Collaboration Challenge

It's been awhile since I have done a soap challenge but this month was very enticing to me. Amy Warden of Great Cakes Soapworks hosted a Collaborator Challenge. When I read this, I knew exactly who I wanted to work with. My great friend, Shonna, has always been interested in my soaps and when she recently moved to the country, she needed a hobby! So why not teach her how to make soap?! With so many choices of scents and colors, I am sure she was overwhelmed at first but quickly found her footing and picked Electric Lemonade Cocktail fragrance oil from BrambleBerry and Twilight, Lemon Cupcake, and Snow White Micas from Mad Oils. We decided to do a hanger swirl since it is one of my favorite techniques and fairly easy to master, so we needed the loaf mold and the silicone ones work great. 

Since this was a new fragrance oil for me (sample that came in one of my orders) we quickly read up on how it behaves in cold process soap so there would be no surprises. Turns out, it soaps beautifully. We put on our safety gear and got to work. We decided to use my regular recipe because it's tried and true, and again, we didn't want any surprises. This was Shonna's first time making soap and all. We measured out all of our ingredients, mixed the lye, melted the oils and then waited for everything to cool down. In the meantime, I showed her several great resources for soap making and did my best to instill all my soapy knowledge in her. Haha!! Actually, we practiced the hanger swirl technique a few times.

                 

Once we got everything cooled down, we seperated out a little of our soap making oils to mix the mica's in because it helps incorporate them easier into the batter.

When the time came to combine the lye solution and the oils, it was as if she was a pro! Shonna had done her research and already knew what trace was, how to pulse the stick blender and alternate with hand stirring. I was amazed! I could have sat back and just watched. But that wouldn't have been any fun, now would it? Once we got the batter to a very light trace, we split it into 3, with the yellow being our main color. We were going with whispy swirls of the blue and white. 

The thing to know about using Lemon Cupcake mica is it will turn orange at first but then turns a beautiful vibrant yellow.  So here is our batter seperated out and colored. The blue (Twilight) is so pretty. 

One more practice run with the hanger

Shonna started with the yellow since that was our predominant color and then made random swirlies of the blue and white.

 

She then just continued alternating the colors until we had almost reached the top. Shonna made sure to reserve some so we could do a pretty swirl on the top of the soap. I didn't get a picture of her using the hanger in the soap but the practice paid off! We topped off the soap with the rest of the orange and then made lines with the remaining blue and white. Then swirled away with a chopstick.

  

Just look at that smile! I am so proud of my friend!! 

I did put it in the oven to force gel so that the colors would be bold and brilliant. Unfortunately, Shonna had to go home (she lives quite a bit aways from me) so she didn't get to see the unmolding or cutting but I did have my wonderful husband's help on that part. You may get a good laugh if you have the volume up. He likes a production...

And finally, the last photo. It is such a gorgeous soap. I am truly proud of Shonna and what she accomplished. I am so thankful that she indulged me by coming over and letting me "teach" her this fabulous passion of mine. I hope I was able to pass on at least some useful knowledge. Thank you, Shonna, for being a part of this challenge with me. And even if we don't win one of the fabulous prizes, it is still a win in my book because we got to spend some great time together having a lot of fun, doing something enjoyable. Well, at least I enjoy it... I hope y'all like the final product!

So you want to make soap...

It's the year 2016 and technology has become more and more advanced and yet there are more and more people returning to their roots and beginning to become more self sustaining and less reliant on mainstream society. While that's great and I too want to become more self reliant, there is this sort of irony that happens. We want to get back to basics but we rely on the internet to tell us how to do that. Not that it's a bad thing but in some cases, it can be down right dangerous. I see so many "articles" on how to make soap, and I just cringe when I read them. Making soap can be a very wonderful and rewarding activity. If you are just making soap for yourself and family or if you love it as much as I do and want to eventually sell it, there are some basic guidlines that must be followed. I discovered my passion for soapmaking about 9 years ago. I received a book that had many recipes for tinctures, herbal remedies, etc... One of the things it had was how to make soap. Now, this was not a soap making book but it looked interesting to me. Here's what it said to do... Buy a bar of castille soap, melt it down in a double boiler with some water until it was soft, add herbs, essential oils, basically whatever you wanted to, Place it in a cheese cloth, roll into a ball and hang to dry. So I did! It was so much fun!! Then I started watching these craft shows (SAHM mom who hates to clean) on T.V. They had a segment on using melt and pour soap. It is a premade soap base that you melt down and add your stuff to and pour into molds. Viola! Soap. So I did that for a while. Then I was fortunate to meet a local soap maker and she taught me the wonders of cold process soap. This process entails using an alkali (lye) and adding fats or oils to form a new material, soap. The technical term for the chemical reaction is called saponification. Any way, enough of the chemistry lesson.

Let's start with the basics, Safety gear. Always wear gloves, eye protection, long sleeves, pants, and close toed shoes. While using caustic soda (lye) it is very important to respect it. If it gets on you, it will burn. It's nasty stuff but if you are cautious and diligent, there is nothing to fear. Raw soap batter will also burn like the dickens, so take precautions and there is nothing to worry about. 

Let's talk lye. There are two forms of lye. Sodium Hydroxide, or NaOH is used to make bar soap. Potassium Hydroxide, or KOH is used for liquid soap. Now, this whole back to roots movement, again while wonderful, has many people reading up on how to make their own lye. What these websites fail to mention is #1, everything I said above and #2, how unreliable that is. For the chemical reaction to work properly, the lye needs to be a certain strength. There is no reliable at home test to know the concentration level of your caustic soda. Also, homemade lye will yield potassium hydroxide. I am not saying that you can't do it, but why? Lye is readily available at a decent price and you know that it is safe to use. The strength and everything has already been worked out for you. No need to worry about harming yourself or your loved ones because you didn't know how strong your lye was. Here are a couple of suppliers that I have purchased lye from...

The Lye Guy - www.thelyeguy.com

Essential Depot - www.essentialdepot.com

You can also find it sometimes at the local hardware store. Red Devil brand is very popular but you need to make certain that it is 100% pure lye. That there are no other additives (mainly liquid form). Some have metal flakes in them. So just read the label. Also, you may have to ask a worker for it. With the rise in meth labs, lye has become highly regulated OTC. 

Now on to the fats and oils. This is where the magic happens. There are literally hundreds of differents oils and fats you can use to make soap. Each one will contribute a different property to the end result. I happen to love using olive oil, coconut oil, and avocado oil. After much research, testing and more testing, this is the combo I love the most. But to each their own and what you find you love, others will not! Many people love to use lard or tallow because they are readily available and not too expensive. I personally have never used those but have to plans to try it in the future. I have heard they make a great hard bar of soap. So think about what you want your soap to be like and also what you want it to do. What kind of lather do you want? Big fluffy bubbles or creamy soft lather? What purpose will this soap serve? Gentle body cleansing or strip the oils off a garage floor? Do some reading on the different oils and what they contribute to the soap. Here is a good resource for that. Soapmaking Oil Chart

Pretty bar!!

Now for the fun part, scents, colors, and other additives. Many people enjoy just a simple, unscented, uncolored bar of soap. Those are the people I call fuddy duddies because why use that when I can use a beautiful, smells like heaven bar? I'm just kidding, but seriously, why?

Lavender Oatmeal

These are two of my soaps that I have done. As you can see, one is a more natural bar that I scented with Lavender Essential Oil and added ground oatmeal. The other I used a fragrance oil and pretty micas, then used a decorative mold to create the shape. Which ever style you prefer, it's always better to make your own soap than use store bought detergents (they aren't real soap!). There are lots of places you can purchase fragrances or essential oils but make sure you are buying a skin safe, soap safe oil. Some fragrances are made specifically for soap and body products, some strictly for candles, and some are dual purpose. I recommend purchasing from a reputable soap supplier such as BrambleBerry or Nature's Garden. They supply both essential oils and fragrance oils. They also supply colorants, natural and not.

There are a few more supplies you will need to make a batch of soap. A good scale, preferably one that measures in ounces and grams. A mixing bowl, I use plastic buckets from the local Ace hardware. A heavy duty plastic pitcher to mix lye in. Please do not mix your lye in a glass container. I know many "articles" say this is fine and it can be, but there is always the possibility that the glass can shatter. Let's not risk it.  You will also need molds of some sort. You can purchase molds, make your own wooden molds, or even use household items, like pvc pipe ( I haven't worked up the courage to use this yet as I hear it's hard to get the soap out sometimes) or the paper milk cartons. It doesn't have to be fancy, it just has to get the job done. I like wooden molds lined with freezer paper or silicone molds. Again, some good reading can be done to determine molds and if they should be lined or not. A few note worthy tidbits, never ever EVER use aluminum for soap making. If you prefer to use a metal bowl or spoon vs plastic or a spatula, make sure it is Stainless Steel. Aluminum reacts with lye creating toxic fumes. Don't want that. A stick blender helps speed the process along but is not necessary. A good wire (stainless steel) wisk and a lot of arm strength and patience can get the job done. Once you have gathered all your supplies and safety gear, done some research and have a plan in mind, you are ready to make soap!

I am not going to go into detail in this post about the entire process because my couple of other posts have that in them ( I think, if not, let me know and I will write it up) but I am going to talk about some safety issues. I've already touched on using plastic to mix your lye solution in but there are a couple more things you need to know. #1, always add your lye to your water, never the other way around. It can erupt like a volcano and you will have a very caustic mess on your hands and possibly severe injuries. Sprinkle the lye in slowly to avoid splashing. #2, mix your lye solution either outside or in a well ventilated area. As the lye dissolves (as you stand there stirring) it is producing highly toxic fumes. You do not want to breathe these in. It can knock you on your butt and then there's the possibility of the pitcher getting knocked over and again, caustic mess and/or severe injuries. Always wear your safety gear while mixing the lye. And yes, I have gotten the strange looks from my neighbors while outside in my long sleeves, pants, close toed shoes, goggles, aprons, and gloves in the middle of summer, stirring a mysterious pitcher of liquid. I can only imagine what they were thinking.

(Courtesy of Breaking Bad)

One more important note, while doing your research, whether that's online or investing in some good books, always run a recipe through a lye calculator. What's a lye calculator, you ask? Well, it's a very very helpful tool to know the amounts of water and lye and oils. Especially for those that are mathematically challenged like myself. Humans make mistakes and typos. It is so important to never take a recipe for it's word. The process of soapmaking is very scientific and the amounts have to be near perfect to get good results. You don't want to make a batch only to find out it burns your skin off. That would suck. So be smart and run it through for your own piece of mind. I like to use SoapCalc. They have some very good tutorials and articles as well.

So I hope I have touched on most of the basics. I love helping people learn to do something that I am so passionate about. There is tons of information out there but you have to weed through the bad to get to the good. I am going to list some good resources for you at the end but if I have missed anything or you have any questions, please ask! The only stupid question is the one not asked. And please, follow my page on Facebook, Soapy Haven Bathworks.

Resources:

Soap Queen

Lovin Soap
The Sage

"Witchy Washy" - September Soap Challenge

  I am so happy with this month's soap challenge hosted by Amy of Great Cakes Soapworks. The technique is called the Clyde Slide and was invented by Clyde Yoshida of Vibrant Soap. Clyde creates some absolutely beautiful pieces of usable art and I was very excited to learn his secrets. I wanted to do something fun and "vibrant" for this one so I decided to channel my absolute FAVORITE holiday, Halloween!! It is only a month and a half away, after all. 

  I chose to use "Snow Witch" fragrance oil from Mad Oils because, well, Witches and Halloween go hand in hand. The color choices were very easy this time. I chose to use The Maniacal Pea, Grape Nehi, Orange Crush (all from Mad Oils) and Black. These are the perfect colors for a Witchy soap. Here they are mixed in a small amount of my soaping oils.

  Let me talk about my soap recipe for a minute. Most of the challenges are very intricate swirls and you need lots of time to work with them. It took me a long time to find a recipe that would stay fluid long enough but not so thin that the colors got muddled. A lot of people like to use tallow or lard in their recipes and I have heard that it makes a nice bar of soap and you have plenty of time to work with the batter. While I am not against using lard or tallow in soaps, I choose to stay with vegetable based oils. I use olive oil, coconut oil, and avocado oil in all of my soaps. Sometimes it's all 3, sometimes it is a combination of two. It depends on the results I am looking for. Since I know it's a slow moving recipe, I used all 3 oils and I add Sodium Lactate. It works perfectly and the results are a really nice, hard, bubbly bar of soap!

  Ok, back to the challenge. Once I got my lye solution and my oils to the right temperature (I go with around 90* F), I mixed them together and brought the batter to emulsion. There are different degrees of what soapmakers call trace, It is the stage when the oils and the lye have started to react and the saponification process starts. To get a nice swirl, you want a thin trace or else it is just too thick to work with. I seperated the batter into 4 equal parts and added the appropriate colors. Then the fun began! For this technique, you utilize an in the pot swirl but you don't swirl! I used the purple as my base and then poured the black in 2 spots on the side of the pot. I then poured the orange in the same spots. Half of the green went on the side between the black and orange pours and the other half was drizzled on the opposite side. I didn't get a picture of the pot after I poured them all back in but I wish I had. After you get all of the colors poured back into one pot, then you pour it straight into the mold. This is what makes the "Clyde Slide". I started at one end and slowly worked my way back and forth until the mold was full. You never know what you're gonna get but it looks really cool. Here it is after I poured it into the mold.

  I had some left over black, orange, and green batter so I poured them on top in straight lines and then poured a very thin mica line between them. 

  I know it looks messy but the end result was really cool. I kinda wish I had poured the black in the middle but I was just so excited, I wasn't thinking straight!! So after getting my lines poured, I took my handy dandy chopstick and did the mantra swirl on just the top. I love this look as it's kind of a chevron pattern.

  I also decided that I wanted this soap to go through gel phase completely because it makes the colors very bold and deep. I stuck it in the oven on 150* F and left it on for about 10 minutes (would have been longer but I was running out the door to pick a kiddo up from school). I left the soap in the warm oven for about 2 hours which was plenty long for it to go through gel. By that evening (after picking my husband up from the airport. It was a busy day!) the soap was ready to cut!! My jaw dropped when I saw the results. The patterns that are made by doing this type of swirl are just amazing! I hope everyone likes it as much as I do. So here it is.... "Witchy Washy"

  Any one else see the Witch's hat??? I am absolutely in love with this. Each cut revealed a different design and each one is just as awesome as the last. I truly enjoyed this challenge and will be implementing this technique in the future. 

Side note:  I had more batter than would fit in my mold so I poured it into another mold and added spiders! How fun!!

http://soapchallengeclub.com

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.

"Embracing Opposites"

This month's soap challenge is a theme instead of a technique. It was challenging in that I had to figure out how to showcase opposites. Now I know a lot of people say "Oh, that's easy! Day and Night, Black and White" etc, but I didn't want to do something common. I first had to think about fragrances and color combinations with the fragrance I chose. I landed on Rose Geranium by Mad Oils. It is a wonderful floral scent but not overpowering like a lot of Rose fragrances are.

Once I figured out the scent, I needed the colors to go along with it. So I stared at my collection of colorants, lovingly, and went back and forth between a color wheel and my overloaded shelf. I may take a picture of it one day and share but I kind of enjoy hoarding all of my lovelies to myself! I digress. I didn't want to go with black and white as that is the obvious combination for this theme and Red and Green is too Christmasy for Rose Geranium. Blue and Orange didn't really work either. I chose to go with bold and bright! Yellow and Purple. I used Lemon Cupcake mica and You're Turning Violet, Violet mica, both from Mad Oils. I also decided to do a bit of contrast with some Snow White mica, again from Mad Oils. I think this combination works great with the scent. 

I disperse my micas in a bit of olive oil to help incorporate them in the soap. They are so pretty! I went through my bank of swirling techniques and decided to use the Hanger Swirl but not do as much as for the Butterfly Swirl. I wanted to keep it fairly simple. The trick to this theme is getting the opposite colors together but not too together (does that even make sense?!) I divided my mold in half using a piece of cardboard and some tape. It's more difficult than it looks, trust me.

I mixed my soap batter using my standard recipe of olive oil, coconut oil, and avocado oil. Once I reached the right consistency, I separated it out and colored each portion. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of this process because I was too busy concentrating. I tend to get lost in what I am doing and sometimes forget to document the steps since I don't do it every time. It's a good thing that I had read the description of the Lemon Cupcake mica before using it. It turns bright orange when you add it to the soap! I was really hoping that it would turn back to yellow as stated because purple and orange are not opposites! Now the really hard part, Pouring two colors in the mold at once. Now, I am not very coordinated and so this step kind of scared me for a minute. I have tried before, unsuccessfully, to do a pour like this. Since I have to remove the partition, I can't tape it to the bottom. You have to pour both colors exactly the same so that the divider stays in place or else it wants to move to one side or the other, making your line uneven. Once I got that part over and done with (without too much trouble), I added most of the white to the purple side, removed the divider, and poured the rest of it down the middle.

And I drizzled some over the top too. 

Now the fun began! Okay, it's all fun to me but I really like the swirling process. Like I said, I chose to do the hanger swirl, or at least a variation of it. I pulled out my handy dandy tool, a wire hanger with a piece of plastic tubing over it. Us Soapmakers have them fancy tools!! To achieve a nice swirl, you have to start at one side and work your way over in small circles. It may seem like that's what you are doing but it doesn't always turn out that way. I think I was fairly successful this time. Once I was done with the hanger, I grabbed my other fancy tool, a chopstick, and made pretty swirlies on top of the soap to finish it off. 

 You can see it is still orange. 

24 hours later, I pulled a beautiful yellow and purple soap out of the mold. I had to exercise patience (not very good at that) because the soap was a little too soft to cut without absolutely destroying it. I like a nice straight bar but I can never cut a nice straight bar and it's even harder to do that when the soap is soft. So after a couple of excruciating days, I finally cut a bar. It is beautiful and what I had imagined. 

Oh, and it smells divine!!

DNA/Helix Swirl for Cold Process Soap

It's that time again! Another soap challenge! This month is the DNA/Helix Swirl. It is very similar to another technique called the peacock swirl but with a different "twist". I must admit, this one stumps me. I don't know exactly why but I have a hard time making S's in my soap! I even practiced on paper before attempting it on the real thing. It took me 3 tries to get it down. Not that I am complaining because I love to make soap and so I have now 3 beautiful batches, each with their own unique swirl. But, I think I got it on this last one. Here's how I did it.

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.

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.

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!

Butterfly Swirl for Cold Process Soap

  Last post, I introduced you to my wonderful addiction of Soap Making and had talked about a technique called Combing. Well, I had so much fun participating in the soap challenge that I decided to do it again!

  This month's challenge, hosted by Great Cakes Soapworks, is the Butterfly Swirl. I have seen this technique pop up recently and have admired the beautiful artwork of other handmade soapers, while being a tad bit envious. So when I heard that was the swirl I would be learning, I was very eager to get started!

  It turns out that I had just received an order of new micas and fragrance oils and this was the perfect opportunity to use them. I think the most difficult part of this challenge was trying to decide which colors to use. After deciphering for a day or so (and posting a poll on Facebook), I settled on a combination. I decided to use my normal cold process recipe of olive oil, coconut oil, and avocado oil, as I know how that batter behaves so I knew I would have time to work with the colors. Here's what I choose.

(from right to left: Orange Crush Mica from Mad Oils, Super Pearly White Mica from Brambleberry, Peacock Mica, The Maniacle Pea Mica, and Tempest Mica all from Mad Oils)

  I chose to mix all of my colorants in a small amount of Olive Oil to make sure that they thoroughly mixed throughout the soap batter and I wouldn't have any chunks of color. 

  My next step was to ensure that my  lye solution and my melted oils were close to 90* and within 10* of each other.

(lye solution on the top and oils on the bottom)

  After I combined my lye and oils, I stick blended my batter until it was at a light trace. I chose to use Hedonic Tonic from Mad Oils as my fragrance for this soap and added it to the batter at this time. It is a very complex blend of florals and spices and conjures thoughts of running through a spring meadow in full bloom and the colors compliment this fragrance beautifully. I seperated my batter for coloring, pouring about 1/3 of the batter between four seperate cups, leaving 2/3 of it in the main pot. I then added my premixed colors into each cup. I used the Orange Crush as the base color and choose the remaining 4 colors for my butterfly.

 My entire batch is 2 pounds. These are regular size plastic drinking cups and they are only about 1/3 full of batter.  The bottom picture is the main "base" of the soap. I fully mixed all of the colors throughout the soap batter, submerging my stick blender in the little cups, that was a little tricky but it worked.

  Now the fun part! I grabbed my mold (2 pounder) that I had already lined with freezer paper. I poured a little less than half of the base in and then started with my colors. You want to start fairly high with your pours to get the soap to go almost all the way to the bottom but not quit. Then start bringing your pour down so you get a good mix throughout the soap. It doesn't matter too much which order you pour, just as long as you don't pour all of it at once! I started with Tempest and ended with The Maniacle Pea.  This is also where you get to be very creative. The more colors you pour, the more your butterfly wings will stand out but it is also important to mix some of the base color in for some contrast. So after pouring 2 colors, I would grab the orange base and pour a little.  I also tried to stay towards one side of the mold more than the other in an attempt to get the mirror image once the batch is cut. I think I may have had my soap batter a little thinner than I would like. I wanted definite seperation of the colors but a nice fluid soap that gave me plenty of time to work with it. What I ended up with was something in the middle. 

(The soap just after pouring all of the colors)

  Now for this challenge, you need a very specific, high tech tool.  It took me a little bit to find it and I was still unsure if it was the right tool.

Yup, it's a wire hanger, cut with nippers, then wrapped with tape. For this technique you need a hanger that is substantial and will move a lot of soap as you move throughout the soap with it. I thought I had it a little larger than I really would have like but it worked fine. I did end up making another one the next day with a piece of tubing instead of the tape. To make this swirl, you insert the hanger just at the top of the soap on the opposite side of the mold from your self. Gently drag the hanger towards you, then moving slowly down, make loopty loops, circling towards you, as you move to the bottom of the soap, then back up. You can vary the size of the loops but you don't want to over mix it. Once you reach the top of the soap again, and with the hanger still at the top of the soap, make a small pull towards you, then across, then to the middle, and pull straight up. It helped to practice the movement of the hanger with an empty mold. I sat in my living room one night, after watching the videos several times, just moving a hanger through an empty mold. I am pretty sure that my husband thought I had lost my mind! 

Since my batter was still really fluid, I gently poured the remaining base on top of the soap and then made lines with the remaining other colors, used a chopstick to make a quick taiwan swirl just on the top. I still had some of the oil mixed micas left in the cups so I decided to put drops on top of the soap and using the chopstick, run it through the drops, making them pretty. These colors really pop! 

After the fun is over, the hardest part of soap making begins! The waiting! I am a very patient person but I was so excited to see what I had done, it was agonizing.  Normally I am able to unmold my soap and cut within 24 hours but this one had to take extra long, of course. I was able to unmold the following day but it was still too soft to cut it without making a mess and after taking so much time to learn this swirl and plan it out, I wasn't going to mess it up.  It took 3 days of anxiously waiting and testing, and waiting... But it was totally worth it!

I enjoyed this so much that I made another batch with different colors. It turned out beautiful as well. Definitely a swirl technique worth keeping in my tool set.