look how pretty my top is....

Here is my soap the next day. You can see how it is already browning, makes for a very pretty fall soap.

Here it is freshly cut, you can see the inside is still white, in a day or 2....

...you get this pretty result.

I am happy with the results and of course it smells wonderful, but I don't think it is a successful "Holly Swirl". The orange really took over the white...or it wasn't enough of a contrast between the two, so it doesn't have the "pop" it should have, but I will still consider it a success as it looks great for a fall pumpkin soap.

Great Cakes Soapworks Challenge - Holly Swirl

This months challenge from Great Cakes Soapworks is called the Holly Swirl, created by Holly from Missouri River Soaps. It is an in the pot swirl-swirl.

I decided to soap a sample scent I received, Black Cherry. I went with charcoal for my base color and a red and white swirl.

I brought my soap to trace, measured out my colors and poured the black soap into the mold. In a separate container I layered my red and white soap batters, and now am ready to swirl them into the black. 

Decided to try an action shot and snap a picture of the pour...oh yeah this was not a good idea!!  

I like to start my pours high to get to the bottom and then move the pour closer to the mold as I go...but for some reason I poured the entire swirl...down the center...ONLY! Well this isn't going to come out as planned.

Next I layered on litte bits of the extra soap...maybe I can salvage this batch with a pretty top?

I swirled it around a bit and sent it off to the oven to gel...while I went off and pouted at my silly mistake.

So what do you think??

*sigh* I know it had such potential. Also...I really do not like my new stick blender, this one puts soooo many air bubbles in my soap, which really shows up on the charcoal. :(

The upside here...this soap smells wonderful!! Why have I not soaped this scent before? It behaved beautifully, so I will need to give it another go sometime.

Be sure to come back to see if I had better luck on try #2.