SMF October Challenge Entry Thread - Mini Drops Swirl

[dibbles]

This is the Entry Thread for the to the October 2019 SMF Soap Challenge – Mini Drops Swirl

This thread is limited to challenge photos only. Please post all comments in the original challenge thread (https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/smf-october-2019-challenge-mini-drops-swirl.76700/). Thank you.

Please post your entry soap photos here and include any details you would like to share such as technique used, your design inspiration, fragrance or recipe.

You may post multiple photos but only one photo will be submitted in the voting survey. If you are including more than one photo, please indicate which one you would like to be used in the voting survey. In the absence of such indication, one of the photos will be chosen as the entry photo from the selection you have posted.

The entry thread and challenge sign up will remain open until October 25 at 11:59 PM CST. A link and the password for voting at Survey Monkey will then be sent to all members who signed up for the Challenge. Voting will be open from October 26, 2019 through October 29, 2019 and winners will be announced on October 30.

Good luck everyone!

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Here’s my entry. I lost about 5-10% of the white batter at the bottom due to an incomplete seal when I tried to use half of a loaf mold. I was trying to “engineer” the design a bit and found that to be challenging. My idea was to have the green drops mimic a swag of evergreens boughs on the mantle at Christmas, with red ornaments hanging down and a red ribbon across the top. I managed to forget to put one more red drop up a bit higher in the composition. I used a fine tipped squeeze bottle for the ribbon. Even though I thought I was layering lines, the weight of the batter was not sufficient to depress the batter below to produce the scalloped look I had planned. When I tried the ribbon again using a larger tip in a soap I made after this one, the drops were too big. One thing I really like about this soap is the way it looks like grosgrain ribbon on the top edge. I’m also happy with the colors and especially the red. I sure do have lots of Christmas soap to give away!

 

[user 29721]

My entry, inspired by the rainbow colors and charcoal. The idea was to show rainbow clouds and falling rain drops. Turned out exactly how I envisioned it.

Cosmic_Rain

• user 29721
• Oct 20, 2019

Cosmic Rain entry for October 2019 mini drop swirl challenge.

 

[bookreader451]

This was my third attempt. I used an interactive color wheel for inspiration since my color choices in the prior two attempt were not contrasting enough and dull. I was happy with this in the end.

 

[dibbles]

Bump so this thread doesn't get lost!

 

[mommycarlson]

My entry is scented with Hipster from RE. Base color is TD, while my drops are colored with Champagne, Yellow Raincoat, Voodoo, and Tangerine from MM. I did mini drops of Shimmer Gold in sweet almond oil on the top, then drug a skewer through them to make heart shapes, which looked really pretty on the full loaf (sorry, forgot a photo in my excitement) and do show some on the tops of the cut bars.

 

[szaza]

I would have loved just one more try at this. I feel like this batch went well technically, but I'm really not happy about the color combination. I think next time I'd try a white base with (lighter) blue, purple and maybe pink instead of orange. But anyway, without further ado, here is my entry. Picture taken by my wonderful boyfriend because the alkanet needed a week of cure and I left on a trip last week.


Colors are alkanet, paprika and indigo infusions. Scent is an EO blend with mainly palmarosa (it somehow smells purple to me)

 

[Primrose]

Here is my entry, as I will not have a chance to have another go. Scented with BB Love Spell. As with all my soaps, it is made with 100% goat milk replacement for water, using milk from my own goats. The base oils are my standard lard, tallow, olive, coconut and castor which gives me plenty of working time as long as the FO is well behaved. Colours are titanium dioxide, activated charcoal and bubblegum bliss from my mica obsession.

 

[amd]

Here's my entry! My first attempt using funnel pitchers to pour the drop swirl from waaaaaay high up. It was ridiculous how many times I missed the mold... I made no changes to my recipe, so this one completely relied on a good FO. I used BCN Hemlock Forest, which did behave very well, coconut milk, and colors are from Micas & More: latte brown, clementine orange, mint cream green, and midnight blue (or maybe magic blue, I don't have my notes handy). ETA: I did get a lot of soda ash with this, I suspect the FO, as that isn't normal for my soap. I like it so it's staying.

 

[Karmic]

Alright, giving this a shot. Since I first started into soapmaking I've been wanting to do a peacock colored soap and thought maybe this could be amazing. I need a little more practice but I'm fairly pleased with this look. Scent is "Awaken" and colors are Proud Peacock, Brilliant Blue, Purple Vibrance and Black Oxide all from Nurture, the white is just my regular soap batter left uncolored. I don't think it went through gel, the peacock (base) is usually much deeper but it stayed kind of pastelly this time. Also I really need to get a planer to smooth up my bars

 

[Kiti Williams]

Well, here it is. I hope the colors settle once the soap is cured. I used Turmeric and Paprika as my colors. Cutting the soap last night was a bit of a mistake, the corners are crumbly.

 

[MarnieSoapien]

This was definitely a learning experience. I think I over-thought the challenge and made things more complicated than they needed to be. I used Scottish Wildflower and Honey FO and wanted to replicate a field with wildflowers. I used Jade, Blackberry, Terra Cotta and Lemon micas and the white in the soap is uncolored. Sorry about the blurry picture, I'll upload a clearer one as soon as I figure out how to compress the size.

 

[Michele50]

So this is my 1st out of 3 attempts. I used Lard, Palm oil (responsibly sourced), CO, EVOO, and Castor oil. My lye solution was 100.3 F and oils were 103 F. For the droplet colors I chose: Cobalt Blue, Magic Purple, Magic Yellow, Saffron, and Silver Shimmer Black; my base was uncolored. It’s a shame I didn’t use enough of each color to show their beauty. The pastel look wasn't what I was going for; the bold colors of my 2nd attempt was my favorite but the droplets didn’t turn out as planned.

I used Tiger’s Blood FO because it behaved well in soap I made a couple of weeks ago and oh my goodness do I love the scent!!

I didn’t use a soap mold, instead, I used the bottom portion of a ½ gallon milk container lined with a baggie because I wanted to be able to use it again. The bottoms were a bit rough due to a few wrinkles in the baggie.

My goal was to get multiple colors within ‘some’ of the droplets and have them spaced out within my bar rather than crowded against each other. I used my small squeeze bottles for the larger drops and my ‘tiny’ fine point squeeze bottles for the miniature dot-like drops.

 

[Cellador]

I really did not think I was going to get to this challenge, but the other night, I threw caution to the wind and just did it. So, for my one & only attempt, I'm satisfied. I wish there was more of a teardrop shape, but it still looks nice.
Fragranced with Frankincense & Myyrh from Sweetcakes. Colored with cocoa powder, yellow brazillian clay, and activated charcoal.

 

[DeeAnna]

Here is my entry. I plan to try this technique again, but I'm not going to get another batch done within the challenge time frame.

This challenge expanded my horizons and I want to thank Dibbles for hosting it this month. I had resisted using squeeze bottles before as being a little too fussy, but I've changed my tune. I now think they're kinda fun!

I didn't do my usual chopstick swirl on the top. On a whim, I spattered the dribs and drabs of soap left in my squeeze bottles over the top, a la Jackson Pollock. I thought the spatters looked good enough to leave as-is.

 

[artemis]

My soap came out of the mold on time! I've been wanting to try this for a while, so this was a fun challenge for me. I used kaolin clay, carribean blue mica, and woodland green oxide. The fragrance is "Kismet" from Nurture, which smells like.... Soap? It's a clean scent that just smells soapy to me. I don't know what else to say-- I taped a length of straw to each nozzle of the squeezey bottles. I let the batter get a little bit thick.

 

[Giangxamar]

Here is my entry. I used activated charcoal, roseclay, zinc oxide, and yellow and orange dyes. I knew the yellow was gonna bleed so i tried to keep the base colour dark.
The bottom is black and stir a little bit of grey in. Then the white part was regular drop swirl. And the top part is mini drop swirl.
I didnt make the tip longer so that’s the deepest of the mold that i could dive to. All the bars are different. But in general i enjoy cutting my batch Hope you like it too!

 

[dibbles]

The winners this month are:

1. bookreader451
2. mommycarlson
3. Tie between Karmic and Michele50

Congratulations!

 

[DeeAnna]

Woot, woot to everyone who tried this challenge! And an even bigger shout out to the winners -- your soaps are extra lovely.

 

[Kiti Williams]

Congrats to all 4 winners! Lovely soaps! To all who competed, great job with your soaps and not being afraid to show your work!