Circling Taiwan Swirl - Majestic

Soap #29 Circling Taiwan Swirl in purples
made 10/01/2016 ready after 10/02/2016

There was a time when I didn't think I was competitive, I wasn't interested in entering competitions. In my other life as a 'longarm quilter' I started to enter competitions back in 2012 and have been quite successful. I never thought that I would enter competitions with my new hobby of soaping. I only started to make soap in the summer of 2015, yes, I went and found myself another addictive hobby.

Amy Warden of Great Cakes Soapworks is hosting an online soaping challenge, I was enticed to try it. The competition is for a soap made in a loaf shaped mould with three dividers giving four spaces for coloured soaps. I had never used this new pink liner, I made a wooden mould to make it more stable and cut some dividers to fit the liner. (See my previous post for my practice session).

For this batch I chose colours more to my liking, purples, green and yellow, pleasing to the eye
Violet mica
Magic Yellow mica
Lavender mica
Apple Green mica
Fragranced with Lavender and Litsea Cubeba essential oils

Stick blended to emulsification, ready to section off...

Coloured micas mixed in......

Colours placed in order...

After the swirling

The cut

This is the cut photo I entered into the challenge...I named it 'Majestic'

I'm really pleased how these turned out...

Circling Taiwan swirl...practice

Soap #28 Circling Taiwan Swirl, (this batch turned into a practice session)

made 09/01/2016 ready after 09/02/2016

scented with orange and patchouli essential oils

I had my butters and oils melted and went to choose my colours, these were not what I had in mind when I first opened the drawer but were what jumped out at me

Bronze Satin, New Moon Black, White Satin and Silver Graphite 

I mixed my oils, added the lye mixture, stick blended to emulsification and divided between four jugs.

I added my colours to the jugs and my essential oils to all except the white as my chosen essential oils were dark in colour and I wanted to keep the white as white as possible

I gradually poured one colour in each section of the liner bit by bit....

It all looks very tidy from this angle..

I had to work quickly at this point as my batter was thickening, this vision is not what I had planned but it had worked to a fashion. I now had to wait and wait till unmoulding.....I really wanted to make another batch right there and then but had to wait until this mould and liner were free again....

I was pleased that the loaf unmoulded so well from this new liner, the liner is thicker and not quite as flexible as my others but there wasn't a problem

Trying out my new cutter, I know it hasn't been sanded or varnished yet but will be soon...

I cut this loaf so that I had as many 2.5 inch blocks as possibly making sure that both end cuts are the correct measurement any extra was left in the middle.

Each block is then cross cut through the middle like this one.

So this is the cut that shows a water lily...the bronze turned out to be a little darker than I had expected.

I know far too may photos....

Before this loaf was even cut I had made up another batch in different colours...

Opposites attract!

Soap #26 Black Jacks made 2/01/2016 ready after 2/02/2016

Getting back into work, I gifted all of the black soap except for one bar so felt the need to make another batch and let it cure out

Olive oil
Coconut oil
Palm oil
Rice Bran oil
Shea Butter
Avocado oil
Water
Sodium Hydroxide

Liquorice fragrance oil in a cylinder mould, some plain and some with added white chips, with silk, activated charcoal and kaolin clay, both said to draw out impurities so good for problem skin. Smells good enough to eat too.


Soap #27 Cream Silk made 3/01/2016 ready after 03/02/2016
Olive oil
Coconut oil
Palm oil
Rice Bran oil
Shea Butter
Avocado oil
Water
Sodium Hydroxide

No colour or fragrance just cream, silk and kaolin clay.


Lavender and Lemongrass ready now (this soap was actually first made in November).

I also did a rebatch of some bars where the colour wasn't as I had planned, I wanted purple but instead had a murky grey so into the crockpot it all went along with some more yummy butters and a good spoonful of Purple Passion mica, I love how some of the soap didn't take the colour and stayed white, it looks very rustic!

Lavender and Lemongrass essential oils

Chocolate Orange Truffle and Black Jacks...

Soap # 24 made 15/11/2015 best after 15/12/2015
2
Chocolate Orange Truffle scented with 'chocolate orange' fragrance oil coloured with cocoa powder and orange and brown micas with titanium dioxide. I used a cylinder mould for a different look.

Soap # 25 made 22/11/2015 best after 22/12/2015

Black Jack, scented with 'liquorice' fragrance oil coloured with activated charcoal which is said to draw out impurities so should be great for problematic skin, along with the kaolin clay to cleanse and exfoliate dead skin cells and debris from the surface. I make no claims here....

It's totally strange that black soap still gives white lather....