# Pumpkin Beer Soap - my first pencil line



## Sihir (Nov 24, 2013)

Yesterday I made a Pumpkin Beer soap - I used a seasonal pumpkin ale and canned pumpkin. (I actually boiled down 2 bottles of beer to 2 ounces of "beer syrup", 3 ounces of canned pumpkin, and made up the rest of the volume with ice cubes.

For fragrance I just got rid of what I had leftovers of - a bit of cedarwood and clove EO, and a cranberry FO. As the smell is settling now, it's mostly the fruit of the FO coming through. 

And my first pencil line! I used cocoa powder and really happy with how it turned out. (Also my first rectangle mold.) I was so excited about seeing it that I woke up early this morning like a kid on Christmas wondering if it was late enough to go downstairs and cut it 









I also made a funnel pour last week with my mom - she wanted to see how I made soap. Not as happy with this one - not as swirled as I would like, but I got to try my crinkle cutter. (I don't think I like it on patterned soaps since it takes away from the detail.)


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## MoonBath (Nov 24, 2013)

Those look great! What did you use for a mold?


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## MoonBath (Nov 24, 2013)

I'm not a fan of the crinkle cutter. Reminds me too much of potato chips.


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## TVivian (Nov 24, 2013)

That pencil line is perfect! Looks like marble.


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## renata (Nov 24, 2013)

Wow, I love the pencil line soap! It's gorgeous


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## kikajess (Nov 24, 2013)

Those are gorgeous soaps. I really like those pencil lines.


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## kazmi (Nov 24, 2013)

Love the pencil line in your pumpkin beer soap!  That's so cool!  Really like your red soap.  Try an ITP swirl before pouring into your round mold.  It'll give you lots of nice swirls in a round mold.


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## PinkCupcake (Nov 24, 2013)

That's a beautiful pencil line! It's so neat and defined. That's something I haven't mastered yet.


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## ourwolfden (Nov 24, 2013)

Love that pencil line!  I think I need to figure out how to do that.


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## Sihir (Nov 24, 2013)

MoonBath said:


> Those look great! What did you use for a mold?



The square (pencil line) soap I used the 10" BB silicone mold. For the round soaps I used the BB cylindrical silicone molds - before I bought those, I was using PVC pipes, so it feels luxurious to have so little effort to get the soap out now!



MoonBath said:


> I'm not a fan of the crinkle cutter. Reminds me too much of potato chips.



Same here. I think I would like it on soaps that are all one color or have small inclusions (I think the crinkle cut would help you see them better.) But on these round soaps they just remind me of soapy pringles. 



TVivian said:


> That pencil line is perfect! Looks like marble.



Thank you! You know, several people said that it reminded them of rock or marble.



kazmi said:


> Love the pencil line in your pumpkin beer soap!  That's so cool!  Really like your red soap.  Try an ITP swirl before pouring into your round mold.  It'll give you lots of nice swirls in a round mold.



Super! I think the ITP swirl would give me more of the "fine line" effect I was hoping for in that swirl soap. I will definitely try that next time, thank you.



PinkCupcake said:


> That's a beautiful pencil line! It's so neat and defined. That's something I haven't mastered yet.





ourwolfden said:


> Love that pencil line!  I think I need to figure out how to do that.



[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWfL8dPl7IE"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWfL8dPl7IE[/ame]

I watched this tutorial before I tried my pencil line soap, and it helped a lot! The only thing I'd change this time around is to begin pouring at a bit of a lighter trace (the EOs really accelerated it)- I had to spoon the last layer on top and had a few air pockets left because the soap was tracing up so fast I couldn't pack it down. And WOW, it gelled faster than any other soap I've worked with so far!


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## kazmi (Nov 25, 2013)

Sihir said:


> The only thing I'd change this time around is to begin pouring at a bit of a lighter trace (the EOs really accelerated it)- I had to spoon the last layer on top and had a few air pockets left because the soap was tracing up so fast I couldn't pack it down. And WOW, it gelled faster than any other soap I've worked with so far!


 
I heard that some of the spice EO's will cause acceleration and heat up quickly.  But it looks like you handled it well cuz your lines and your soap came out perfect!


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## Lin (Nov 27, 2013)

I really don't like the crinkle cutter on round soap because of the potato chip effect.


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## roseb (Nov 27, 2013)

One word...gorgeous!  And you are right about the crinkle cutter on the round soap.


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## Skatergirl46 (Nov 28, 2013)

Wow, great pencil line. I haven't tried that yet. I like the round ones too.


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