Final Week Soap Challenge

The 4th and final week of Amy Warden's soap challenge is now done.  The time went by so quickly.  It was really fun and hopefully she does it again.  I'll be in for sure.  You can check out all of the gorgeous soaps at Amy's blog here www.greatcakessoapworks.com.  The final challenge was Leopard spotted soap.

After checking out some leopard pictures I decided on a yellowish base with a black (more grey) and orange spots.  My scent was Bamboo and Teak which made me think of the forest and exotic places where you can actually find leopards.

Here is my soap in the mold.

I knew it was a little too soft yet when I cut it and it always kills me to wait.  I have very little patience obviously.  I cut it anyway knowing it was a little soft and wish now that I had waited a little longer but once it's a little harder I will clean it up.  Here it is cut.

It's a little messy but once fixed up it will be o.k.  My "spots" aren't perfect.  I should have let it trace a little more.  Next time I will for sure.  Look like a leopard?  No, but I still like it and it was a lot of fun.

I was out of Palm so did an olive, coconut and kpangnan butter mix.  That was a first so we'll see how it turns out.  I'm thinking it will be nice and silky.  Of course I also added raw silk to my lye mixture as always.  I'm really looking forward to trying this one out.

Thanks once again to Amy for hosting such a fun challenge and showing us some new techniques.  See you next time : )

Week 3 Soap Challenge

Week 3 of Amy Warden's soap challenge was mica swirl.  You can find the challenge here at greatcakessoapworks.  I am fairly new to micas as I have been using other methods to colour my soap.  A little goes a loooong way and they are very easy to work with.  Lots of pretty colours too : )

I did a basic oil mix of Olive, coconut and palm and scented with Pineapple cilantro.  It's a nice scent but I am still more of a patchouli, neroli, nag champa kind of girl.  I have been trying to work with different scents.  Not everyone likes patchouli and lots of my soaps are headed out to my Son and Daughter-In-Laws.  My son hates patchouli!  I have no idea who raised him!

Here is the soap freshly poured in the mold.

This is freshly cut but still needs a little cleaning up.  I like to bevel the edges but it's still a little soft.  I will wait awhile.

I'm looking forward to the next and final challenge.

Soap Cakes Challenge Week 2

Elemental Swirl

Week 2 of the Soap Cakes Challenge (http://www.greatcakessoapworks.com/handmade-soap-blog) was "in the pot" elemental 6 colour swirl.  For this challenge I did a small quiz on the internet to determine my "elements".  I doubt it's very accurate but it turns out that my "element" is earth followed by air.  I decided to use green for the earth and blue for the air.  For scent I used Green Grass FO (earth) and Lilac (air).

For me the in the pot swirl was more of an in the pot glop as my soap traced very quickly despite not even attempting to use the stick blender.  I had researched the Green Grass and it was not supposed to accelerate trace but wow it moved fast.  Much worse than the Lilac which I was expecting to move a little quickly.

Still, I soldiered on : )  I managed to get all my little blobs in the pot and then poured (scooped) my base into the mold and gave it a swirl.  It was followed by my mica pencil line and then another pour (scoop) of the top layer was glopped into the mold.

I was a little worried about my blues as one of the shades turned the ugliest shade of brown but thankfully turned out o.k.

I was very nervous cutting and expected the worst but it actually turned out o.k.  I made mine early in the week and had planned a re-do for the challenge using a castile recipe but somehow time just ran away from me.  I do plan on trying again and hope that I can keep my soap from getting so thick before I get a chance to swirl.

Soap Challenge

Late last night I noticed a Soaper's Challenge and decided to join.  Deadline was today so I frantically whipped a batch up this morning.  I have never cut a batch so early.  I usually wait 24 hours but today I had no choice but to cut after 9 hours.  I was nervous but it was fine.  I had also tried a new recipe using Rice Bran Oil since I have not been soaping much the last few years and the supply stock was a little low.  Since the challenge was Tiger Stripes I thought it fitting with the orange and black theme to use a FO I received for free from one of my suppliers with an order some time last year or so.  It was called Orange Chocolate Truffle and smells pretty nice.

I am really looking forward to this next weeks challenge at:

www.greatcakessoapworks.com/handmade-soap-blog

It was really fun and it was nice to get into soaping again!!  I have done a little bit for the kids only because they ask but that's about it.  It's definitely time to get back into it.  This challenge was the kick start I needed.  Thanks Amy!!!!