Floral gagger and a spin

[newbie]

I made the two pink/blue soaps with a combo of honeysuckle/tuberose/green fig/lemongrass. I used about 0.3-0.4 ounces ppo but the tuberose is overwhelming and just grossing me out! I don't mind florals at all but the strength of this is unbelievable- and it's only a fraction of the mix! Dear god, please let me meet someone who adores floral-scented soap so I can unload it. Swap people, not to worry. This is one combo I won't send out.

And just because it's fun to looks at swirls, I put in a picture of one of the spin swirls I made for the spin challenge but decided not to enter. Unfortunately, the teal color ended up looking REALLY REALLY teal and there is more of it proportionately lower in the bar. It didn't look as good as the top, so it took a back seat. The dark gray stayed sparkly though so when it's wet, it is very shimmery.

 

[Obsidian]

Those dark swirls look really neat, especially the close up photo. I wish I could smell your floral nightmare, I love strong make you gag florals.

 

[shunt2011]

Those are really beautiful. Love the colors. I hope your soap calms down on the scent too.

 

[snappyllama]

I love the swirls! That bottom one is so unusual... you never see that color combination used. Nice!

 

[newbie]

Obsidian, want some soap???? I am hoping there is some off-gassing that will happen. Unfortunately, if it does, it's going to happen in the house. Oddly, up close, it smells okay but walking through the kitchen is a chore.

I like dark colors for soaps, like the gray. I also like putting enough mica in that you get shimmer in it because it makes the gray far more interesting. I'm not sure why it isn't used more; brown is fairly common because of discoloring FO's and bakery/beer scents, and black is just sophisticated, but silver/gray seems underutilized to me. Thank you for saying you like it; I have to give away my soap to clear way for more but I wasn't certain that one would go over. Hopefully it will be taken just as readily as anything else (except the in-your-face teal that turned up might be a drawback. WE'll see).

 

[Obsidian]

I've been wanting to do a pink and grey swirl, I just don't really have a scent to match. I don't think the teal is too in your face, I quite like it.
I'd be happy to take your smelly soap lol. I could use it for a room freshener

 

[doriettefarm]

Love the dark grey and teal soap! Do you have cut pics? I'd love to see the cross-section.

 

[newbie]

Here is one bar, cut in half, Doriette. The second one is the bar cut in half next to a slice off the bottom which is very teal-heavy. The third picture is the back of one of the other bars. They are overexposed, thank you cell phone, so the teal does not show to be as intense as it is in real life. I also included a couple shots of the bar, wet, to see if I could catch the shimmer.

 

[jules92207]

Yes yes and yes! I love these. While I don't like in your face florals either that soap would make it all worth it. Its gorgeous.

The black and teal is phenomenal. Seriously, I love the color combo. I have a black and ivory soap that I used sparkly black and sparkly ivory and it has that shimmer too. Just beautiful!

 

[newbie]

Where did you get sparkly black? I have been shopping around for the more sparkly grays and have never seen black that was listed as high or medium sheen. Tell, tell!!!! And how about the white/ivory? Did you use one of the white pearl micas or something? TELL ME YOUR SECRETS, JULIE.

 

[hmlove1218]

I love that spin swirl! Absolutely gorgeous!

 

[KristaY]

Beautiful work, newbie! I especially love the teal, gray and black. Very striking color combo!

 

[lionprincess00]

I love those cut bars! They are all phenomenal!

 

[jules92207]

Where did you get sparkly black? I have been shopping around for the more sparkly grays and have never seen black that was listed as high or medium sheen. Tell, tell!!!! And how about the white/ivory? Did you use one of the white pearl micas or something? TELL ME YOUR SECRETS, JULIE.

I got both as samples from WSP, they are so fun!

I got the black and ivory lace -
http://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/soap-making-supplies/colors/mica-sparkles-powder.aspx

Just ordered brown, bronze and more of the black and ivory actually.

 

[doriettefarm]

Wow, that's crazy how much lighter the black/teal bars look when cut even if it's a washed out cell phone pic! I don't think there's too much teal in there at all, very nice job. :clap:

 

[Sonya-m]

Both are gorgeous but that black and teal combo is simply stunning!!! Love it!

Do you use quite high amounts of micas to keep the sparkle?

 

[newbie]

Thanks for the link, Julie!

I think the lighter look in the middle of the bar has to do with me not pouring equally all through the soap. The dark colors tend to have a strong effect and since I've overdone black without intending to, my recollection is that the dark gray and black had smaller portions than the light gray and teal. I prefer the dark gray but I was worried the soap would be too dark, but it's the most attractive of the colors to me. I have some lye cooling and I'm going to try a gray soap again but will lean toward the dark.

Yes, I definitely load it up with mica. I make sure the batter has the shimmery quality to it while I'm mixing, not just the color. Sometimes that doesn't show up well afterward until the soap is wet but if the size of the mica is big enough, it can show in the cured soap without being wet, at least to some degree. Wet really shows it off though. The only color I've ever had problems doing this with is colorona bordeaux. For some reason, every time I've used enough to shimmer the batter, the texture of the soap is really weird.

 

[SplendorSoaps]

The swirls are absolutely gorgeous, even if the scent isn't doing it for you!

I had a batch of Wild Rose that was just *too much* rose scent hanging around since before Valentine's Day. I discounted the price at the past few markets that I did, and I just couldn't seem to sell them. Finally this last weekend someone bought all six remaining bars in one purchase. I was so glad to see them go! LOL

 

[Jstar]

Those are gorgeous! I love anything with black in it ~lol~ I'd love to see how they smell..as Im constantly looking for those 'knock you down' strong scents

 

[newbie]

I made two more grays, one with some blue in it (I unmolded too early- it's in need of some serious clean up), and one with pink. The blue one got way too thick and I had to exert quite a bit of force to spin it and the pink one was very fluid, but I cut a couple bars horizontally and a couple vertically. I keep adding too much non-gray color. Some day, I will get this proportion thing.