# Rainbow Taiwan Swirl



## aihrat (Apr 19, 2017)

Took the day off work as I wasn't feeling well physically and emotionally. I don't usually do swirlies but made this to cheer myself up. It is scented with Grapefruit, Lemon, Sage, and May Chang EO and smells fresh and juicy. The soap base is made with goat's milk, and needed to be soaped very cool to avoid discolouring the white base.


----------



## Candybee (Apr 19, 2017)

Wowzer! That's beautiful!


----------



## toxikon (Apr 19, 2017)

Gorgeous!! What kind of colourants did you use?


----------



## aihrat (Apr 19, 2017)

toxikon said:


> Gorgeous!! What kind of colourants did you use?



I used a mix of micas and pigments - red shine mica, orange naccarat mica, orange mica, flash gold mica, apple green mica, aqua green mica, blue ultramarine, violet ultramarine, violet blue mica, flourescent pink pigment, and titanium dioxide. The colours are suspended over a neutral base. I got these from a local (South African) reseller, who (afaik) stocks her micas from BrambleBerry.

Would have liked the "red" soap to be more red, but my red oxide was too muddy


----------



## Prysm (Apr 19, 2017)

That is so very pretty.   You should be real proud of that.


----------



## jules92207 (Apr 19, 2017)

Oh wow! What a gorgeous soap, if that doesn't make you feel a little brighter I don't know what would!


----------



## Zany_in_CO (Apr 19, 2017)

aihrat said:


> Took the day off work as I wasn't feeling well physically and emotionally. I don't usually do swirlies but made this to cheer myself up. It is scented with Grapefruit, Lemon, Sage, and May Chang EO and smells fresh and juicy. The soap base is made with goat's milk, and needed to be soaped very cool to avoid discolouring the white base.


Just one look at that soap and you cheered me up too! That EO blend sounds lovely. Well done!

ETA: I'm wondering if the pic needs to be resized ??? ... it's off the screen for me.   :???:


----------



## SunRiseArts (Apr 19, 2017)

whoa ......  Wish I could smell it.


----------



## CaraBou (Apr 19, 2017)

That should turn anyone's day around! Good thinking -- and doing -- on your part!


----------



## aihrat (Apr 20, 2017)

Candybee said:


> Wowzer! That's beautiful!



Thank you!!



Angie said:


> That is so very pretty.   You should be real proud of that.



Thank you for the kind encouragement 



jules92207 said:


> Oh wow! What a gorgeous soap, if that doesn't make you feel a little brighter I don't know what would!



Thank you, it definitely did improve my day and mood!



Zany_in_CO said:


> Just one look at that soap and you cheered me up too! That EO blend sounds lovely. Well done!
> 
> ETA: I'm wondering if the pic needs to be resized ??? ... it's off the screen for me.   :???:



Thank you! I'm sorry you're feeling blue to any extent, hugs to you...

Also, sorry on the huge image! I will definitely resize it. ^^



SunRiseArts said:


> whoa ......  Wish I could smell it.



I wish you could smell it too! If you'd like to sometime, here are the proportions of the EOs:

40% Grapefruit
25% Lemon
18% Sage
17% May chang



CaraBou said:


> That should turn anyone's day around! Good thinking -- and doing -- on your part!



Thank you, very glad I decided to do it!


----------



## navigator9 (Apr 20, 2017)

Beautiful colors, beautiful swirls, and it sounds like a great fragrance combo too!


----------



## TandCC (Apr 20, 2017)

Beautiful!  Your Soap Therapy was a success!


----------



## WeaversPort (Apr 20, 2017)

That soap cheered me up too, and inspired me to keep trying new things. Thank you <3


----------



## aihrat (Apr 20, 2017)

navigator9 said:


> Beautiful colors, beautiful swirls, and it sounds like a great fragrance combo too!



 Thank you!



TandCC said:


> Beautiful!  Your Soap Therapy was a success!



Thank you, I'm so flattered you think so too! I wonder if there's something as a Qualified Soap Therapist...



WeaversPort said:


> That soap cheered me up too, and inspired me to keep trying new things. Thank you <3



Thank you, that means a lot to me. I'm also a relatively new soaper and fumble around a fair bit. This was my first Taiwan swirl that actually worked! My previous two attempts came out grody from batter failure and divider clownery. What encouraged me was how people still gravitated towards those colourful batches, even though I saw them as personal disappointments. Your soaps look great and I'm sure your soaping journey will be prosperous! <3


----------



## Guspuppy (Apr 20, 2017)

so much envy!! That is absolutely gorgeous, and the scent sounds wonderful as well. We need scratch and sniff for monitors. hahaha!


----------



## cmzaha (Apr 20, 2017)

SPECTACULAR colors and swirls. !! That would cheer anyone up


----------



## littlehands (Apr 20, 2017)

Well done! It looks fantastic!


----------



## BrewerGeorge (Apr 21, 2017)

When can we see the cuts:?:


----------



## aihrat (Apr 21, 2017)

Guspuppy said:


> so much envy!! That is absolutely gorgeous, and the scent sounds wonderful as well. We need scratch and sniff for monitors. hahaha!



Thank you! Hahaha yes! That way I could smell all the soaps with fancy FOs from the rest of the world too 



cmzaha said:


> SPECTACULAR colors and swirls. !! That would cheer anyone up



Ahhh, thank you for the kind words!



littlehands said:


> Well done! It looks fantastic!



Yay thank you!



BrewerGeorge said:


> When can we see the cuts:?:



It's still quite soft owing to my swirl recipe and lack of gel, but I will post pics asap!


----------



## aihrat (Apr 24, 2017)

*A Series of Unfortunate Events!!!!!*

Sad news everyone - looks like I messed up this batch pretty hard.

Some background: this was one of my first times working with pigments and micas for colour. I used squeeze bottles for each colour...and prepared the colours in the bottles with skewers. As it turns out...micas disperse easily in oil, but pigments don't. I got clumps of ultramarine!

Instead of spraying the surface with rubbing alcohol, I grabbed the wrong bottle...and instead sprayed an alcohol hand sanitiser that had its own cheap gross perfume smell, ruining the scent. It also left some gross spiderman residue on the top of my soaps? Urgh.

I managed to plane the tops off, but as you can see the ultramarine clumps caused drag marks where the slicer went.

Lastly...I under-mixed the soap batter! The colours were a bit better since I had to mix them more than the base, but the base was mostly umixed after emulsion. This is a recipe I've used before in a simpler design, which turned out fine. I think some of the ingredients caused the batter to separate and chunk a bit! As you can see, it ends up having a bit of a cheesecake texture.

Anyways...I will try again when my EOs are restocked. Sorry for the disappointment, but lesson learned!


----------



## TheDragonGirl (Apr 24, 2017)

Thats gorgeous


----------



## TheDragonGirl (Apr 24, 2017)

Dont worry too much about the clumps, that happens sometimes, I think it looks beautiful anyhow


----------



## aihrat (Apr 24, 2017)

TheDragonGirl said:


> Dont worry too much about the clumps, that happens sometimes, I think it looks beautiful anyhow



Thank you, that's really kind of you to say!


----------



## SunRiseArts (Apr 24, 2017)

I think they still look beautiful!


----------



## cherrycoke216 (Apr 24, 2017)

Very stunning! Either the neon color under bright sun, or more down to earth color tone. 

Does your recipe contain more liquid oils?


----------



## Soapprentice (Apr 24, 2017)

:eh: I have no idea what you are talking about... they are pure gorgeous..


----------



## dibbles (Apr 24, 2017)

They are truly gorgeous, and you should be proud to have created them. The colors are such a pretty combination, and your swirl is beautiful. Making soap is a continual learning process. I think I learn something from nearly every batch I make.


----------



## jules92207 (Apr 24, 2017)

That is still gorgeous! You should be proud!


----------



## WeaversPort (Apr 24, 2017)

I know the feeling of when a project doesn't come out the way I hoped, and it is hard to see past the mistakes I made. 

That being said.. I still find your soap beautiful and cheerful. I would consider it a wonderful and cheering bar of soap any day of the week.


----------



## soaring1 (Apr 24, 2017)

Beautiful colors and swirl.  Wish I had your talent.


----------



## Zany_in_CO (Apr 25, 2017)

The problem with having OCD is that it's difficult to see beauty in imperfection. All you see are the ultramarine clumps, I'm guessing. The rest of us see, and get to enjoy I might add, the whole effect. Awesome job. Good on ya! More please.


----------



## aihrat (Apr 25, 2017)

SunRiseArts said:


> I think they still look beautiful!



Aww, thank you!



cherrycoke216 said:


> Very stunning! Either the neon color under bright sun, or more down to earth color tone.
> 
> Does your recipe contain more liquid oils?



Thank you! I did put goat's milk in there for some reason, which prevented me from wanting to gel the batch. But I might try it next time without GM and with gelling to make the colours pop.

Yes, my recipe was chock-full of liquid oils - mostly virgin olive. Would explain some of the softness at ~1 week. 



Soapprentice said:


> :eh: I have no idea what you are talking about... they are pure gorgeous..



Ahh, you are too kind. Thank you.



dibbles said:


> They are truly gorgeous, and you should be proud to have created them. The colors are such a pretty combination, and your swirl is beautiful. Making soap is a continual learning process. I think I learn something from nearly every batch I make.



Thank you for the kind encouragement! And you're right, I learn something from every batch I make. I think that's partly what makes soaping so addictive for me!



jules92207 said:


> That is still gorgeous! You should be proud!



Thank you very much 



WeaversPort said:


> I know the feeling of when a project doesn't come out the way I hoped, and it is hard to see past the mistakes I made.
> 
> That being said.. I still find your soap beautiful and cheerful. I would consider it a wonderful and cheering bar of soap any day of the week.



Haha yes, I was a bit despondent that it didn't turn out like my "soap concept" sketch. And felt like I wasted a lot of soap because I had to plane the tops off from my "spiderman" mistake! DH was very encouraging and said he wanted the tops for "personal use". I don't know where he hid them; I was planning to throw them away...

I'm so glad they still cheer you! I wish you could smell them. I find the smell of EOs in my soap to be very anchoring during difficult times.



soaring1 said:


> Beautiful colors and swirl.  Wish I had your talent.



Thank you. I promise you don't need much talent for this swirl - just squeeze bottles and a good batter.  If you want to try it sometime, it's just putting batter into the squeeze bottles and squeezing them on top of the white base in the order of the rainbow, then doing that infinity swirling action.



Zany_in_CO said:


> The problem with having OCD is that it's difficult to see beauty in imperfection. All you see are the ultramarine clumps, I'm guessing. The rest of us see, and get to enjoy I might add, the whole effect. Awesome job. Good on ya! More please.



Thank you for your wise and gentle perspective  It's true that I find it hard to see past the disparity of my vision and what turned out in real life! I hope to keep learning without being discouraged from my perfectionism.


----------



## Zany_in_CO (Apr 25, 2017)

> Thank you for your wise and gentle perspective  It's true that I find it hard to see past the disparity of my vision and what turned out in real life! I hope to keep learning without being discouraged from my perfectionism.


Me too! Altho I'm not always successful, I'm a "recovering perfectionist" myself. 

PS: Keeping a sense of humor helps!   :bunny:​


----------



## jewels621 (Apr 25, 2017)

I, too, find them to be beautiful. A "too perfect" bar looks sterile and cold to me. This beautiful bar says "I was made with love and creativity". Just like us, those soaps turned out exactly as they were meant to. The purpose being education and humility. I love it when that happens, even though it may not be MY plan.


----------

