First attempts at getting "pretty"

[spenny92]

Just sharing some photos of my first attempts at a pretty swirl. The colours didn't come out as I hoped and I found the pink pretty hard to mix so there's a few clumps of colour. I also overdid it with the TD and have lots of, what I believe are, glycerin rivers. I kinda like them though, so not a huge issue. The peachy orange is more orange than brown IRL! Scented with grapefruit EO and yuzu FO. Coloured with pink oxide and orange clay.

This is another one that I attempted today scented with a blend of pine, wintergreen, eucalyptus, tea tree and cedarwood EOs. This is just a portion of the top of the loaf, haven't cut yet. Coloured with green oxide, AC and TD.

I'm excited to practice more, it's much more fun than I thought! I was going to stick to plain, no-frills soap but this is way more exciting.

 

[gigisiguenza]

Oh those are so pretty. I love the soft colors of the tan soap and your swirls look very pretty, I like the color contrast

 

[commoncenz]

Those are very nice! Can't wait to see the second soap cut.

 

[not_ally]

I can't wait for the cut on the second either, it is lovely on top. I swirled a lot at the beginning, and then went back to simple, and am mixing the two now. They are all creative, beautiful and fun to do, in different ways.

The photos are beautiful too, that is my current area of envy. I kind of hate you guys who are like "oh yes, I took these w/my cell phone." I actually *bought* a camera to take pictures of my soap, and they are still crap!

 

[TVivian]

Those are both really nice! Well done! I like the shades of pink you have in that first one.

 

[CaraBou]

I really like the pink ones but if the other is half as nice on the inside as it is on the outside, I might end up liking it better. Nice job!

 

[soapswirl]

Welcome to the swirling addiction

 

[SunWolf]

beautiful... :clap:

 

[dibbles]

Nice! I'd never have thought it was a first try at swirls. I hope you post cut pics of the second one too.

 

[spenny92]

Thanks everyone - you guys are too sweet. I really need to practice using TD more, I didn't manage to get it thoroughly mixed on the second soap and I have little white clumps that have streaked so it's definitely not the prettiest! But it's just spurring me on to try again - I think I'll make it again today, but mix the TD with a little water before adding to my oils - I was impatient before and just chucked it straight in with my oils, which was definitely the wrong thing to do. Here's the cut of the second batch, just cut so pretty messy looking!

A slightly better photo of the first soaps to show the colour a little better. I used SL for the first time in this batch and the bars have a really odd feeling, like a spongey plasticity about them. I'm sure they'll be fine once they cure.

 

[spenny92]

I can't wait for the cut on the second either, it is lovely on top. I swirled a lot at the beginning, and then went back to simple, and am mixing the two now. They are all creative, beautiful and fun to do, in different ways.

The photos are beautiful too, that is my current area of envy. I kind of hate you guys who are like "oh yes, I took these w/my cell phone." I actually *bought* a camera to take pictures of my soap, and they are still crap!

I normally try to use my boyfriend's big, bulky bridge camera when I want to take more "professional" looking photos, but I just snapped those on my iPhone. I think lighting is everyone's best friend when it comes to photography, but I do find it really difficult! My boyfriend even built me a lovely little light box which was amazing, until my cat went into destructive mode and shredded it to bits!

 

[MrsSpaceship]

These are lovely. Love the green.

 

[cmzaha]

Just sharing some photos of my first attempts at a pretty swirl. The colours didn't come out as I hoped and I found the pink pretty hard to mix so there's a few clumps of colour. I also overdid it with the TD and have lots of, what I believe are, glycerin rivers. I kinda like them though, so not a huge issue. The peachy orange is more orange than brown IRL! Scented with grapefruit EO and yuzu FO. Coloured with pink oxide and orange clay.

This is another one that I attempted today scented with a blend of pine, wintergreen, eucalyptus, tea tree and cedarwood EOs. This is just a portion of the top of the loaf, haven't cut yet. Coloured with green oxide, AC and TD.

I'm excited to practice more, it's much more fun than I thought! I was going to stick to plain, no-frills soap but this is way more exciting.

:-( I can't see the pics
Try mixing your td with glycerin. I use a Popsicle stick to initially mix it then use a mini mixer. The longer the td sits in the glycerin the better it dissolves. Glycerin is an amazing solvent

 

[spenny92]

:-( I can't see the pics
Try mixing your td with glycerin. I use a Popsicle stick to initially mix it then use a mini mixer. The longer the td sits in the glycerin the better it dissolves. Glycerin is an amazing solvent

Hmm, that's odd. Try refreshing the page? That happens to me sometimes on threads, then I refresh a couple of times and bam, there's the photos!

Thanks C - I think I might get some glycerin next time I order supplies, I've been using some of my batch oils to dissolve them but it's a bit fiddly.

 

[not_ally]

:-( I can't see the pics
Try mixing your td with glycerin. I use a Popsicle stick to initially mix it then use a mini mixer. The longer the td sits in the glycerin the better it dissolves. Glycerin is an amazing solvent

C, where do you get your glycerin? I tried mixing colorants in it at one point and did not like it, it thickened up too much over time (I made small masterbatches of TD in it.) Posts on a recent thread by commencenz made me think the supplier might make a difference, though. Also, I was using 1TB glycerin to 1 tspn TD, maybe the ratio was not good.