Mantra Marbles Soap Challenge

  This month's challenge is a swirl technique called Mantra Marbles. It sort of combines techniques into one beautiful soap. One side is a solid color and the other side is the Mantra Swirl, then you blend the two. Most Mantra swirls are done with 2 or 3 colors but some can get very intricate and turn out really pretty. I have not mastered that technique yet but I was determined to give it a go, again.... It seems fairly simple as you just draw figure 8's down the soap but for some reason my brain just can't grasp that. But like I said, I was going to do it, come hell or high water... There are a few different options for the Mantra Marbles, Linear, Nonpareil, and Striped. I decided to go with the striped because I think it shows the colors better.
  This challenge gave me more than one headache. First I had to figure out how to divide my mold.  Amy of Great Cakes Soapworks (the challenge host) always posts really great videos explaining the technique. I watched it over, and over, and over again. I just couldn't figure it out! Finally I had to go old school and make a drawing.

  I know it looks silly but the top picture is the mold with the regular dividers and the bottom picture is mold with the handmade dividers and solid soap and swirled soap then the figure 8's added in too. 

Once I got this all straight, I lined my mold and added my dividers.

  I used my basic recipe since I know how it behaves and you need some time to work with this soap batter. I had to choose a fragrance that didn't accelerate trace as well. I went with Mayan Gold from Mad Oils. It is a great scent, musky but not overpowering. I also selected my colors to compliment the scent. I used Redrum Mica for the solid parts and a combination of Galactic Moss Mica, Guava Lava Mica, and Goldfinger Mica for the swirls. I think these colors are absolutely gorgeous and look fabulous together! This may be my new favorite color combination. 

  Here I mixed my Micas in a small amount of olive oil because that helps disperse them in the soap batter without any clumps. 

  Once I got my soap batter at a very light trace, I separated it for coloring. I poured almost half of the batter into a bowl and colored it with Redrum Mica. The rest was split between 3 squeeze bottles and colored with the rest. I did learn that I need some bigger squeeze bottles.  The really tricky part is pouring enough solid batter to start but not too much because the dividers will start to bow. Then you switch to the squeeze bottles and trying to keep those even is challenging. It's very much a back and forth process. Once all of my batter was used, I carefully removed the dividers. Here it is once everything was poured and then with the dividers out.

  There are several options for which tool to use. I mostly use a chopstick but it just didn't seem thick enough to pull the swirls and the solid into each other. I didn't want to use the end of a spoon because that would make the swirls too thick, in my opinion. So I got creative. I took a chopstick and put a plastic drinking straw over it. This made it just thick enough.

  I started right in the middle between a swirl section and a solid section and started drawing my figure 8's all the way down. The repeated with the other sections making sure the swirls and the solids were "blending" nicely together. It turned out absolutely gorgeous! I was very pleased with the end results. 

  This picture does NOT do these colors justice. They are rich and sparkly. As you can see in this picture, there are a total of 3 swirl lines. My mold is an 18 bar slab mold and has dividers that you insert after pouring the mold. One will go through the middle of the solid section and one will go through the middle of the larger swirled section. 

  This soap challenge really was a lot of fun and truly challenged me to think outside the box. I am very happy with the results. Here is the final product. I hope you like it as much as I do.