Detail on soap molds

[CTAnton]

I'm trying to make some patterns on a snowflake mold pop a bit. The pattern is very shallow so I tried some glitter. In spite of pouring the soap carefully the glitter floats around. I sprayed with alcohol and that didn't help noticeably and ran out of time last night to try water. I'm thinking of one of my mother's lines that she issued with a huge smile; "What does one does?" She actually heard someone use that exact words...

 

[CTAnton]

this is for melt and pour soap...the glitter actually seems more behaved in cp soap...go figure...

 

[snappyllama]

To keep the glitter just on the bottom of the mold, try pouring a very thin layer of M&P and letting it set. Spritz with alcohol and then pour the rest of it. That should trap your glitter mostly where you want it.

Good luck! M&P is so fiddly...

 

[CTAnton]

Snappy..."fiddly" is a perfect description...the pattern of the snowflake is so shallow I think I'll try adding the glitter to a small amount of the batter and pipette it in then add the rest of the soap after that...of course my pipetting abilities leave so much to be desired...knowing me it will take 10 pipettes per snowflake...ugh!

 

[gigisiguenza]

Would it work to mix the glitter with oil or glycerin, then paint it into the details? If you painted it into the fine details, let it set for a bit to get a little solid or dry up a little bit, then you should be able to spoon soap over it gently until it's covered (and won't shift), then pour as usual. Dunno if that would work, but can't hurt to try. HTH

 

[Cactuslily]

Or, what if you painted it on afterwards. Then you would have total control over where it goes.?

 

[CTAnton]

I'm going to try the painting with glycerine before the pour...wish me luck

 

[snappyllama]

If that doesn't work out how you like, you could also try to dry brush a sparkly mica on. That's worked for me in the past when I wanted to add some definition to embeds.

 

[CTAnton]

well last night I tried a mix of glitter and olive oil. One batch didn't work out well because of the high amount of OO.The other batch worked out much better with a consistency closer to that of a paste.I unmolded them this morning and while a fair amount of the glitter stayed behind in the detail of the mold enough adhered to the snowflake outline to make it acceptable.

 

[gigisiguenza]

well last night I tried a mix of glitter and olive oil. One batch didn't work out well because of the high amount of OO.The other batch worked out much better with a consistency closer to that of a paste.I unmolded them this morning and while a fair amount of the glitter stayed behind in the detail of the mold enough adhered to the snowflake outline to make it acceptable.

That's awesome. Do you think that using something like glycerin, which is thicker, would result in it bonding with the soap better? I'm very curious about your attempts as they are along the lines of something I'm planning on trying myself.