Entry thread for SMF January 2023 Challenge – Pick a Color, Any Color

[Mobjack Bay]

This is the entry thread for the January 2023 SMF Challenge – Pick a Color, Any Color. As a reminder, this entry thread is for challenge photos only. Please post any comments to the general challenge thread, here.

You are welcome to post more than one photo, but the photo for the voting survey should be at the top of your entry post. As a reminder, you must present at least two bars of soap from a batch made for this challenge and each of the bars must contain the hue color and all tint, tone and shade variations used in the soap. You are also required to provide the types of colorants used and proportions of the hue color, white, grey and black for each variation used in the finished soap. Please refer to the specific challenge rules, here, if you have any questions about how to provide the colorant information.

Your entry may also include additional information about your design, process, fragrance or inspiration.

The entry thread will remain open until January 27th at 11:59 pm GMT. After the entry thread closes, the winning entry will be chosen using Survey Monkey. A message with the voting survey link and password will be sent to those who signed up for the challenge. Voting will remain open until January 29th at 11:59 pm GMT and the winners will be announced on January 30, 2023. There is no prize attached to this challenge.

Good luck to all!

P.S. Please remember that each participant will need to look up the correct time for the location where they live. Here is a link to one mechanism for determining the correct time in your time zone versus GMT: GMT to CST Converter - Savvy Time

 

[dibbles]

I did three attempts with purple and even though I got all the colors to where I liked them, I am going with the green. And posting now because I love this challenge and need to stop already!

The colorant I used was mica (all from Nurture Soap). The hue is Emerald Green. For the shade I did 75% Nocturnal and 25% Emerald (3:1). For the tone I used 33% Emerald and 66% Neutral Gray (2:1). The tints were 25% Emerald and 75% Winter White and 10% Emerald and 90% Winter White. The color changes were surprising to me. The gray mix ended up an alpine/forest green, while the white brought out more of the blue tones in the mica. The scent is a 1:1 blend of Bramble Berry Willow and Ivy:Clover and Aloe.



Thank you @Mobjack Bay - this was a fun challenge!

 

[basti]

Exciting exciting!! I really had a good time with this challenge. My mind has been swirling with monotones all month.

Here is my entry, a soap that I'm affectionately nicknaming "The Sea Beast." One friend commented that it looked like a fish, another said it looked like ribs, so in my mind I've combined the two.

Business first:
My base hue was Siren's Song by Nurture Soap, one of my favorite micas. My other colors were Nocturnal, Neutral Grey, and Winter White also by Nurture Soap.

Hue - 1/2 tsp Siren's Song
Tint - 1/8 tsp Siren's Song & 1/2 tsp Winter White (1:4)
Tone - 1/4 tsp Siren's Song & 1/4 tsp Neutral Grey (1:1)
Shade - 1/4 tsp Siren's Song & 1/4 tsp Nocturnal (1:1)
I CPOPed my soap to guarantee gel and my additives were Grapefruit & Mint FO by Candle Science, Sodium Lactate, and Sugar.

My color mockup using Nurture Soap's blender:

I'm not... really sure what this technique is called if it does have a name. A wall pour? A tiger stripe? A double wall pour tiger stripe? I don't know
I will say I was inspired by a soap by 더조아공방/thejoa studio, though my design turned out way differently from theirs. I just had such lovely textured batter that I couldn't help but go off the deep end with it.

 

[Vicki C]

Here’s my effort - I used chromium diode, titanium dioxide, activated charcoal, and a 3:1 TD:AC pre-mixed to make gray.
I made a bazillion tints, tones, and shades, and several different grays (and then realized the gray had to be consistent) but decided to keep the soap simple. They are more muted than I had hoped, I tried to do a post-cut forced gel but I am not sure the bars actually gelled. The soap is scented with green Irish tweed from Brambleberry which I’m not in love with but it does behave well.
Here are the colors I used, which go sort of top to bottom in the bars:

1. HUE Straight CO. I think I was too stingy though - the color is not as strong as I wanted.


2.TINT 25% CO, 75% TD


3.SHADE 50% CO, 50% AC


4. TONE 40% CO, 60% gray
(40% CO, 45% TD, 15% AC)

 

[dmcgee5034]

Here is my entry for the January challenge.

I used a loaf mold with dividers, on the 4 section split to make 2 side channels of 25% of the batter each and the middle channel for 50% of the batter. Intent was to make a mantra swirl with the most significant contrasts (Tint & Shade) in the center and the Hue and Tone on the exteriors. My batter was divided into 4 equal’ish parts to color.

Hue - Red Blue Mica from BB used at 100%
Tint - Red Blue at 25%, TD at 75%
Tone - Red Blue at 60%, Pewter Silver Mica BB at 40%
Shade - Red Blue at 60%, Black Oxide BB at 40%

On the bar: Hue on the left, Tint and Shade in the middle, and Tone on the right.
Scent is Pink Mimosa by BB.
I included a few “in process” pics, just for fun.
Thank you, @Mobjack Bay for hosting a fun challenge. I wouldn’t have considered these variations on a hue, or knew these terms without this experience.

 

[Blue1969]

All these soaps are SOOOO beautiful! Good luck to all the entrants!

 

[Mobjack Bay]

As a reminder, this thread is for the entry soaps only and all comments should be posted in the original thread, here.

 

[McKherring Farm]

This is my first challenge and I learned SO much! I made three different soaps with varieties of blue, then red, then green and then I made a TREMENDOUS mess with my fourth attempt but that is a story for another thread!! Oh my, what a mess!!

My entry is based on Mermaid Blue mica from BB. For my tint I added Sparkling Snowflake at a 2:1 ratio (SS:MB). My tone also had a 2:1 ratio of grey to Mermaid Blue. I made my grey by adding Activated Charcoal and Sparkling Snowflake. For the shade I added Activated Charcoal at a ratio of .5:1.

I divided the batter into four equal amounts and then poured from both ends of the loaf mold at the same time until each was used completely.

I make all my soap with frozen goat milk from my herd using the cold process. For this soap I added a blend of rosemary and sage essential oils.

Thank you for the opportunity and push to explore.

 

[CLMP]

So for my Monochromatic Soap I chose to do a Cool As Ice Tiger Swirl inspired by Shona O'Connor. You can watch her videos for soapmaking on Udemy. So I made 2 batches and couldn't decide which one to post so I went with the Pink Spearmint and Peppermint one. It smells wonderful! So I used 2.5% Spearmint and 2.5% Peppermint essential oils from the healthfood store. Then I choose the color Pretty In Pink Mica from Suds'N Scents to be my hue. I also used Titanium Dioxide and Activated Charcoal to add to my hue.
I Measured my colors in 1/4 tsp parts per pound of oil.
Hue is 4 parts Pretty in Pink mica for my 1 pound bottom layer. My other 4 colors I used to swirl would be.

Hue is 4 parts Pretty in Pink mica

Tint 4 parts Titanium dioxide,
1 part Pretty in Pink mica

Shade 6 parts Activated charcoal, 3 parts Pretty in Pink mica

Tone 4 parts Titanium dioxide, 2 parts Activated charcoal, 3 parts Pretty in Pink mica

This is the way I chose to color my soap I hope everybody likes it, it's my first time swirling.

 

[VikingChick]

Hello!!

For my entry, I went for the oxides. I used hydrated green chrome oxide because I'm mildly obsessed with that color, as well as black oxide and titanium dioxide for my black, white, and gray. The gray I used was 1:2 Black Oxide:TiO2.

Tint 1 - 1:10 Hue:TiO2
Tint 2 - 1:20 Hue:TiO2
Shade 1 - 1:1 Hue:BO
Shade 2 - 1:8 Hue:BO
Tone - 1:2 Hue:Gray (so 5:2:3 Hue:BO:TiO2......I think?....maybe?)

The sides of the soap are Tint 1 and Shade 1.

The scent is a blend of lavender and geranium EOs.

I am seriously the world's worst photographer.

 

[Nicolesica]

NOT the worlds worst photographer. I think you did a great job. Beautiful artwork

 

[Mobjack Bay]

As a reminder, this thread is for entries only. Please post comments In the challenge announcement thread. Thank you.

 

[Nicolesica]

Ok, here is my entry!

After several attempts I wasn’t happy with, I received an order from Mad Micas. They had Bright Yellow Raincoat on sale, and I was curious to see if it really would soap as bright as a raincoat. As you can see, it absolutely does!
All colors from Mad Micas.

I absolutely am in love with this bright, happy color. In fact, I wish I had used more of the tone!

Hue- Bright Yellow Raincoat 1tsp/lb oils

Tint- Here Comes the Bride (white) 2:1/2

Tone- Satin Gray Pillowcase (gray) 1:1

Shade- Wicked (black) 2:1/2

 

[AliOop]

I stayed up waaaay too late Tuesday night to make this soap. With 33% lye concentration instead of my usual 40%, and no gel, it was still too soft to cut today. For someone used to unmolding and cutting within 12 hours, that was a shocker and threw a wrench in the plans, since this was the only window of time to cut, photograph and upload before tomorrow's cutoff.

So, pardon the dinged up sides, please! Given that it also has TD spots and all kinds of other funny business going on, I don't suppose it really matters. With more time to try again, the next batch could be better in so many ways. But hey, the color combo is very pleasing to me, I like the tops, and it was fun to try the new-to-me technique of pointy layers.

I was surprised at how little AC it took to overpower the shade, as well as the grey used for the tone. No time to remix or try again, though. Here are the proportions used:

Hue: CC Celestial Blue Mica (CBM)
Tint: 2 parts TD, 1 part CBM (it's much bluer IRL than shown in the bar pic; the loaf top pic is closer to actual color)
Tone: 2 parts grey (created by 3 parts TD + 1 part AC), 1 part CBM
Shade: 1 part AC, 1 part CBM

 

[mx5inpenn]

I did indeed manage to get my 1 and only attempt made. No planing as it's still quite soft, but it's done!

This entire soap was planned by my 10 year old daughter. She chose M&M Ancient Incense for the scent and tried to match design and color with it. I kept the math simple NS Shimmer Gold was used for pencil lines and the top. Hue is at the bottom and work up to shade.

Hue: NS Rainforest
Tint: 3:1 hue:M&M White Satin
Tone: 3:1 hue:M&M Silver Graphite
Shade: 3:1 hue:M&M Pitch Black

 

[CreativeWeirdo]

Edit to move my entry photos to the top. The top photo shows the colours better, but the second one shows the fun swirls better.




So, I've been having so much fun with my thrifted silicone bundt mold!

I wasn't 100% thrilled with the colours of my first attempt, and I had this idea screaming at me in my head, so, I did it.

Scent is Salt Water Mermaid from Candora, and it smells (and behaves) AMAZING!

I used the following micas from Fizz Fairy:
Hue: First Crush (P)
White: Fine Satin White (W)
Black: Shimmery Black Magic (B)

I like to measure in parts/ratios:
Tint: 3W:1P
Hue: 2P
Tone: 2W:2P:1B
Shade: 2B:1P

Icing element is Hue.

The icing element got soda ashy and I took the photo by a window for natural light; oh well!

[Side note: I found these small stainless prep bowls for $4/4-pack at Dollarama and they are a DREAM for pre-mixing mica!]

I did a drop swirl, which ended up being a little messy and I put it in the oven to insulate and gel overnight.

 

[melonpan]

It's hard to post after such beautiful soaps but for the sake of partecipating here I go!

My idea for the challenge was a blue ocean-themed seascape soap, built with scraped layers. The curved and ondulating layers in the bottom half stand for the ocean, with a menacing possibly-turning-into-a-storm cloud, and a winter greyish sky.
Now, this was the idea, but with me playing with masterbatched oils the first time, I think the oils and lye cooled down too much and I guess the white dots are stearic spots. My partner kindly reframed the white spots as "seagulls" to cheer me up

All colours are at 0.5% of the batter.

My hue was the royal navy blue mica from Micamoma.

From top to bottom:
TINT 1: 30% blue mica, 70% cornstarch
TINT 2: 60% blue mica, 40% cornstarch
TONE: 50% blue mica, 50% grey (half cornstarch + half AC)
HUE: 100% blue mica
SHADE 1: 50% blue mica, 50% AC
SHADE 2: 30% blue mica, 70% AC

I just wanted to add that this was a very fun idea to explore (a bit tricky for someone math-challenged like myself tbh haha). I had no idea you could have such variation in colours. And I was so impressed with the whitening by the cornstarch. Thanks for this very fun challenge!

 

[Mobjack Bay]

The entry thread is now closed. I hope to be sending out the voting link by midday tomorrow.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Congratulations to all and especially to the winners of this month's SMF Challenge:

1st place (tie) - @dibbles and @dmcgee5034
2nd place - @Vicki C
3rd place - @Nicolesica

 

[VikingChick]

Great job, y’all!!!