So many things went wrong with this soap

[Catscankim]

i was in the beginning stages of making this bar when my out of state friend called, so i had to basically stop everything. I hadnt actually made soap yet.

but i guess i lost my train of thought.

The mica line was the same color that i used for both layers. i added td to the lighter one and used less mica. I really wanted it to be more white with a touch of blue tint.

the whole color scheme is wrong. It was blue when i poured it and this is the color after cpop. I did add kaolin clay to the whole thing.

the colors are reversed...it was just supposed to be the other way around. No biggie. I didnt realize my mistake until after i got ready to pour, so now the lighter is on top.

the FO accelerated so i had to plop everything in...there was still uncolored soap in the bottom of the container as i was scraping it out. Now there are bits of uncolored soap throughout.

I banged the mold around as much as i could, but still have air bubbles due to plopping thick soap batter in.

I turned off the oven before i put the mold in, but forgot to turn on the light.

I wanted to do a gold mica swirl on top, but it was just too thick by that point, that i didnt want to screw it up more.

You all know i want to eventually sell my soap, and i know its totally usable and not terribly ugly. But i really am disappointed.

the TD made TD boogers.

Its not terrible...but i think i encountered almost every mistake or issue along the way lol. I guess after i got distracted by the phone call, I should have just gone back to the drawing board to begin with. I spent two hours planning this.

 

[lsg]

It looks pretty good to me. I make my soap in my basement craft room, where I can't hear the phone or someone knocking on my door. Interruptions are the pits during soap making.

 

[Ant]

It didn't turn out bad considering all things. I haven't had much luck with straight TD, I feel like I get it dispersed good (mine was oil dispersed vs water dispersed) but always get those boogers. I just got some water dispersed and will see if its any better.

Everytime I try to multi-task and make soap, it usually doesn't go well for me.

 

[GemstonePony]

I'm sorry to hear things didn't go as planned. If I didn't know why they were there (i.e. didn't know anything about making soap), I'd think the swirls and speckles looked fancy, with a "rustic chic" texture.

 

[peachymoon]

I think it looks nice too! But I get it's a bummer that it didn't go as planned.

 

[TheGecko]

It didn't turn out bad considering all things. I haven't had much luck with straight TD, I feel like I get it dispersed good (mine was oil dispersed vs water dispersed) but always get those boogers. I just got some water dispersed and will see if its any better.

Get yourself a little battery operated or rechargeable 'frother'. Just make you stir the solid into the liquid as best as you can and submerge the head of the frother into the liquid BEFORE you turn it on...especially if you are mixing in a shallow container.

I disperse my TD into water; one teaspoon of TD to one tablespoon of water. I never make more than 3/4s of a bottle to give me plenty of 'shake' room; you can of course purchase beads or use small screws or nuts in your bottle to help mix. And you will need to shake up your bottle before you use it because the TD is heavier and will sink to the bottom.

 

[dibbles]

I like them! FWIW, I tend to put the darker color of a layered soap at the bottom - to my eye it just looks like it 'should'. But I can be quite anal in my little box. The mica line shows up very well, so no problems there. As for the TD - two words - white mica.

 

[Megan]

Get yourself a little battery operated or rechargeable 'frother'. Just make you stir the solid into the liquid as best as you can and submerge the head of the frother into the liquid BEFORE you turn it on...especially if you are mixing in a shallow container.

I disperse my TD into water; one teaspoon of TD to one tablespoon of water. I never make more than 3/4s of a bottle to give me plenty of 'shake' room; you can of course purchase beads or use small screws or nuts in your bottle to help mix. And you will need to shake up your bottle before you use it because the TD is heavier and will sink to the bottom.

I never had much luck with the frother. I find I have to either plan to blend my TD straight into my lye water or oils, or I have to make sure my trace isn't so thick so that I can blend directly into my batter.

 

[tommysgirl]

Sorry it didn't go as planned, but it turned out really pretty. Love the color combo!

 

[AliOop]

I agree with the others that they look great, and I concur with @dibbles that the darker color does tend to look better on the bottom - even more so when the dark layer is larger than the light layer, as is the case with this batch. I don't mind a small dark portion on the top, but somehow to my eye, it just doesn't balance if the dark layer is on top and is also equal to or greater than the light layer. Weird, yes, but just how my brain things things ought to be.

 

[The Park Bench]

It didn't turn out bad considering all things. I haven't had much luck with straight TD, I feel like I get it dispersed good (mine was oil dispersed vs water dispersed) but always get those boogers. I just got some water dispersed and will see if its any better.

Everytime I try to multi-task and make soap, it usually doesn't go well for me.

Yep, I have learned to only pour soap when I can focus only on pouring soap!

 

[Ant]

I haven't had luck with the frother either but I am also cheap and try to use as little oil to disperse it in so it kicks up up since it doesn't fully submerge.

Not to hijack, but as anyone used this to attempt to make it finer and theoretically easier to mix?

 

[Catscankim]

Get yourself a little battery operated or rechargeable 'frother'. Just make you stir the solid into the liquid as best as you can and submerge the head of the frother into the liquid BEFORE you turn it on...especially if you are mixing in a shallow container.

I disperse my TD into water; one teaspoon of TD to one tablespoon of water. I never make more than 3/4s of a bottle to give me plenty of 'shake' room; you can of course purchase beads or use small screws or nuts in your bottle to help mix. And you will need to shake up your bottle before you use it because the TD is heavier and will sink to the bottom.

So, do you use water dispersable TD? I purchased oil and i experimented using oil vs water because when i mix in oil, i always got the boogers no matter how well i mix it. If i use water (in my oil dispersable TD) it mixes nicely and gives a nice color to the soap, but its more prone to glycerin rivers.

I feel like i cant win with the TD and want to go with someone elses suggestion to just switch to white mica. I just have so much titanium dioxide, and i would like to beat this beast lol

 

[dibbles]

So, do you use water dispersable TD? I purchased oil and i experimented using oil vs water because when i mix in oil, i always got the boogers no matter how well i mix it. If i use water (in my oil dispersable TD) it mixes nicely and gives a nice color to the soap, but its more prone to glycerin rivers.

I feel like i cant win with the TD and want to go with someone elses suggestion to just switch to white mica. I just have so much titanium dioxide, and i would like to beat this beast lol

I use white mica most of the time and it works well enough for me. My recipes are pretty white on their own though. It won’t give you the bright, paper white if that is what you really want, but more of a winter white which I like. I have seen someone (Sarah of Spicy Pinecone I believe) pour her through a fine mesh tea strainer when adding it to her batter. Maybe that would help?

 

[AliOop]

I like @dibbles' suggestion, or you can try Tree Marie's method of mashing it into oil with a palette knife on a flat surface. I have neither the patience nor the dexterity for that, but it apparently works for some.

 

[Catscankim]

I like @dibbles' suggestion, or you can try Tree Marie's method of mashing it into oil with a palette knife on a flat surface. I have neither the patience nor the dexterity for that, but it apparently works for some.

I have mashed it in a sandwich baggie. That worked a little better for me Cause you can see the clumps and keep mashing around till its clear. Very time consuming though.

and i love the Tree Marie method. But she makes everything look so much easier than it is lol.

 

[CherylMoore]

I used Lisa’s method from I dream in soap. Used a bullet mixer and then filled up a bottle of my TD. The last time I used my mini mixer it land all over me and everything else! So this is safer for me.

 

[Soapdragon]

It didn't turn out bad considering all things. I haven't had much luck with straight TD, I feel like I get it dispersed good (mine was oil dispersed vs water dispersed) but always get those boogers. I just got some water dispersed and will see if its any better.

Everytime I try to multi-task and make soap, it usually doesn't go well for me.

If you whizz the td with a mini whizzer in the oil it helps. If still problems get a cheap electric coffee grinder and pre whizz your whole stock of td

 

[Finnegan]

If you whizz the td with a mini whizzer in the oil it helps. If still problems get a cheap electric coffee grinder and pre whizz your whole stock of td

This is a very nice tip, thank you.

 

[Todd Ziegler]

This is a very nice tip, thank you.

I grind all my oxides too. When I get them, I dump them in my ninja and grind off/on for 5 minutes. It reduces the particle size and they will mix a lot better.