I definitely remember someone posting that they mix a little glycerin with mica and their soaps looked great.
That would be me. There might also be others who do the same as well, but I definitely remember posting about it not too long ago.
I make my own soap 'paint' to accentuate the stamped impression on my soap whenever I use certain Milky Way soap stamps like the ones that are shown and demonstrated here:
http://www.aussiesoapsupplies.com.au/So ... -c-66.html
I have the Milky Way 'Bee' stamp, 'Thistle' stamp and 'Dolphin' stamp. Since the stamps are made in such a way that they are recessed (which leaves a raised design on the soap), it's impossible for me to press the stamp into dry mica to stamp my soaps with like I normally do with my plain old rubber craft stamps (which are raised, but leave a recessed design on the soap). Well....I suppose I could do so, but the results sure wouldn't be pretty.
When I want to accentuate the Milky Way stamp so that the design really 'pops', I first stamp my soap, and then accentuate the design with soap 'paint'.
You can buy soap paint (Brambleberry sells it, among other vendors), or you can make your own using powdered soap colorants (the shimmery micas such as gold and bronze are what I like to use), and a little glycerin.
Now, as far as the ratio of how much colorant to use as opposed to glycerin, well... that is where you have to use your own judgement. I'm very exact and thoroughly precise when it comes to my lye/water/oils/colorants ratios, but everytime I 'paint' my soap, I just mix up a small amount on the fly to be used just for the soaps I'm doing at that particular moment- meaning I never measure it and I never make enough to store away. Making soap paint is kind of like how I cook- a little bit of this, a little bit of that, etc.... I always say to myself that for reference sake I should probably keep exact measurements of each, but for some reason or other I never do.
What I can say, though, is that it is a small amount at any given time- maybe 1/16 to 1/8 of a teaspoon worth of total 'paint' if I had to make a guess. The ratio of each escapes me, but be careful to not go too heavy on the glycerin or it will take awhile to dry. If I happen to run out of 'paint' before I'm done, I just mix up a little bit more. It's usually dried within a week, sometimes less, depending on if I was too heavy handed with the glycerin or not. In any case, it's
most definitely dry by the time cure is up (which is 4 weeks for me).
To see some examples of my 'painted' soap, click on the following link (my badly-in-need-of-updating soap bragging site), and scroll down to these soaps:
http://members.cox.net/ssfkjfalf/AllMySoap/Start.htm
#14- Bee stamp painted with gold mica/glycerin
#15 Thistle stamp painted with bronze mica/glycerin
#17 Thistle stamp painted with Brambleberry soap paint
#24 Bee stamp with gold mica/glycerin
#27 (the last soap on page) Thistle stamp painted with Brambleberry soap paints.
HTH!
IrishLass
