So I am still pretty new to the craft of soap making. I recently purchased a soap design/pull-through tool and was keen as curry to make pull through designs just like the ones I have seen in videos and on this forum. My first attempt was a bit of a failure, but I learned a few things which helped with my second attempt.
- You really do need to use squeeze bottles with pipette tips for extensions. Simply thinking that you can pour from a long nosed jug was a foolish assumption.
- You need to keep each individual pour small and thin to allow the colour from below to be "pulled through"
- The trick to keeping the batter runny enough is that there is no "trick"! There are a number of things I did to keep the better fluid enough to do this, the main ones that helped me include learning the difference between emulsification and light trace, using the full water amount, only using coconut oil at around 20%, increasing the amount of unsaturated oils slightly, using citrus EO certainly helped keep the batter soft for longer, adding sugar, doing the pour at room temp and finally - be quick. Experience helps a lot with the last point!
One of the biggest things a new soaper wants to know is how to keep the batter from seizing up so you can do all of those lovely swirls we see. Finding this secret was like an elusive holy grail. After a total of 40 batches of soap in my soap making journey I have found that it really does come down to time and experience.
My second attempt was much more successful as I made sure I was totally set up with the right equipment needed, tweaked my recipe and used an EO blend I knew would work. To say I am ecstatic with my second attempt is an understatement.
To all my fellow newbies, don't give up!! Your frustration and patience will pay off.
I have uploaded pics of my first attempt and my second attempt. The orange/black/yellow ones are my first attempt. You can see how the layers were way too thick so the colour barely pulled through and there are no concentric rings that come from the smaller/thinner individual pours.
You just inspired me to keep going with this....I've turned out several 'failed' batches attempting various pull-throughs, although they still turned out beautiful, and my last attempt is the nicest one so far. The most beautiful ones I created were using the pull-throughs as stencils for soap dough, rather than their intended use
I found the same things as you....
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squeeze bottles - I don't like them, have yet to find a set with large enough threaded openings, so after a few failed attempts with those thin spouted pitchers which made an unholy mess, I sourced some spiffy tools mechanics would use from eBay, similar to big honking syringes made from HDPE (?) with double o-rings inside a tightly sealed body to prevent mess & waste, which load up to 500ml of liquid & have a 'pump' on them, so to speak, in addition to a having large openings AND extender tubes to make these pours a lot more enjoyable - for me, anyways. They are made to extract oil & other fluids from engines as I understand, so they should hold up to soaping fairly well & seem to be very well-made. I think 4 cost me around $80-90 total / free shipping? and they will last for years. Easy cleanup too! There are some good alternatives to those squeeze bottles if we think creatively.
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don't layer your colors too thickly or too widely - I am aiming for 1" layers maximum for each color at this point; I have a difficult time keeping an eye on how much I'm squeezing vs looking down to get visual confirmation of how much I'm squeezing, so difficult for me, and then I panic as my soap is becoming thicker
The above syringes help because they have very precise
ml markings on the side. It's like using a giant, powerful, self contained dosing thermometer.
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upping water amount - I went to a 2.4:1 ratio after watching someone else struggling with this on YouTube - upping their water content to 2.4:1 helped immensely (my mind works better with ratios in this situation).
My own experiences:
• avoid clays as much as possible - this made a big difference for me as those clays which I use for natural colorants were speeding things up far too quickly ; I now am using only plant & spice colorants which have been infused in oils for quite some time OR which I have soaked in a spoon or so taken from the total liquid oils in my batch.
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lowering essential oils concentration or choosing just 1 or 2 essential oils for each batch - even if using EOs which are said to not accelerate trace; have definitely found this to help keep things fluid for significantly longer.
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balance saturated / unsaturated fats at 40:60 to keep batter fluid longer - thank you Chass for your detailed instructions based on your experience!
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make smaller batches for pull-throughs - this helps me a lot as switching from color to color with 2+ molds can become head-spinning, especially if using 3-5 colors in sequence for maximum design impact, trying to keep each layer as uniform as possible; and while this is going on, each layer of batter is getting thicker, lessening your likelihood of getting a beautiful design result. I am working on developing better coordination skills with this technique so that I can fill multiple molds at once
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I love the effects which can be gotten from pull-throughs so much & simply can't give up on this yet. Chass from Wild Plantanica got me stoked about this after I ran across her videos on YouTube, which are some of the best I have ever seen in regards to this topic, especially since her designs are so beautiful & striking using only natural colorants. She really knows how to get maximum impact from her colorants.
Thank you again for the inspiration to not give up with this
Trusting that my next few batches will be more successful the the previous!
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