My goal this month is to completely obliterate a big stockpile of soap shreds I‘ve accumulated over the last six months. It’s been an opportunity to use up FOs that have been sitting around for too long, experiment with color palettes and also try to make designs with batter at medium to thicker trace. The confetti soap marathon hasn’t started yet, but I’m thinking tomorrow is the day. First I need time to wash a lot of soapy dishes from yesterday. For all of the Ciaglia method soaps, I used shreds at 30% weight of fats, heated the fats for each batch to 150F, added the shreds, stick blended a bit and then let the mixture sit for a few hours to help soften the shreds. The base recipe has 25% lard and 25% tallow and is normally very slow to trace. The fat/shred mix was usually 120F when I added room temperature (70F) lye. I’ve made Ciaglia type soaps using a 40% lye concentration, but decided that it’s easier to use 33% with this method. Depending on the FO, I had everything from pourable batter to significant acceleration, but did not experience totally unmanageable soap on a stick. All of the shreds for the Ciaglia soaps were from a light grey batch of soap made with indigo.
This one is a spoon plop, scented with the tail end of some NS Comfort & Joy and another apple-scented FO from a supplier that has gone out of business. I held back a bit on stick blending because I knew I wanted to divide the soap and add colors. As a result, the batter is not as smooth as some of the others.
Ciaglia throughout, with some neon colored cubes added to the bottom layer and a small amount of finely chopped shreds added to the color splits in the top half. The top soap was at medium trace when I layered it in a pitcher for a OPW type pour. This was a four bar batch scented with the tail end of a bottle of NS Awaken. The bottom and top don’t exactly go together, but I was at the tail end of the masterbatched fats and needed to add the extra confetti to match the volume to the test mold.
OMG, this batch accelerated like crazy possibly because I started with the temp closer to 130F. I had to use my gloved hands to jam the play dough consistency soap into the mold. The scent is NS 8th & Ocean, again from the tail end of a bottle. It’s an odd scent choice for the color palette, but a lot of my soapy people like the scent and I wanted to use it up. If I do this color scheme again (denim-ish) I will probably use patchouli or a mint blend, or give me your scent suggestions!
An easy peasy soap, scented with BB’s Fierce type, which discolors to purple(?) and colored with NS Kashmir blended with grey for a dusky blue shade. The shreds were stick blended in the oils on and off for 4-5 minutes before I added the lye. It looked grey in the bowl, but is getting bluer every minute. The batter was at a light medium trace when I poured it.
Another easy, peasy soap scented with BB’s Lush Succulent. I probably should have used the 8th & Ocean in this one. I’ve had the turtle stamp for at least two years and have never(?) used it. I love the stamp with this color.
This one is a spoon plop, scented with the tail end of some NS Comfort & Joy and another apple-scented FO from a supplier that has gone out of business. I held back a bit on stick blending because I knew I wanted to divide the soap and add colors. As a result, the batter is not as smooth as some of the others.
Ciaglia throughout, with some neon colored cubes added to the bottom layer and a small amount of finely chopped shreds added to the color splits in the top half. The top soap was at medium trace when I layered it in a pitcher for a OPW type pour. This was a four bar batch scented with the tail end of a bottle of NS Awaken. The bottom and top don’t exactly go together, but I was at the tail end of the masterbatched fats and needed to add the extra confetti to match the volume to the test mold.
OMG, this batch accelerated like crazy possibly because I started with the temp closer to 130F. I had to use my gloved hands to jam the play dough consistency soap into the mold. The scent is NS 8th & Ocean, again from the tail end of a bottle. It’s an odd scent choice for the color palette, but a lot of my soapy people like the scent and I wanted to use it up. If I do this color scheme again (denim-ish) I will probably use patchouli or a mint blend, or give me your scent suggestions!
An easy peasy soap, scented with BB’s Fierce type, which discolors to purple(?) and colored with NS Kashmir blended with grey for a dusky blue shade. The shreds were stick blended in the oils on and off for 4-5 minutes before I added the lye. It looked grey in the bowl, but is getting bluer every minute. The batter was at a light medium trace when I poured it.
Another easy, peasy soap scented with BB’s Lush Succulent. I probably should have used the 8th & Ocean in this one. I’ve had the turtle stamp for at least two years and have never(?) used it. I love the stamp with this color.
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I’m so glad you like them. You can see that I’m trying to get a little braver with colors 
