Soap in use

[ResolvableOwl]

Hi! Just browsed again through the ever-growing Soaps in shower thread, and I though it's time to give half used-up soap bars a place to shine here! Soapmakers are so proud of their gorgeous designs when just cut (every shop shows off bars untouched, and all YouTubers are obliged to demonstratively hold each and every freshly cut bar into the camera). So much that one doesn't frequently see how the soaps look like when in use.

This is a shame, since so many soaps, particularly the elaborated swirl designs, uncover whole new sides of their beauty during that peculiar morphing from a sturdy brick, to a unnoticeable shrinking ovoid, eventually to murky wastewater.

Show off your Lollipop swirl eggs! Where are all the hanger swirl ovals, surreal-deformed half-worn soap dough creations, marble-envious hombrés, polished glycerin rivers and self-exposing confetti embeds?

I'll start with my May 2021 challenge OPW. Unfortunately, I dropped that bar, and it indeed snapped in half along the spray-freeze line. But it's not that bad, since it means that I have tiny “blue” and “red” bars now, and can watch that beautiful zebra stripes slowly eroding/exposing/changing from all sides.

 

[Cat&Oak]

Edited to say I'm a dork thread is for soap in use duh lol sorry about that!
Here are a couple from Royal Apple Berry I am using right now. A salt bar and a regular bar ❤

 

[Tara_H]

Here are a few of mine I am not that great at swirls but I am happy enough with these

No offense @Cat&Oak but those don't look terribly used at all

 

[Cat&Oak]

No offense @Cat&Oak but those don't look terribly used at all

Thank you I think we are our own worst critics!

 

[Ladka]

This is a very good idea, RO, and your used pieces look nice.

 

[Tara_H]

Ok, I went and did the rounds of the one "official" soap in use at each station:

Kitchen sink - my original gardener's soap, still going strong!


Bathroom sink - an attempt at a luxury soap. It's slightly too cleansing to be entirely what I was aiming for, but it has a lovely jasmine fragrance.


Bath - a better luxury soap with help from @KimW, this one is orangey as befits the colour scheme:

 

[Cat&Oak]

Hi! Just browsed again through the ever-growing Soaps in shower thread, and I though it's time to give half used-up soap bars a place to shine here! Soapmakers are so proud of their gorgeous designs when just cut (every shop shows off bars untouched, and all YouTubers are obliged to demonstratively hold each and every freshly cut bar into the camera). So much that one doesn't frequently see how the soaps look like when in use.

This is a shame, since so many soaps, particularly the elaborated swirl designs, uncover whole new sides of their beauty during that peculiar morphing from a sturdy brick, to a unnoticeable shrinking ovoid, eventually to murky wastewater.

Show off your Lollipop swirl eggs! Where are all the hanger swirl ovals, surreal-deformed half-worn soap dough creations, marble-envious hombrés, polished glycerin rivers and self-exposing confetti embeds?

I'll start with my May 2021 challenge OPW. Unfortunately, I dropped that bar, and it indeed snapped in half along the spray-freeze line. But it's not that bad, since it means that I have tiny “blue” and “red” bars now, and can watch that beautiful zebra stripes slowly eroding/exposing/changing from all sides.
View attachment 58985

I think your swirls and soap are lovely

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Some rejects of the confetti ball tabs:



Howsoever disappointing the matrix itself is (mediocre attempt on sunflower green), I love to be suprised which colours the squeeze-random-soap-leftovers-together balls liberate over time! The orange/blue is probably from the residual batter of my May challenge OPW soap, the dark brown one is dyed with a generous amount of true chocolate (super soft and soluble due to the sugar, and it tints the suds light brown).

 

[ResolvableOwl]

“Baked Beans” confetti alternating wall pour a few weeks after making, and after a few usages by the sink



To little surprise when you think about it, the soap dough beans are still about as soft as in the beginning – I had the soap wrapped airtight to prevent the soap base from sweating (pulling water from the air moisture), but this means that the excess water in the soap dough couldn't escape as well.
I don't know exactly what happened to the beans themselves. They have become a bit translucent, which looks nice, but is merciless in showing how badly homogenised I had the soap dough before forming the beans, lol.

The red palm soap confetti is better visible now than it was right after making. Also the weird effects that the appearance of the M&P differed so much between the individual wall pours: First semi-opaque and dark, then fully transparent but with the confetti very clearly visible, and the third time fully opaque (?).

It lathers well, and is soft but stiff enough to not break apart under normal usage conditions. IMHO, pretty decent for an improvised M&P recipe. I like how the surface finds to a matte finish by itself, that is pleasant to touch when dry, and doesn't feel gummy or sticky at all (the beans are a bit sticky, though).

 

[Catscankim]

I'm so glad you brought up this topic, because I was just thinking this morning "oh my god, it gets prettier every day" LOL. It's like a new design unfolds every few days.

Here is my current used drop swirl Black Raspberry Vanilla. Both sides LOL. It started as a normal drop swirl soap with almost an all-white bottom.

 

[Guspuppy]

This is the end cut of one of my latest soaps that has been transferred to the bathroom sink after getting too thin for the shower. It's so pretty! Like catscankim said, a new design every day!

It's wet bc I had to wash the dried bubbles off for the photo.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Chocolate Cabbage

“Chocolate is God's Apology for Cabbage”, they've said. – But why not both? Follow with your eye the intricately winding chocolatey manifolds, just to find out they look different after each usage. And yes, you've read correctly: no tricks, no knock-offs; we've melted up true bar chocolate (70% cocoa) into this soap, that lends its seductive odour to the suds, and a slight tan to the lather. We've had a hard time to resist eating it up, rather than folding it into the brain convolutions of this soap bar – but the soap has won in the end!

That's about what I'd compose if I had to come up with an advertisement text for this soap. Honestly, I'm not very happy with this soap as is. The light base dough is a rebatch with a tad too much water in it, so I decided to get a bit crazy about it. But even half a year into curing/drying, it is still somewhat soft and sticky to the touch. I have the sugar under suspicion that comes with the chocolate, and it's just too much for the soap to tolerate readily (I've had other chocolate soaps that didn't harden up after months).

 

[Zing]

This is the end cut of one of my latest soaps that has been transferred to the bathroom sink after getting too thin for the shower. It's so pretty! Like catscankim said, a new design every day! View attachment 60856
It's wet bc I had to wash the dried bubbles off for the photo.

One of my simple pleasures is getting totally mesmerized by my swirly soap every time I take a shower, it's a new design every day!

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Soap bending


This is the last but one bar of my lollipop pour that I had just had to cut up vertically. It has aged very well, it gives off a gorgeous, dense, and silky leather!

For some reason that I haven't fully understood yet, some (but not all) soaps bend/roll up when they get thin over time. A last “twist” when the end of the bar is nigh.

Do you know this from yours too?

 

[CreativeWeirdo]

Soap bending
Do you know this from yours too?

I usually just fold it in half at this point... or add it to a new bar (*gasp*)

 

[AliOop]

@CreativeWeirdo My husband does that with all of his round soaps that I make using "his" special recipe (high lard, low neem, colloidal oats, DB scent). It saves us a LOT of soap because he pastes the old sliver on top of the new bar until they eventually meld together.

 

[Peachy Clean Soap]

Remember our Tall & Skinny Shimmy Soap Challenge back in Oct 2020?. This soap is from then' holding up well, almost a year ago.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Remember our Tall & Skinny Shimmy Soap Challenge back in Oct 2020?

I can't remember (I'm too young), but the challenge archives have once more helped me out. Luv that “mess” with trimmings you've “forgotten” around your soap

 

[Peachy Clean Soap]

I can't remember (I'm too young), but the challenge archives have once more helped me out. Luv that “mess” with trimmings you've “forgotten” around your soap

Awww thank you' & love you found the archives .

 

[Íbera]

This is my charcoal and pink clay. I was also thinking each day it's more beautiful, since it started looking like a piece of stone when I cut it.