Mother of Dragons

[doriettefarm]

I was so excited to try out a new Dragon's Blood FO that I got busy yesterday. I knew it would discolor so planned on a black base and thought it would be a brilliant move to use red neon for the 'blood'. Things were going great until I started to pour . . . the black portion was moving faster than the red! I got it in the mold but it looked like a bloody massacre happened from the top view. I was extremely relieved to find a treasure hiding inside when I cut it this morning.

 

[shunt2011]

Those are beautiful! .

 

[snappyllama]

That is gorgeous... way to make a discoloring FO really make a statement!

 

[lenarenee]

It's perfect!

 

[ibct1969]

Wow- it's amazing. Very striking!

 

[vedwards]

That is awesome! LOVE IT!

 

[sudsy_kiwi]

That's amazing!!! What did you use for the the red?

 

[Saponista]

Oh wow those are stunning!

 

[Guspuppy]

That came out perfect!!!

 

[dibbles]

They are wonderful!! So visually striking!

 

[Rowan]

Love, love, love them! They are really beautiful and striking!

 

[cmzaha]

I was so excited to try out a new Dragon's Blood FO that I got busy yesterday. I knew it would discolor so planned on a black base and thought it would be a brilliant move to use red neon for the 'blood'. Things were going great until I started to pour . . . the black portion was moving faster than the red! I got it in the mold but it looked like a bloody massacre happened from the top view. I was extremely relieved to find a treasure hiding inside when I cut it this morning.

I think they are gorgeous. What lye concentration did you use? It does not accelerate badly for me and I use a recipe with lard, tallow and shea with a 33% lye concentration. I did pour a batch from this batch of DB

 

[doriettefarm]

Wow, you guys are making me blush with all the compliments (and jinxing me as far as repeating this design in the future)! I used Nurture's neon red pigment which has to be dispersed in oil so the red batter had about 4g more oil than the black. Not sure if the extra oil kept the red more fluid or if my black mica (Nurture's Black Pearl & Black Onyx flare) made it move quicker than expected. It could also be the fact that I used 10% castor instead of 5%. Recipe is below but next time I will swap to my super slow-trace lardy recipe. I was going for a drop swirl but the black got so thick the red wouldn't drop thru so I ended up churning it a bit with a gear tie.

Palm 35%
Coconut 20%
Olive 15%
Sweet almond 15%
Castor 10%
Cocoa butter 5%

Carolyn - I also used a 33% lye concentration (50/50 lye water masterbatch) with aloe vera juice as the remaining liquid. I'll send a sample of the red neon along with the acrylic mold and promise it will be headed your way by Tuesday.

 

[navigator9]

We make plans, then soap makes plans of its own. :grin: I'd say it was a very happy accident, because that's one gorgeous soap!!! You got a really true black, and the red is perfect. Niiiiiiice job!

 

[BlackDog]

Fantastic! Khaleesi would be proud

 

[JuneP]

Dramatic, elegant and exquisite. Great soap!

 

[dibbles]

I'm just curious - when using an FO that will discolor to a dark brown, do you need to add much black? I don't tend to make a lot of black soaps, but I have several FOs that discolor dark brown - I'm looking at you Vanilla Milk- and would like to maybe change up the brown some of the time.

 

[doriettefarm]

We make plans, then soap makes plans of its own. :grin: I'd say it was a very happy accident, because that's one gorgeous soap!!! You got a really true black, and the red is perfect. Niiiiiiice job!

So true about soap having a mind of it's own! It seems like when I over-plan a soap design it never turns out the way I envisioned. But when I 'wing it' or just go with the flow (i.e. do whatever the soap wants to do) the end result is much better.

This batch is a perfect example where I had a general idea of what I wanted to accomplish and a plan to do it. The vision in my head was blackness contrasted with fiery, molten dragon's blood running thru it. I was convinced a drop swirl would come close to matching my vision so in this case I'm glad the soap gods outsmarted me!

dibbles - That's a really good question but I'm not sure I'll be able to give you a straight answer. I wasn't sure exactly how dark this FO would get so I used the normal amount of black mica (1-2tsp ppo). So it may have been overkill if this DB turns as dark as Vanilla Milk.

 

[cmzaha]

So true about soap having a mind of it's own! It seems like when I over-plan a soap design it never turns out the way I envisioned. But when I 'wing it' or just go with the flow (i.e. do whatever the soap wants to do) the end result is much better.

This batch is a perfect example where I had a general idea of what I wanted to accomplish and a plan to do it. The vision in my head was blackness contrasted with fiery, molten dragon's blood running thru it. I was convinced a drop swirl would come close to matching my vision so in this case I'm glad the soap gods outsmarted me!

dibbles - That's a really good question but I'm not sure I'll be able to give you a straight answer. I wasn't sure exactly how dark this FO would get so I used the normal amount of black mica (1-2tsp ppo). So it may have been overkill if this DB turns as dark as Vanilla Milk.

It more like a milk chocolate candy melt, maybe a titch darker. This is not a super dark brown turning DB

 

[christost7]

Looks amazing, congrats!
Funny thing is that I had exactly the same thing on my mind for my next project
I have already ordered activated charcoal, and will do a blue or red drop swirl on a total black base.
I wish it will turn out half as good as yours :mrgreen: