# Ghost Swirl Soaps - 2016 June



## earlene (Jun 20, 2016)

In preparation for the June Mosaic Soap Challenge here at SMF, I wanted to create various soaps using new colorants I had just purchased using the Ghost Swirl technique.  Of course since they were all going to be included in the challenge soap, I had to refrain from posting photos until now.  So here they are:

My first Ghost Swirl attempt using a Goats Milk recipe did not turn our very well, but to show how far I've come, I include it as a baseline: 








The next one is without added color and it is much better:







Not bad, but the next one colored with Manjistha powder came out great:





I even got some whales in this one:  






On June 12th, I made 3 Ghost Swirl soaps and really am pleased with how they came out:

Brick Red Oxide:






Indigo powder on the left and Matte Yellow Oxide on the right:







All of the above went into my June Mosaic Soap challenge entry, plus a couple more that weren't Ghost Swirls.


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## CaraBou (Jun 21, 2016)

Those are pretty cool; I especially like the ones with manjithsa and red brick oxide.  Also love your flagstone mosaic entry and the story behind it.


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## HowieRoll (Jun 21, 2016)

Those are very pretty, and I especially like the way the indigo ones look like granite countertops.  Thanks for sharing!


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## nikkisessence (Jun 21, 2016)

They are lovely, all of them, but I'm especially fond of your brick red oxide soaps!


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## earlene (Jun 23, 2016)

I wanted to edit to add the FO's for each of these soaps, but it wouldn't let me, but I did that at the mosaic soap challenge entry thread here.

However to keep it consolidated to this thread, here is the list of FOs I used in the above soaps:

Black Cherry (CC)* in the Brick Red Oxide colored soap (I love this fragrance!)
Molten Brown (Sweet Cakes)*  in the Indigo Powder soap (not enough, an end of bottle & the fragrance was too mild to do it justice)
Indian Sandalwood (Candlepro.com)* in the Matte Yellow Oxide colored soap (again, an end of bottle, but I like this fragrance, too)
Blackberry Sage & Bamboo Lotus (? didn't write down supplier)* in Manjistha Powder colored soap
Nag Champa (NS)* in the whitish looking 'No Added Color' soap

* (FO's from *snappyllama* in her generous pre-move destash)


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## earlene (Jun 23, 2016)

Thank you, *CaraBou*, *HowieRoll* & *nikkisessence*.

*CaraBou*, the Black Cherry FO goes so well with the Brick Red Oxide colored soaps.  I wasn't too sure I'd like it much because cherries are so sweet, but I really like it in this soap.

Interesting how each of you liked a different one better.  It is hard for me to choose which one I like best of the above.  What I found really very interesting in this exercise of creating high & low water soaps in Auntie Clara's Ghost Swirl technique, was the way the different portions of each soap set up at different rates.  Not only was it evident in the raised portions of the soap on the top surface of the loaf, but also in how soft or hard the two different portions of the soap where when unmolded.

The Manjistha soap is quite hard now, but it took some days for that to happen.  The Yellow Oxide soap, for some reason took even longer for the softer portions to harden up.  I had to be very careful when cutting and handling these soaps because of the softer portions.

I also had to cut my nails because I kept poking tiny little slashes into my soaps.   One is still evident in one of the red hearts.  It was quite a big nick with my super long & strong thumbnail.


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## newbie (Jun 23, 2016)

They are all good but the last two??? LOVE THEM.


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## snappyllama (Jun 23, 2016)

You have no idea how seeing your soaps made my day...  It's been crazy stressful today and seeing the destash things being used in such a lovely way is just great! 

I especially love the bottom ones.


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## earlene (Dec 5, 2016)

It's now 6 months later and I thought I'd write a bit of an update and some impressions.

I LOVE the Nag Champa fragrance!  It's still going strong and every time I wash my hands with that soap, I think to myself , 'I have to get more of this FO."

The manjista-containing soap lost the scent long ago, but of more interest, the remaining slim bars I kept (not used in the mosaic project) curled a bit and on one side sort of looked like pork rinds!  I cleaned them up as best I could, planing and beveling and they look better again.

In fact, all the ghost swirl soaps changed over these past few months as they lost more water.  The color difference remains, but it appears that the low water portions and high water portions of the soap shrank at different rates resulting in surface contours that in some of these soaps looked somewhat cancerous prior to additonal planing and cleaning up.  In the yellow oxide-containing soap, the raised areas looked cool, sort of like brocade fabric.  But in the indigo-containing soap, it looked like my soap had skin cancer.  But it cleaned up pretty well with the planer.  Perhaps it was more visible because I cut them very thin.  It wasn't so prominent in the red oxide-containing soap, which are thicker soaps.  The whitish soap with the Nag Champa fragrance did not curl up like the manjista soap did, which is interesting because the soap batter recipe was exactly the same aside from the added manjista powder and the thickness of the cut was the same.  In looking back at my notes, I see I used the same calculations for the lye concentration for the high & low water portions in both these soaps, so I can only surmise that the manjista powder had some impact on the way the soap curled so much.

I'll post some update photos (probably in the morning) just as a reference. 

One other thing that I noticed yesterday when planing and beveling these soaps was that the low water portion seems to be more brittle.  When beveling the edges, that portion was much more likely to nick rather than to smoothly slide across the blade.  At least I think it is the low water portion.  I could have that reversed.

For the most part these soaps were ash-resistant, although I did see more ash on the high water portions of the soaps but not on the other.  So I surmise that lye concentration might impact ash.  Logic tells me that it's the higher water concentration areas that are more prone to ash.  I am not sure if my logic is correct. *


* Okay, I looked it up.  Auntie Clara made the same conclusion, so I feel good about that.  http://auntieclaras.com/2015/09/the-ghost-swirl/ 

She also  mentions the uneven surface of low and high water soaps, as well as ash development in this post. Since I have read that before, I guess I just forgot.  But even so, I don't think I was expecting the surface changes to continue after the first month or so.  But then, I can't be sure how long it's been since it stopped (if it has stopped.)

Anyhow, I have been shrink wrapping and labeling lots of soaps, and had to do the additional planing of these ones before I could do that.  I'll keep an eye on them a bit longer to see if they stay unchanged.  

I have named them. 

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Soap (the indigo-colored soap)
Yellow Brick Road Soap (the matte yellow oxide-colored soap)
Nag Champa Ghost Swirl Soap (the whitish soap)

I have not come up with a name for the red oxide colored soaps yet.  Maybe tomorrow.
The manjista soap, I am just calling Majista Soap for now.  I don't expect to be giving out any of these except the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Soap.  I plan to give some to a few cherished women in my life.


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## earlene (Jul 9, 2017)

earlene said:


> In preparation for the June Mosaic Soap Challenge here at SMF, I wanted to create various soaps using new colorants I had just purchased using the Ghost Swirl technique.  Of course since they were all going to be included in the challenge soap, I had to refrain from posting photos until now.  So here they are:
> 
> My first Ghost Swirl attempt using a Goats Milk recipe did not turn our very well, but to show how far I've come, I include it as a baseline:
> 
> ...



Edit:  Correction for photos (Photobucket links no longer working due to PB policy change.)  Only 4 photos allowed per post, so see next post for #5 & #6.


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## earlene (Jul 9, 2017)

earlene said:


> In preparation for the June Mosaic Soap Challenge here at SMF, I wanted to create various soaps using new colorants I had just purchased using the Ghost Swirl technique.  Of course since they were all going to be included in the challenge soap, I had to refrain from posting photos until now.  So here they are:
> 
> My first Ghost Swirl attempt using a Goats Milk recipe did not turn our very well, but to show how far I've come, I include it as a baseline:
> 
> ...



Here is the Mosaic soap I named Dad's Flagstone Patio.  Several bars gifted to my brothers in January 2017.  Currently using it myself in July 2017 and loving it.


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