# First Peacock Swirl



## cmzaha (Apr 19, 2015)

SeaWolfe and I went to a Soap Collective Meetup on Sat. It was a lot of fun and I did my first Peacock Swirl. Maybe she will post hers too. Everyone's turned out beatiful. LOL, even if mine is Superfatted!!


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## newbie (Apr 19, 2015)

Oooooo, perfectly done! You must feel so proud to pull your first one off so incredibly well! I laughed at your Sf comment; did they force you to Sf at 8%?


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## galaxyMLP (Apr 19, 2015)

So pretty! I love your color choices. Did you use a tool for the second part of this technique or free hand it? Ive never done it before but I've seen it done both ways. I'm guessing you used a tool to make the first drag marks? (otherwise I would think the soap would be too thick by the time the second part rolled around) please enlighten me!


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## TVivian (Apr 20, 2015)

That's really well done!


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## cmzaha (Apr 20, 2015)

newbie said:


> Oooooo, perfectly done! You must feel so proud to pull your first one off so incredibly well! I laughed at your Sf comment; did they force you to Sf at 8%?


LOL, I prepared all my oils and lye instead of using their recipe. Well I was tired when I mixed everything after my Friday market and shorted my 50/50 lye solution by 100 grams. Oh well, it was to be 3% superfat, went up a little :roll:


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## cmzaha (Apr 20, 2015)

galaxyMLP said:


> So pretty! I love your color choices. Did you use a tool for the second part of this technique or free hand it? Ive never done it before but I've seen it done both ways. I'm guessing you used a tool to make the first drag marks? (otherwise I would think the soap would be too thick by the time the second part rolled around) please enlighten me!


A mold and tools were available to purchase. Oh no, there was no worry about mine getting to thick. I used 34% Lard, 34% Olive, 17% co, 15% Avocado. I did not want to take a chance of stick blending to much so it stayed very thin. The organizer, John, made a perfect set of tools and mold. He made a wood template to draw the swirl with after raking. Btw this is a perfect recipe for a slow trace. Also forgot to mention I soaped this with a 40% lye concentration because I forgot to add in my extra water. Had bad news at my Friday market and I was not thinking well when I was mixing everything


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## topofmurrayhill (Apr 20, 2015)

Looks awesome!


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## shunt2011 (Apr 20, 2015)

That turned out awesome.  Love the colors too.  That's on my list of things to do soon, I hope!


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## lionprincess00 (Apr 20, 2015)

See, I said 40% lye concentration is slow to trace! No one seems to believe me or newbie on this, but higher lye concentration has been key to our soaps taking eons to trace. 
It is perfect. Clean perfect lines and just very well done...and beautiful as well!
Edit, what is the other oil you used...you left one out at 34%.


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## Saponista (Apr 20, 2015)

Cani explain exactly what you mean by 40% lye concentration? I am hopelessly useless with maths. On soap calc the water as a % of oils is not what you are talking about with this is it?


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## navigator9 (Apr 20, 2015)

Wow, that is a beautiful peacock swirl! I have swirl envy.


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## Seawolfe (Apr 20, 2015)

Oh I was just thinking about posting pics! Im so glad you did. And Im glad yours firmed up so nice. I told you it would be fine  Just call it a facial bar.
Mine survived being driven about, but it wobbled a bit.

I was SO jealous of Carolyn because she brought her own recipe. The one suggested was like 30% CO, 65% OO, 5% OO - which is fine if I SF at around 8% and let it cure a long long time. But I coveted Carolyns lard!

Heres mine, Ill post cut pics later. I used my silicone slab mold and Johns tools, which worked peachy, but the silicone has been slow to release. This was SO much fun because I havent done a lot of work with colors, it was a fun technique - especially seeing how 9 others turned out as well, it made me work at that sweet spot just before trace (which I really needed), and its so much fun to meet other soapers - especially Carolyn!!


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## cmzaha (Apr 20, 2015)

lionprincess00 said:


> See, I said 40% lye concentration is slow to trace! No one seems to believe me or newbie on this, but higher lye concentration has been key to our soaps taking eons to trace.
> It is perfect. Clean perfect lines and just very well done...and beautiful as well!
> Edit, what is the other oil you used...you left one out at 34%.


Oops fixed it, it was lard and yes I am going to try the 40% lye concentration again, I thought it would never trace. I do use 40% with castile but had not tried it with some of my other recipes


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## cmzaha (Apr 20, 2015)

Seawolfe said:


> Oh I was just thinking about posting pics! Im so glad you did. And Im glad yours firmed up so nice. I told you it would be fine  Just call it a facial bar.
> Mine survived being driven about, but it wobbled a bit.
> 
> I was SO jealous of Carolyn because she brought her own recipe. The one suggested was like 30% CO, 65% OO, 5% OO - which is fine if I SF at around 8% and let it cure a long long time. But I coveted Carolyns lard!
> ...


Love it SeaWolfe, it did not wobble to much even with the side trip to Winco! One other plus to the class we learned how to easily make a chevron pattern...


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## kchaystack (Apr 20, 2015)

Saponista said:


> Cani explain exactly what you mean by 40% lye concentration? I am hopelessly useless with maths. On soap calc the water as a % of oils is not what you are talking about with this is it?



On the web page you can select 3 different ways to measure your lye.  Water as % of oil, Lye concentration and lye to water ratio.

If you select the lye concentration you put in 40%.  This means that for 60g of water you have 40g of lye.

Edit to fix my mistake


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## lionprincess00 (Apr 20, 2015)

Saponista said:


> Cani explain exactly what you mean by 40% lye concentration? I am hopelessly useless with maths. On soap calc the water as a % of oils is not what you are talking about with this is it?



There are 3 ways to calculate lye concentration,
Water as a percent of oils... default to 38%. This is high full water and the number is inconsistent because it changes with regard to the oils you use . The concentration of this is Appx 25% lye concentration
Lye concentration, I use this. Many use 33% which isn't full water, isn't full lye. I use 40% which is a ratio of 1.5 water to 1 lye, and is a highly concentrated lye solution.
Lye ratio is just that, the ratio. A 1:1 ratio is full lye or for ex 1 oz lye to 1 oz water.

If you calculate one method, and click view print, it'll show you the conversion of the other methods on top


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## lionprincess00 (Apr 20, 2015)

kchaystack said:


> On the web page you can select 3 different ways to measure your lye.  Water as % of oil, Lye concentration and lye to water ratio.
> 
> If you select the lye concentration you put in 40%.  This means that for 100g of water you have 40g of lye.



Actually for 40 grams of lye you'd have 60 grams of water.


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## kchaystack (Apr 20, 2015)

lionprincess00 said:


> Actually for 40 grams of lye you'd have 60 grams of water.


Ooops.  you are right,  Not enough coffee when I typed that


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## Sonya-m (Apr 20, 2015)

Two beautiful peacocks!! Well done!


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## Seawolfe (Apr 20, 2015)

One persons batter got a little too thick, but it made the most beautiful 3D textured peacock tails. Would be super risky to plan that though. 

One thing I thought was clever was to split up the whole batch into colors and do the entire depth in thin stripes, and put the chopstick all the way to the bottom, so the pattern won't disappear as the soap is used. Takes more time, but the process was very Zen.


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## jules92207 (Apr 21, 2015)

What beautiful peacocks! Great job you two!


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## Saponista (Apr 21, 2015)

Thanks for the lye conc explanations. It's all much clearer now. And I love the peacock swirls. It is something I am still yet to try!


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## soapswirl (Apr 21, 2015)

They are both lovely designs! Peacock swirl is a favourite of mine


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## cmzaha (Apr 21, 2015)

I just did another one, hubby tells me it is even prettier. Anyhoo, I soaped it with a 39% lye concentration but it is not a good test because I added in 3% castor to my previous formula and did do my 3% superfat this time that refused to trace for almost an hr. This one traced better, but was still workable for an hr. With these lye concentrations I am finding if you want to gel it will need to be covered at least with my lard, olive, coconut, avocado, castor recipe


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## Seawolfe (Apr 21, 2015)

Did you use the same slab mold? What did you use to cut? My cut bars look like a small child with a cleaver went at them, so I'm kind of kicking myself. 

Post pics!!


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## lpstephy85 (Apr 21, 2015)

Both gorgeous. Can't wait for cut pics!


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## cmzaha (Apr 21, 2015)

Seawolfe said:


> Did you use the same slab mold? What did you use to cut? My cut bars look like a small child with a cleaver went at them, so I'm kind of kicking myself.
> 
> Post pics!!


I did use the same mold and nope have not cut them. I cannot hand cut worth a darn and I am trying to get the hubby to make me a log splitter this week. :-( Not going well because I grumble about a couple of issues with my multi wire cutter he made. Guess I should learn to keep my grumbles to myself


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## kchaystack (Apr 21, 2015)

cmzaha said:


> I did use the same mold and nope have not cut them. I cannot hand cut worth a darn and I am trying to get the hubby to make me a log splitter this week. :-( Not going well because I grumble about a couple of issues with my multi wire cutter he made. Guess I should learn to keep my grumbles to myself



You can always tell him if he won't make it you can buy one from Bud H.


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## cmzaha (Apr 21, 2015)

kchaystack said:


> You can always tell him if he won't make it you can buy one from Bud H.


LOL, he told me to buy it. I don't want to when he can make it for 5 bucks or so


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## Saponista (Apr 22, 2015)

My husband bought me a log splitter because I asked him to make me one and he couldn't be bothered lol!


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