Welcome to the November 2023 SMF Challenge. This month you will make soaps using the Splash Swirl technique, first created by Wachirahat Kris of Thai Herbal Soaps by Kris.
To make your soaps, you will be using a standard or tall and skinny loaf mold and a hanger tool. Starting at one edge of your mold, push your hanger straight down, and then pull back up in the same place. Move your hanger slightly and repeat across the width of the mold. For the soap I made as an example, I went up and down once across the mold and then up and down once back across the mold to the beginning edge. I then added a few at wider intervals one time across the mold. My batter was very fluid, and my space between swirl lines was maybe .25”. If your batter has thickened, you might want to go back and forth an extra time or two. Below is the soap I made as an example of the technique.
SMF Challenge General Rules
1. Use about 20-25% of your total batter for the accent colors.
2. Try to pour your accent colors so that they drop into the base. If they don’t drop, no worries – the hanger will still push the colors down.
3. Keeping your batter fluid is very helpful. Use a well behaved fragrance and use your stick blender sparingly just until you reach emulsion.
4. If you don’t have a hanger tool, you can use a hanger bent to the size of your mold (slip a straw over it if you want a thicker tool) or a gear tie (Amazon.com).
5. In addition to those shown below, there are lots of videos and photos available on YouTube and Instagram.
Good video examples:
Texturing the soap top will pull the swirls in at the top giving an interesting result, as shown here
By Melly Made Soap
By I Dream in Soap
By Tree Marie Soapworks
I hope you decide to give this a try. It's a fun technique, in addition to being fairly quick to do and pretty beginner friendly. Please ask if you have any questions.
To make your soaps, you will be using a standard or tall and skinny loaf mold and a hanger tool. Starting at one edge of your mold, push your hanger straight down, and then pull back up in the same place. Move your hanger slightly and repeat across the width of the mold. For the soap I made as an example, I went up and down once across the mold and then up and down once back across the mold to the beginning edge. I then added a few at wider intervals one time across the mold. My batter was very fluid, and my space between swirl lines was maybe .25”. If your batter has thickened, you might want to go back and forth an extra time or two. Below is the soap I made as an example of the technique.
SMF Challenge General Rules
- To enter, you must have been an active SMF member for at least one month and have a minimum of 50 posts at the time the Challenge is posted. “Fluff” posts written with the sole intention of boosting post numbers do not apply. The only exception to this rule, is that the time and post requirements are removed for (do not apply to) Supporting Members. All eligible members may sign up and submit an entry at any time before the entry thread closes.
- Your soap must be made after the monthly challenge has been announced. Your entry must consist of bars made from a single batch of soap poured into one mold. In other words, your entry cannot include bars from different batches.
- The sign-up list will be posted in this thread. Please add your name to the sign-up list if you’d like to participate. You don’t have to enter a soap at the end if you don’t feel happy with what you have made. Still, we hope you will post about your experiences here in the main Challenge thread, along with non-entry photos (be prepared to be encouraged to keep trying).
- In the spirit of advancing our soap making skills, all members who sign-up for the SMF Challenge do so with the expectation that they will make every attempt to submit an entry. We do understand that life happens, and that you may end up without an entry. However, signing up with no intent to participate and only to vote goes against the spirit of the challenge and is not allowed.
- Throughout the month, we encourage you to use this general Challenge thread (not the Entry thread) to ask for advice, discuss techniques with other members, upload pictures of your non-entry challenge attempts, and provide helpful hints you learned along the way. Constructive criticism is welcomed, but please keep your comments polite.
- A separate Entry thread will be created towards the end of the month. Please do not post photos anywhere of your entry until the Entry thread is opened. Breaking this rule will disqualify that soap from this Challenge. The Entry thread is for challenge entries only; please don't post any comments there.
- Your entry photo must include at least three bars of soap from a single batch. We encourage (but do not require) you to include in your entry post a description and additional photos demonstrating how you made your soap: the process, the technique, the fragrance, any special meaning behind your selected colors or design, etc. This gives voters a better understanding of, and appreciation for, what went into creating your soap. Please post the photo you would like used for the voting survey first.
- Entries must be posted to the Entry thread (not to this general Challenge thread) before the closing time on the closing date. Late entries will not be accepted. If you miss the Challenge deadline, please upload pictures of your soap to the general Challenge thread instead. While it won’t be part of the voting, we always love to see anything you have created!
- There is no prize attached to this Challenge. However, this is still a competition. If your entry is deemed non-compliant, you will be given the opportunity to amend your entry if there is time to do so before the Entry thread closes. Otherwise, your entry will be excluded from voting. The challenge mods have the final say as to whether any given soap, photo, or registrant is eligible for entry and voting.
- All eligible registrants who have signed up before the Entry thread closes will be eligible to vote, even if they do not submit an entry. A password-protected voting link and password will be sent to eligible registrants only, by private message via SMF conversations. Please check your SMF messages/conversations when the voting begins.
- Note: all times listed below are Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). It is your responsibility to convert times to your own time zone. You can use World Time Buddy or a similar time converter.
* The entry thread will open on November 20, 2023 by 11:59 PM GMT.
* The entry thread will close on November 26, 2023 at 11:59 PM GMT.
* The voting survey link and password will be emailed to all registered participants shortly thereafter.
* The voting survey will remain open until November 29, 2023 at 11:59 PM GMT, or until all registrants have voted, whichever is sooner.
* The winner will be announced no later than November 30, 2023 by 11:59 PM GMT.
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- Your entry must be made from one batch of CP (cold process) or CPOP (cold process-oven process) soap in a loaf-style mold. Use of heating pads and insulation instead of actually using an oven is considered CPOP.
- You must use a minimum of three colors – one for the base and two for the swirl. You may use uncolored batter for one of these colors, and you may use as many colors as you wish.
- The goal for this technique is to create long, thin, wispy lines of color throughout the soap bars. You should also try to have the accent colors reach across the bars from edge to edge.
- Only CP soap from the batch you have made for the challenge is allowed within the body of the soap. No embeds are allowed for this challenge either within your soap or on top of your bars. Other than using embeds (not allowed) you may decorate the top of your soap any way you like. Glitter, botanicals, mica, mica in oil, salts, etc. are all allowed. Of course, leftover bits of batter dropped and swirled on the top of the loaf is also allowed.
- You may pour the colors for the splash swirl anywhere in your soap. Pouring on top of the base and pushing the colors down through your base color is the most common (and I recommend doing it this way if it is your first time doing this technique), but colors can be placed on the bottom of the mold or through the center if you would like to try that.
1. Use about 20-25% of your total batter for the accent colors.
2. Try to pour your accent colors so that they drop into the base. If they don’t drop, no worries – the hanger will still push the colors down.
3. Keeping your batter fluid is very helpful. Use a well behaved fragrance and use your stick blender sparingly just until you reach emulsion.
4. If you don’t have a hanger tool, you can use a hanger bent to the size of your mold (slip a straw over it if you want a thicker tool) or a gear tie (Amazon.com).
5. In addition to those shown below, there are lots of videos and photos available on YouTube and Instagram.
Good video examples:
Texturing the soap top will pull the swirls in at the top giving an interesting result, as shown here
By Melly Made Soap
By I Dream in Soap
By Tree Marie Soapworks
I hope you decide to give this a try. It's a fun technique, in addition to being fairly quick to do and pretty beginner friendly. Please ask if you have any questions.
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However, it will be a one shot deal because I only made enough slurry for one batch so I'm going to make the soap first and if it even closely resembles the challenge, then I will enter it 
I also have to think of a third color, but I may go green (literally) because I have organic greens powder that has spirulina in it so it should compliment the earthy purple pretty well 
I actually made her a basket to match that interior all those years ago 
