Soap toppings

[pumita]

I´m experimenting with diferent soap toppings, mostly with hot process soap. What I`ve tried so far: cinnamon (bark), cocoa husk, spirulina, grounded cedar wood, citrus zest
Most of them are brown, so there´s no risk that they would turn brownish by time. And the color of spirulina and citrus zest are not affected from the soap, as far as I know.

What I would like to know now, are what other toppings can you use, that wouldn´t change their color. Would lemongrass work?
Do you have any suggestions?
In particular I´m looking for something green, some herb.

Do topppings that change their color with CP soap also change their color with less aggressive HP soap?

(Already know that flower petals, with the exception of marigold, wouldn´t work)

Also I have problems do make the toppings stick to HP soap. Is there anything you can do? I heard that you can put a layer of melt and pour soap over the HP soap to make the toppings stick to the soap.
Anyone of you does that?

Thank you so much!

 

[green soap]

Dried calendula petals stay bright orange or yellow.

Oat flakes seem to do OK as well.

 

[Fragola]

I heard that you can put a layer of melt and pour soap over the HP soap to make the toppings stick to the soap.
Anyone of you does that?

Sort of tried it once with coconut flakes and melted soap (not M&P) and it kind of works.

But if it starts sweating glycerine like I hear MP does, I don't know what you'll do with those sticky petals or whatever.

Personally I believe the best solution is 1-2 large pieces which can be removed by the user. There's no fun having citrus zest dripping in the bathtub. Do your petals turn brown in contact with lye ? So go stick a whole flower into it, that should keep it's color

 

[pumita]

Fragola:

Do you have any fotos you can post with soaps decorated with large pieces?

 

[Fragola]

Didn't have the chance to try the idea yet. It's a recent thought that came to me while cleaning coconut flakes from the drain.

This is primarily practical conclusion, not an aesthetical one.

But browsing the web, there are a lot of pretties made like that by other people. I'll post some links here. Make sure you scroll down the whole pages to see all the pictures, some of them can be enlarged by clicking.

Certain soaps that you'll see below are made with a fistful of petals, but ones I'm talking about have just a small number of larger sized decorations (flowers, buds, fruits):

http://www.lovinsoap.com/2011/11/make-y ... joy-james/
http://www.madaboutnature.co.uk/page2.htm
http://www.herballinea.co.uk/acatalog/A ... Soaps.html
http://www.anderra.co.uk/blog/sara-mari ... nt-garden/
http://fresholi-bites.blogspot.com/2008 ... e-mer.html

(last one isn't floral, but still nice)