Thanks for the nice comments everyone, I really enjoyed painting the soap. I used to do ceramics so it was just like getting out the ceramics and paint from back in the day. I loved doing the detail work on it, but the soap itself really was a disaster. For some reason it was really soft and mushy at the bottom two layers. I'm wondering if there was too much mica and that caused that effect. Also, because there is so much colorant in the soap, it bleeds pepto bismol in the sink. BIG TIME! I had theses pasty chunks of pepto in the sink. I'll leave it on the shelf for a few months to see if that helps harden it. If not, I'll just toss it out. It was only about 1000 grams of oils, so it wasn't a major loss. There weren't any butters or expensive oils in there, either, so that's a plus.
I made my entry soap in the same mold and painted the top again. I used a lemon fragrance and "lemon chiffon" mica for the first three layers and added a bit of orange to the last two layers. However, you can't really tell there's any orange in it. I was hoping it would show. I've already posted my entry photos (some day I'm going to buy a camera). But here are a couple of other photos. The first is what the soap looks like after it is unmolded. The second is a better shot of the detail work on the butterfly. I think I've found my calling: painting soap. This time I used olive oil with the mica and it was much easier to work with. I still need to buy some decent paint brushes, though. I also ordered two more of those molds. I'm probably going to be looking for highly detailed molds in the future.
ETA: I tried to outline the wings in black again, but didn't feel like mixing new mica with oil, so I used the mica/glycerine from yesterday. It beaded as you can see in the photo. I'm hoping that by tomorrow the beading will have absorbed into the soap and the mica will have left the outline that I was looking for. Because of this, I didn't bother to do the dots and lines on the ladybugs. I'll do that tomorrow after everything absorbs into the soap. Also, in this photo, you can barely tell the differences in the layers. I actually had to turn the overhead light off in order to get the shot for the entry photo.
I made my entry soap in the same mold and painted the top again. I used a lemon fragrance and "lemon chiffon" mica for the first three layers and added a bit of orange to the last two layers. However, you can't really tell there's any orange in it. I was hoping it would show. I've already posted my entry photos (some day I'm going to buy a camera). But here are a couple of other photos. The first is what the soap looks like after it is unmolded. The second is a better shot of the detail work on the butterfly. I think I've found my calling: painting soap. This time I used olive oil with the mica and it was much easier to work with. I still need to buy some decent paint brushes, though. I also ordered two more of those molds. I'm probably going to be looking for highly detailed molds in the future.
ETA: I tried to outline the wings in black again, but didn't feel like mixing new mica with oil, so I used the mica/glycerine from yesterday. It beaded as you can see in the photo. I'm hoping that by tomorrow the beading will have absorbed into the soap and the mica will have left the outline that I was looking for. Because of this, I didn't bother to do the dots and lines on the ladybugs. I'll do that tomorrow after everything absorbs into the soap. Also, in this photo, you can barely tell the differences in the layers. I actually had to turn the overhead light off in order to get the shot for the entry photo.
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I am amazed at the talent on this forum, so many pretty soaps, so many colors and different ideas. You are a talented bunch!
