Rainbow Taiwan Swirl

[aihrat]

Took the day off work as I wasn't feeling well physically and emotionally. I don't usually do swirlies but made this to cheer myself up. It is scented with Grapefruit, Lemon, Sage, and May Chang EO and smells fresh and juicy. The soap base is made with goat's milk, and needed to be soaped very cool to avoid discolouring the white base.

 

[Candybee]

Wowzer! That's beautiful!

 

[toxikon]

Gorgeous!! What kind of colourants did you use?

 

[aihrat]

Gorgeous!! What kind of colourants did you use?

I used a mix of micas and pigments - red shine mica, orange naccarat mica, orange mica, flash gold mica, apple green mica, aqua green mica, blue ultramarine, violet ultramarine, violet blue mica, flourescent pink pigment, and titanium dioxide. The colours are suspended over a neutral base. I got these from a local (South African) reseller, who (afaik) stocks her micas from BrambleBerry.

Would have liked the "red" soap to be more red, but my red oxide was too muddy

 

[Prysm]

That is so very pretty. You should be real proud of that.

 

[jules92207]

Oh wow! What a gorgeous soap, if that doesn't make you feel a little brighter I don't know what would!

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Took the day off work as I wasn't feeling well physically and emotionally. I don't usually do swirlies but made this to cheer myself up. It is scented with Grapefruit, Lemon, Sage, and May Chang EO and smells fresh and juicy. The soap base is made with goat's milk, and needed to be soaped very cool to avoid discolouring the white base.

Just one look at that soap and you cheered me up too! That EO blend sounds lovely. Well done!

ETA: I'm wondering if the pic needs to be resized ??? ... it's off the screen for me. :???:

 

[SunRiseArts]

whoa ...... Wish I could smell it.

 

[CaraBou]

That should turn anyone's day around! Good thinking -- and doing -- on your part!

 

[aihrat]

Wowzer! That's beautiful!

Thank you!!

That is so very pretty. You should be real proud of that.

Thank you for the kind encouragement

Oh wow! What a gorgeous soap, if that doesn't make you feel a little brighter I don't know what would!

Thank you, it definitely did improve my day and mood!

Just one look at that soap and you cheered me up too! That EO blend sounds lovely. Well done!

ETA: I'm wondering if the pic needs to be resized ??? ... it's off the screen for me. :???:

Thank you! I'm sorry you're feeling blue to any extent, hugs to you...

Also, sorry on the huge image! I will definitely resize it. ^^

whoa ...... Wish I could smell it.

I wish you could smell it too! If you'd like to sometime, here are the proportions of the EOs:

40% Grapefruit
25% Lemon
18% Sage
17% May chang

That should turn anyone's day around! Good thinking -- and doing -- on your part!

Thank you, very glad I decided to do it!

 

[navigator9]

Beautiful colors, beautiful swirls, and it sounds like a great fragrance combo too!

 

[TandCC]

Beautiful! Your Soap Therapy was a success!

 

[WeaversPort]

That soap cheered me up too, and inspired me to keep trying new things. Thank you <3

 

[aihrat]

Beautiful colors, beautiful swirls, and it sounds like a great fragrance combo too!

Thank you!

Beautiful! Your Soap Therapy was a success!

Thank you, I'm so flattered you think so too! I wonder if there's something as a Qualified Soap Therapist...

That soap cheered me up too, and inspired me to keep trying new things. Thank you <3

Thank you, that means a lot to me. I'm also a relatively new soaper and fumble around a fair bit. This was my first Taiwan swirl that actually worked! My previous two attempts came out grody from batter failure and divider clownery. What encouraged me was how people still gravitated towards those colourful batches, even though I saw them as personal disappointments. Your soaps look great and I'm sure your soaping journey will be prosperous! <3

 

[Guspuppy]

so much envy!! That is absolutely gorgeous, and the scent sounds wonderful as well. We need scratch and sniff for monitors. hahaha!

 

[cmzaha]

SPECTACULAR colors and swirls. !! That would cheer anyone up

 

[littlehands]

Well done! It looks fantastic!

 

[BrewerGeorge]

When can we see the cuts:?:

 

[aihrat]

so much envy!! That is absolutely gorgeous, and the scent sounds wonderful as well. We need scratch and sniff for monitors. hahaha!

Thank you! Hahaha yes! That way I could smell all the soaps with fancy FOs from the rest of the world too

SPECTACULAR colors and swirls. !! That would cheer anyone up

Ahhh, thank you for the kind words!

Well done! It looks fantastic!

Yay thank you!

When can we see the cuts:?:

It's still quite soft owing to my swirl recipe and lack of gel, but I will post pics asap!

 

[aihrat]

A Series of Unfortunate Events!!!!!

Sad news everyone - looks like I messed up this batch pretty hard.

Some background: this was one of my first times working with pigments and micas for colour. I used squeeze bottles for each colour...and prepared the colours in the bottles with skewers. As it turns out...micas disperse easily in oil, but pigments don't. I got clumps of ultramarine!

Instead of spraying the surface with rubbing alcohol, I grabbed the wrong bottle...and instead sprayed an alcohol hand sanitiser that had its own cheap gross perfume smell, ruining the scent. It also left some gross spiderman residue on the top of my soaps? Urgh.

I managed to plane the tops off, but as you can see the ultramarine clumps caused drag marks where the slicer went.

Lastly...I under-mixed the soap batter! The colours were a bit better since I had to mix them more than the base, but the base was mostly umixed after emulsion. This is a recipe I've used before in a simpler design, which turned out fine. I think some of the ingredients caused the batter to separate and chunk a bit! As you can see, it ends up having a bit of a cheesecake texture.

Anyways...I will try again when my EOs are restocked. Sorry for the disappointment, but lesson learned!