First, I chose my scent. I had a 1 oz sample of Powder Puff Girl from Mad Oils and figured since I was going to make a smaller batch, this would be perfect. This fragrance oil is reminiscent of Grandma's boudoir. Powdery and floral. It is really nice and changes just a bit in the final soap but not too much, it just became a bit deeper. I used .7 oz for a 16 oz batch of soap.
One of the most fun parts but sometimes the most challenging part of soap making is deciding which gorgeous colors I want to use. I like to match my colors with my scent even though sometimes they seem kind of random. Since I was using Powder Puff Girl, I wanted something feminine yet not "Girly". I chose Voodoo and Twilight Micas from Mad Oils, and Super Pearly White Mica from Bramble Berry. I took roughly half a Tablespoon of my oil mixture and mixed in roughly half a teaspoon of the colors.
After allowing my lye solution and oils to cool, I like them around 90 degrees, I added my fragrance oil to my oils and a teaspoon of sodium lactate to my lye solution. Sodium lactate is a liquid salt that is derived by the natural fermentation of sugars found in corn and beets. In cold process soap, it helps produce a harder bar that lasts longer in the shower. At this point, I combined the lye and oils and stick blended just until it was emulsified. I then separated out 2 portions into squirt bottles. These would become the pink and the blue. I added the white to the main portion and poured it all into the mold. I added my colors to my squirt bottles and shook them until they were completely mixed.
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| Excuse my finger tip! |
I wanted to make the inside of the soap a random swirl so I held the bottles fairly high up above the mold and squirted the soap in a random pattern. I then took a chopstick (one of my many fancy swirling tools) and ran it through the soap a few times. I probably should have shown a bit more self restraint so that the white would come through on the top but I had fun and that's what really matters. So since I threw all caution to the wind, I ended up with too much pink and blue on top of the white to incorporate the white in the actual swirl that I was going for. That's okay. Plan B it is! I laid my lines as straight as I could, length wise down the mold, holding the squirt bottles right above the surface as not to break through the rest of the soap, alternating the blue and the pink.
Now it's time for the magic to happen! Once again, wielding my fancy swirling tool (yup, the chopstick), I started at one corner and working in a very tight S sort of pattern, worked my way down the mold.
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| My photography skills are seriously lacking! |
This swirl has a name and a lot of soapers would stop here as it is quit gorgeous as is! But, alas, I must keep going!! I turned the mold lengthwise to me and, again, starting from the corner, made a large S making sure to touch the opposite side of the mold. Then just reversed it! It was that simple!! I am very happy with how this soap turned out and am sitting here typing this blog post, anxiously waiting until tomorrow afternoon when I can unmold and cut this baby!
And there you have it. As I said at the beginning, this challenge stumped me but I am proud to say I did not give up and boy, am I glad I didn't. This swirl is another fun and unique technique to throw into my skill set and I have Amy Warden of Great Cakes Soapworks to thank for pushing us Soapers to learn new methods. While a lot of people look at me like I have horns when I tell them I make handmade soap, I couldn't have chosen a more rewarding and artistic (not to mention useful!) hobby. I am truly passionate about creating beautiful pieces of art and enjoy sharing them with other people. I can only hope they enjoy it as much as I do!
