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Man this swirl is kind of difficult to do! And it was even harden NOT to swirl! The hardest part of this swirl was when you get too far along the mold, not over pouring. The the other hard part is when you go to fill the top half of the mold you have to do it wicked slow and pour evenly.
Out of twenty or so bars, I’d say about 8 are wicked pretty. The rest are strange!
I made this soap with a new mica I bought and i have to find a way to get rid of the mica bunches. I think maybe mixing them in advance.
I think you did awesome your first try! Impressive!! I’ve watched one video on how to do this technique and I don’t have that much patience. I have to save mine for dealing with husband and child…..mostly child! Haha
Why couldn’t you do it with pudding? Remember I’m still way new at this and am clueless. And I’m in awe how you got the swirl in one area and made it so pretty! I’m at the point of “Me, I want to do that, have no clue, but me, please?” Now I’ll just go look at all the pictures and imagine I’ll get skill.
The stuff you practice with, has to have the same viscosity as soap at your desired trace. So say I want to do the scoop and splat with thick soap (soap seized or you’ve over blended and you scoop your soap one scoop at a time) to almost as thin as milk you’re able to do any funky swirl you want.
But then, it needs to thicken up a fair bit so you can cut it and see your creation.
Ooh. So, you can’t really see the results of the labour, though pudding sounds delicious right now. I have to learn to have a lighter hand there. Hmmm. I wonder if I could practice the technique at least with salad dressing even if I can’t see the results. Hmmm.
I do like the idea though. It would provide practice on techniques so as I get better at figuring trace, gods I had no clue…, I can work smarter not harder.
It’s taken me a long time to get to the point of “mix oils and lye water to emulsification, not trace” without being so nervous about it. I still get soap and have more time to play when doing swirls and such. Aaaaaaaaaand that’s when the soap gremlins get me with seizing……😖😫😩😡 haha!
I need to make soap again soon. My husband asked me the other day when I was making more. He thought we were “running out” with only ~40 bars left….Hmmmmmm…..I guess we are getting a little low!
You know you have them trained well, when they think it’s low with only 40 bars! My plan is to get Mr. Man that way. Then my conversion off the store bought stuff will be complete.
So I have yet to dive into soap but I love the lots of clay bar so much I’m slowly getting sucked in. Do you guys have any suggestions for a first recipe simple soap? Is the lots of clay bar reasonable for a first try?
Honestly? I wouldn’t suggest the lots nad lots of clay bars right away. Sometimes the clay can mess up your batch and if you don’t know what you’re doing…
Marie’s go to recipe is a good one. And Cyn just recently started soaping. She might be able to tell you her up and downs and such. Let me know if you have any other questions!
I second Barb. Marie’s All-in-one recipe is simple and awesome! You can get tallow, lye, and a silicone log mold with a basket at
Essential Depot. I’ve found they have the best prices on lye and tallow. If you already have Shea, coconut oil, olive oil, castor oil, and distilled water, you’re good to go on ingredients. Read, read, read about Soapmaking and watch lots of YouTube videos on Soapmaking. There’s tons out there. Just don’t try anything fancy the first time. Simple is good. Cyn just made her first soap and I’m sure she can tell you what it feels like to dive in! It is an awesome feeling to make soap!! We will be proud for you to join us in our addiction! Haha!Here’s a soap funny for the day.
Trust me, I waited two years before diving in. First, I wanted to make sure I wanted it. So I worked with melt and pour soap first. Found out, yeah, I liked it. Kept that up because it allowed me to get used to working with soap and clay together.
When I decided it was time to do cold process soap, I watched videos, and I asked questions. Especially to see what I could do without and what I had to have, because I hate wasting money. Time is my own to waste. Once I made up my mind, I narrowed down my first soap batch to an easy recipe.
Also, make sure you spend at least an hour or so learning about soapcalc. Marie has a video which is wonderful to give you the basics. But as you make some ideas up, put them in soapcalc so you can see how the oils affect hardness, conditioning, bubbliness, etc. I found out that by playing on there that some oils are not as fun to have with others because it can lower hardness or lower conditioning when used together. So, yeah, play on soapcalc. It was what really made a difference when I made my first batch.
Also, don’t overblend with the hand blender. I did that. I thought I was doing awesome, then, BOOM, I hit thickened soapy moments. It came out fine, but it taught me to be less blending more stirring. That you can come to trace when you least think it. That is my big learning curve, learning trace moments better since I’ve heard so much about not blending it thoroughly, etc. So, my goal, is figuring that out for me.
My latest soap creations…..it’s amazing what you can accomplish when your husband and child aren’t home for 5 days! Ahhhh, alone time!!! I’d forgotten what that was like!
The first is scented with pink grapefruit and bergamot essential oils. The second is a clean linen or clean cotton fragrance oil. Smells like fresh laundry or fabric softener-ish. I really didn’t have a design plan for the second batch of soap. I was half expecting it to accelerate on me so I basically hand stirred the whole thing. It thickened really quickly, so it’s basically just plopped into the mold. I’ve decided I don’t like the shape of that mold. It makes weird shaped bars of soap. I really like my loaf molds the best. Now I want to make more soap and I don’t have any more room to store it! Ha! Like that’s going to stop me!!
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