Post you ugly soap pics here - Troubleshooting thread

[Obsidian]

Yes, thats ash and maybe a bit of light discoloration. Personally, I think its a nice looking bar. I bet if you got a planer and cleaned all the edges up you would like it more.

 

[smeetree]

Yes, thats ash

That's the first time I've seen ash form. And this was the first time I didn't use saran wrap over the top. I just put a wood slab over it. This could be coincidence, but it's frustrating because one reason I purchased a new mold was that I didn't want to wrap the loafs anymore (the saran was distorting/flattening the tops)

Does the ash form from heat reflecting off the wood? It almost looks burned and brown, like it took color from the wood.

I think I read on the forum that ash is random.

 

[navigator9]

I love that shade of blue/purple! Not ugly at all.

 

[smeetree]

View attachment 11198I love that shade of blue/purple! Not ugly at all.

Wow, thanks.
Maybe part of the disappointment is I wanted to give these as gifts. So I wanted them perfect. The clumped up alkanet root, the "shelf", forgetting to infuse, the ash...it's a bastardized version of what I was going for and super disappointing.

ps. If you want to create that shade of purple, use alkanet root in a greater quantity than is recommended on most sites. I forget what I used exactly, but it was quite a bit. Probably double the norm. Alkanet is sensitive to pH, too, which will vary it a bit. I used distilled water, which is usually a 6 pH. The blue in the center is woad powder.

 

[JustBeachy]

Far from being an ugly soap Smee. Like Obsidian said, just plane the edges and it'll be a fine looking Lavender soap. I like the subtle color difference from the woad.

 

[Cindy2428]

Yup for ash and I like the little Yoda in the middle!

 

[smeetree]

Yoda

hahaha

 

[Saponista]

You braved the thread, well done Smee it's nowhere near as bad as you made out lol.

 

[hud]

I agree , this is not an ugly soap it's nice but didn't meet your expectations.

 

[newbie]

Last week, I came out of my room to find my cat curled up in my slab of gelling soap. It was covered but he smushed it, although I was able to squish it back into shape and save most of it. Being an idiot, I did not learn my lesson and I came out this am to see how my beer soap from last night came out. I uncovered this. Needless to say, my current soaps are sitting in the oven.

 

[jules92207]

Lol that is awesome!

 

[boyago]

And my second attempt for this soap was worse than the first. Going for this:

Round two turned out like this:

The AC seems to be only really collecting on the sides of the mold.

This time I used what I thought was more than enough. Also the base recipe was the same but I used different EOs and it looks like the color morphed to not nearly as cool. I can't figure out how I got it to work in a yogurt cup but can't in the mold. Anybody got any ideas?

btw that round two pic was the very best out of twelve.

 

[smeetree]

Last week, I came out of my room to find my cat curled up in my slab of gelling soap. It was covered but he smushed it, although I was able to squish it back into shape and save most of it. Being an idiot, I did not learn my lesson and I came out this am to see how my beer soap from last night came out. I uncovered this. Needless to say, my current soaps are sitting in the oven.

Woh, that looks like ham

 

[jessieh]

I'm still a very newbie, but having a great time experimenting. I love the scent of this soap (jasmine and vanilla) but was was unprepared at the ugliness of it. I know vanilla turns brown, but yuck!
May I present "It's not Vomit"

 

[seven]

It was a spoon drop through an AC pencil line. I was paranoid I'd use too much AC and come out with grey bubbles but I think I used way too little and maybe should have used smaller drops.

please help me understand this technique more.. so, you did the ac pencil line first, and then gently dropping swirls, hoping for a curve-ish effect with the pencil line... right? never thought of this technique, it's pretty awesome in paper, i feel like giving it a try..

wait a minute, i just realized they are round soaps! how did you do it? i simply cannot wrap my head around this! if you can make it in a yogurt cup, maybe keep using it?

 

[biarine]

My odd looking colour rebatched, when my CP turn horrible I did rebatch the soap and turn this colour.

 

[Luckyone80]

My odd looking colour rebatched, when my CP turn horrible I did rebatch the soap and turn this colour. View attachment 11920

I like it, looks like granite.

 

[Luckyone80]

Here is my ugly rebatch, looks like Spam.

 

[rainycityjen]

Wow, that Spam soap. Would probably sell like hotcakes in Hawaii?

My pinks have a tendency to turn out ham- or American cheese-colored. Has made for some interesting bars.

 

[boyago]

please help me understand this technique more.. so, you did the ac pencil line first, and then gently dropping swirls, hoping for a curve-ish effect with the pencil line... right? never thought of this technique, it's pretty awesome in paper, i feel like giving it a try..

wait a minute, i just realized they are round soaps! how did you do it? i simply cannot wrap my head around this! if you can make it in a yogurt cup, maybe keep using it?

Easy-Peasy. You take your batter to thick trace, the thicker the trace the more defined your lines will be. Thinner batter will make a fainter wispyer effect. Then take a spoon and drop a few spoon fulls into the mold, shake some AC (or whatever) then spoon in more soap, shake more AC, repeat... Since these were done in vertical type molds you wind up cutting on the same plane that you are putting you lines into the soap which is what I think gives it a cool 3d depth where as you use the soap the lines thicken and thin out and change patterns.
I was kind of brain storming why they would work in the cup but not the PVC and was reminded of how when sand is run over PVC it makes a strong static charge. I think what's happening is that the PVC has a charge that is pulling the AC into the walls (which at lubed with mineral oil) and hardly any AC is getting to the wet batter. Not sure if I could ground it out or just find a silicone column mold but I think I'll try that.
btw Here is what they look like when you do them with a two tone batter instead of lines (I split the batter and colored half with powdered kelp):

And same same on HP NY Castile:

This one is a loaf mold with the cuts at 90 to the AC, which I find a little more boring.