Oil & Glycerin Swirl Challenge

This is my second try at the Oil & Glycerin Swirl Challenge...my first try did not go as planned, so here we go again.

This time I am using Bramble Berry's Sunny Herb Garden fragrance oil and I am NOT using glycerin. I put my mica and titanium oxide in oil this time...hoping for better success.
 

These are my swirl and base colors.
 

To try something new again I added aloe vera liquid as part of my water phase...interesting how it changed my lye water to a golden yellow.
 

I poured my base color and laid the yellow on top.
 

Then I sprinkled the mica/oil and titanium oxide/oil mixtures on the top of the 2 colors.
 

Then I swirled everything about.
 

Isn't that sparkle gorgeous!? 

 

The dividers are in.
 

Now we wait and cross our fingers that is batch comes out better than the last trial.
 

TADA!!! I say SUCCESS!!!
 

I love how this came out, I think it is gorgeous in color and swirl. The mica sparkle is so fun (even thought it wont last past the first wash)

What do you think?

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.

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.



Great Cakes Soapworks Soap Challenge - Mantra Swirl

Great Cakes Soapworks hosts soaping challenges that I thought would be fun to join. Last month was the peacock swirl...which I really wanted to learn but couldn't join that challenge as it ran when our son was coming home from Afghanistan and I didn't want to commit and get caught up in his homecoming and not follow through.

Now this months challenge is the Mantra Swirl. I tried this technique years ago, but thought eh, it came out alright but no where near the beauty of the artist I saw do it in the Saponifier magazine...well come to find out you must cut these loafs a different way in order to achieve the final look...so this is a perfect chance to give this another go.

First step is to pick a slow moving scent. My original thought was our very popular Arizona Sunshine, but I wanted a more dramatic color choice so I was going to change scents to use charcoal for black colorant and white with a complimentary  color....then I read Oil & Butters attempt...whose soap came out gorgeous, but she mentioned the charcoal will thicken the soap batter and I figured I best go back to my first thought as I need all the help I can get...next up...line my mold and make a cardboard divider...

I am ready to soap, I have my cooled lye... the "sun" (yellow)... an empty container for the "clouds" (uncolored soap)...and the blue "sky" will go into the original soap pot... 

All 3 batters are traced and ready to pour in...

I poured on each side of the divider and then removed the divider...

I poured the white down the center...OK... I tried to pour down the center, obviously I don't pour very straight lol...

Then I took the handle of the spoon and made an S swirling motion down the center of the soap...I wish I had used a skinny skewer over the larger spoon handle...but maybe it will still end well....into the oven it goes to gel...

The next day this is what we have after unmolding...

Now here comes the technical part...to cut it correctly. Instead of cutting bars I am cutting them wider to have these large chunky bars...

So I have my bars all cut...now to cut them in half through the middle....wait for it...I have faith this is going to work....

TADA!!!! Do you hear the angelic harp music?? I do...I love that after all these years soap making I still get a giggle when something cool happens.

What do you think? I Love it!! Of course there are things I would change...like remembering to "burp" the stick blender after putting back in the soap batter to not have the air bubbles I got...but that is a small esthetic change. Maybe I would do a stronger contrast color down the center to make it pop? But all in all I love it and I loved the challenge!!

Now who wants to win a mini version of these beauties? The last cut came out smaller than intended so I have 4 small bars to give away.

Enter below (US only) and I will send one mini bar of soap to 4 lucky people.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/cfd0e22/