Soap Challenge Week Four. 2013

Well this is the last soap challenge for this year and I again am sad to have it end, but I must admit I have thoroughly  enjoyed every minute of it. I also want to thank Amy Worden of Great Cakes Soapworks for giving us so much of her time and the opportunity to learn and grow in our soap making skills.

This week's soap challenge was to make a soap with Leopard Spots.  I was so excited to try this technique and could hardly wait for Amy to post her tutorial. So I decided to do a Google search for Leopard Spot soaps and found the Oil & Butter blog where she showed her beautiful pink leopard spotted soap, along with a YouTube video on making a cake with Leopard Spots. Well that was just what I needed to get me started. Later when Amy posted the tutorial of her making her soap she also posted the same cake video from YouTube .... whew!

I decided to make a girls and a boys leopard spotted soap and was so inspired by the pink leopard spotted soap made by Oil & Butter I thought I would use those colors for the girls version and blue colors for the boys. I made the girls version before Amy posted her tutorial for us (I was just too excited to try it to wait),  but I did wait for Amy to posted her tutorial before making the boys version. I wanted to see if there was another way to make it other than the cake tutorial.  

For the colors in the girls I used a brown oxide and a fluorescent pink pigment, for the boys a blue mica and activated charcoal.  I did not add fragrance into the colored portion of the soap as I did not want it to thicken up too fast on me where I would not be able to pipe it onto the soap.

The fragrance I selected for the girls soap is Strawberry Champagne and the boys was a mixture of Ginger Fish and Lime.

I plan on adding these soaps to sell along with my Tiger Stripe soaps, and my girls and boys version of my Camo soaps. I am also thinking of making a soap gift basket that will include one of each of the 5 soaps and call it a "Safari Hunters Gift Basket".  

Here are some pictures showing you some of the process I used in making these darling soaps. And don't forget to go to Amy's blog and see all the other leopard spotted soaps at: GreatCakes Soapworks

 

Here is the Girls Leopard Spotted Soap

 

My colors are all mixed and poured into the piping bags.
 

On the layers with the leopard spots I first piped on a layer
of the brown soap and then I put on a layer of the pink.
I will then add the top layer of the brown.

 

Here I have added the brown soap on top of the pink stripes.

 



I now have 3 different layers of the leopard spots and
have poured on the remaining soap.
 



I have added the remaining colors from the piping bags
so I can texture the soap tops. I think the little squiggly
lines from the piping bags are cute...maybe a future soap top?



Here it is out of the mold, had to add glitter to the top
after all this is the girl version and we all love sparkle.

  

Here is the Boys Leopard Spots

 

 

Piping on the leopard spots.
 



Putting the remaining blue on the top for swirling.



I love the look of fresh soap. 

 



This reminds me of choppy waves on water.

 



The soap out of the mold.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



They will make a cute pair of soap.

 

 

Soap Challenge Week Three. 2013

This week's soap challenge was to use mica colors to swirl on the top of the soap.  For the mica's I chose 2 different colors from the The Conservatorie, Ruby Rose Mica and Titanium Luster Mica. The third color was Sparkle Gold Mica from Bramble Berry. I pre-mixed the mica's in a small amount of olive oil and will drizzle them on top of the soap. I had planned on making a gold mica line between the swirled soap base and the solid colored soap top but forgot to do it.....I wish I was paying more attention as I think it would have been a nice touch.

The fragrance I selected for this soap was "Frosted Cranberry" and it smells so yummy! I really enjoyed this technique and how it dressed up the top of the soap bars.  I love how the mica just sparkles on the top and there are so many colors to choose from.

I am very happy to share some pictures of the process I used in making my soap and hope you will enjoy looking at them. Please go to Amy's blog and see everyone else's masterpiece soaps at: GreatCakes Soapworks

Enjoy the pictures!



Here are my mica colors all mixed up. Notice the tea infuser, it has
my gold mica in it ready for the mica line between the base and
the top color, how could I forget to put it on the soap???

 

After pouring some of the soap into the mold I added some
of the color and did a spoon swirl. 

This is what it looked like after doing the spoon swirl. Now to
add another layer of the soap.

 

I added some more color on top of this layer and spoon
swirled it again. I am loving this pinkish color.

 

 

Here it is with my top layer poured over the swirled soap base.

 

 

This is what the mica looks like drizzled on the top.
I did add more of the mica to the top to get even more color.

 

Here it is all swirled, the mica is so pretty!
 



A closeup of the mica....what do you think?

 

 

Here is the soap out of the mold. Now to cut it and see how the swirl looks on the inside.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next soap challenge will be "Leopard Spots". I have no idea how to do that one.

Wish me luck and I hope you come back and see how it turns out.

 



Soap Challenge Week Two. 2013

This week's soap challenge is to make a soap using a technique called "Elemental Swirls".  Amy Worden from Great Cakes Soapworks described it like this, " in-the-pot swirls divided by a pencil line. You will need to divide your soap into eight equal parts – 3 colored parts with similar tones + 1 uncolored part for each layer". I decided that I wanted to try this method using my Upright Vertical Mold instead of pouring it into a regular loaf mold. My thought was to pour the 2 different 'in-the-pot swirls' on each side of this mold and before removing the center divider to twist it 180 degrees and that would make the color transfer to the opposite side of the mold and create a circle in the middle of the soap. Well one thing I have learned with soap making is you don't always get what you planned. In this case my soap was setting up too fast after adding the fragrance and I did not get a fluid pour, more like I just better hurry and glob it into the mold pour. My circles of colors are a bit lopsided due to the soap setting up so fast but I still like how the soaps turned out, each one has its own personality. Can soaps have personalities, or maybe I should say their own uniqueness?

The fragrance I used was "Pearberry" and I again printed off pictures of fruit and berries to plan out my colors. For the pear colors I used Apple Green Mica and Yellow Mica, for the berries I used Magic Blue Mica, and the red I mixed Red #4 and Red Lake #7 and mixed in a bit of Valentine Red (TKB trading).

I would have liked to take more pictures to share of my process with you but the soap started setting up way to fast so I hurried to get it into the mold and just hoped for the best. 

Be sure and stop by Amy's blog and check out the other soaps made by all the other talented soap makers at: GreatCakes Soapworks

 

Mold - check.   Soaping Oils - check.
fragrance oil - check.   Colors - check.

 

 




My picture for my color inspiration.

 

Here is the soap in the mold after the center divider
has been turned 180 degrees and removed.

 

The soap unmolded, can't wait to see it cut!


The following pictures will show you just how different each soap came out.
I would have liked to have seen more of the natural soap base but
I still like them. I will definately try this again!

 

I had some soap batter left over and I poured it into a small loaf mold.
The soap was too thick to pour so I spooned each color into the mold dividing the
colors on each side of the mold. I think these turned out cute also.