Wild Woods Soap

Even though I am not entering the Soap Challenge Club this month, I wanted to try the Taiwan Swirl. I also wanted to spice it up with a previously untried method of a mica & oil swirled top.

I didn't totally bomb, but I was a little heavy handed on both the soap pours and the mica top. I don't think I added enough mica to the oil either. I made a "holy-trinity" recipe (olive, palm & coconut) with just a little added castor, but it turned out very soft, almost sandy in texture when I unmolded it. I'll give it some time and see if it firms up enough during cure. Also check my scales for accuracy since this is the first check when something funky happens.

I recently had a request for a fir needle scented soap. I had some fragrance oil left over from the holidays that I didn't use then, so perfect now! It's Frasier Fir fragrance oil from Wholesale Supplies Plus. I used it at 7% of my oils. It smells really nice and true to the Fir Needle EO. 

Naturally I first considered a green or earthy colored soap to go with the green-earthy odor. But then, you know what? Forget that. I don't want rely on scents to call the design shots! I went with white base, aqua & gold sides and a purple mica swirl.

I was doing laundry while also making soap and had to step away to fold a couple times, so I didn't get to soap this as hot as I wanted. It was more like 90°F. The aloe water started to look like egg drop soup... Never seen that before.

Traced (thinly), separated and colored.

White base poured.

I poured the gold soap from a height straight down the side. I was thinking, hey maybe freehand isn't that hard!

But the aqua soap flooded the top! Darn. I managed to scrap some out of the gold container to get a semi-complete line down the side.

Then I poured the mica line, I wanted just the thinnest stripe to add some "wow", but heavy handedness prevailed haha. I got a soup! I just went with it and swirled like I planned.

Since the oil used to mix the mica absorbs into the soap you are left with craters and in my case some patchy looking coverage. Next time, more saturated mica/oil mixture and pipette instead of little beaker.

After I cut them they were looking a little rough; ashy and the mica was just not appealing to me.

So I gave them a quick wash. I scrubbed the tops with a finger, rinsed, then set them up to dry on this cardboard mailer. You can see the same bar labeled below that is in the picture above. The wash reduced and smoothed the mica into the cracks! Right where I wanted it. The aqua is bluer here than in in real life. The last picture is the best indicator of how it actually looks.

And here they are, all polished up and dried off ready to cure! Kinda glad I don't have to enter them... haha!