Stealing Tienne's challenge idea

[newbie]

Okay, Tienne suggested posting a picture of a soap and presenting the challenge of replicating it. I like that idea a lot!

I found a picture of this soap, which I really love and I'm trying to figure out how it's made, with the opacity and texture of the brown parts and the translucency of the pink parts. I tried once, but it's not right. This soap is made by TDC Candles, Bath and Body and not my me. Is it wrong to try to impersonate someone else's soap? If so, I will remove this post, but the challenge will unfortunately remain in my mind.

http://www.thisnext.com/item/6000FF08/7EACC1A8/Pink-Sugar-Cold-Process-Soap

 

[seven]

I think the batter was really really thin. Notice how smooth the top is? If it got thicker just by a tiny bit, you'll start to get textures when you swirl.

I personally don't think it's wrong what you wanted to do. It's called being inspired plus, at the end, you'll be adding your own personal touches, so the end product won't be totally the same.

that soap is beautiful btw! I'm still trying to figure it out how she did it.

 

[newbie]

What's got me about this soap are the variations in the browns which are very gradual. There's the cream streak and the brown base but the brown in the base color changes in the nooks and crannies of the swirls. How they kept the pink like it is, I get. But how did they get that kind of gradation within the one color? And it almost looks like the swirls are edged or outlined. That's what I want to know.

I also like the graininess of the brown contrasted with the smoothness of the pink. How did they get that in there, what did they use and how did they get it to change from place to place without it being swirl?

 

[neeners]

*drops jaw* my small brain can't even begin to comprehend how to begin tackling this swirl. mind. blown.

 

[Tienne]

I can't see the harm in emulating a beautiful soap design someone else made. We soapers do that all the time and call it inspiration! You've also linked back to the original, so if anything, you're giving them free advertizing and praise. That can't ever be wrong, IMO.

But wowzy, that soap sure is a challenge! Here are my first impressions and ideas. (Which are subject to change after I sleep on it. LOL)

It looks like a slab soap. (I would make a dark base.) I would pour that first. Then there's the two-toned appearance and the way the swirls and the pink parts are sort of surrounded by something lighter. To try and replicate that, I would sieve some lighter coloured (maybe gold or nude) mica powder in patches over the base. Then I would thinly drizzle some lighter coloured soap over the surface. Then I would drop some pink through it all into the soap (which would pull some of the light mica powder and lighter soap down into the soap (and at the same time it would surround the pink and the lighter soap) and then I would chopstick swirl it the whole depth of the soap.

Great challenge, Newbie!!

What have you tried so far? What worked and what didn't?

 

[newbie]

I agree that this is a slab soap. It's made with frankincense and myrrh FO so that is the creator of the brown and that's how the pink spots have the slight browning of their edge.. It's difficult to see the sides but my impression is that the graininess goes through the bar, which eliminates the sprinkling of the mica on top as a technique. I agree the pink is dropped in and swirled through and around. I'm feeling pretty certain the base, both cream and brown, are made with TD, which gives them the opaque look and the pink is just colored with a pink mica or liquid color. DIfferent amounts of TD to give the lighter and darker brown. What is the graininess and how does it get graded??? I recently had an idea that I am going to try right now.

My attempt was not good in that there is no graininess and no variation in the brown base. It's all one color. I used a recipe with a lot of hard oils and even after gel, it doesn't have the right translucency in the pink, which I think is a recipe issue, as I've had that look in other soaps from a different recipe. It's not nearly as sophisticated as this soap.

 

[Tienne]

Are you sure the graininess goes through the entire soap? I'm not. It is a little hard to see the sides of the soap, but from what is visible, it looks to me like especially towards the bottom, the colour is more of a uniform brown. (Zoom in on especially the second and third soap.) Sometimes some colouring and patterning does get dragged down the sides when cutting slabs, but to me it does look like there's a fairly sharp demarkation between the lighter potentially dusted top, (the corner edge) and the darker side of the soap. I wouldn't rule out mica dusting.

 

[newbie]

How do you zoom in? I see what you mean but I also think I see graininess in spots along the sides even deeper in that bar. The way the pink is cut through makes me think it's not cut by a divider so there isn't as much drag down the sides that you might see with a divider. I do see the kind of crusty look to the top in esp the second bar. Hmmm.

 

[Tienne]

This picture isn't the greatest to zoom in on, coz it's a low quality pic, so it gets a little too pixelated, but I just right click and download the pic to my desktop and then zoom in using the built in Windows Photo Viewer. There are probably photo programs or such that do a much better job, but that's just what I had on hand. With this pic, the high pixelation in itself gives the pic a grainy look and that's not helpful, either.

 

[AnnaMarie]

I'm going to try this one as well as Tienne's challenge. I'll get back to you on the result
Cheers!
Anna Marie

 

[AnnaMarie]

If I had to take a guess....I would say there is some drop swirl going on here. I'm also wondering if something like a small comb or multi-prong stick was used to swirl given the looks of those swirls. I think I'll start looking around at swirling stick ideas
Cheers!
Anna Marie

 

[DeeAnna]

I'm an utter swirl newbie, but I can mess with photos a bit. Does this blowup help? It's grainy due to being blown up about 2x the original size. I also increased the contrast a bit to enhance the detail, so it looks rougher than it really is. But maybe it'll help Those Who Have A Clue with the technique details.

 

[newbie]

THanks, DeeAnna!

See, I see the graininess down in the bar in #2, which also looks like there is surface texture but in bar #3 (from the front), the bar looks more uniformly brown under the surface, with maybe a bit of texture. Maybe it's combination of surface and in-the-batter texture. I've set my second attempt to gel. We'll see how it turns out.

 

[seven]

i've no idea how to replicate this look but i'll try doing it using my own twist we'll see.. if it ain't too embarassing, i'll post pics...

 

[Obsidian]

I wonder.. Slab mold of course, pour dark base, lightly drop pour medium goldish top layer. Swirl gold mica around on top. Drop in the pale pink, gently swirl edges for wispy look.
I'd think the batter should be poured kinda thin so work fast.

 

[MzMolly65]

*GASP* .. what if it's just a happy accident and even the maker cannot replicate it????????????????? :eh:

(or worse yet, what if it's photo shopped?)

ETA: could it be finely ground coffee that bled colour into uncoloured areas, giving it that gently shaded look?

 

[newbie]

Yep, I thought about the coffee but mine was too course. I also took a look at ground clove but that's too scratchy too. My latest try, which has gelled but I'm waiting for it to brown so I can see what I got, was with apple pie spice in oil that's added to part of just the darker colored batter and lightly mixed in. It doesn't look as elegant as this soap; I think I overswirled and I was too stiff with it. I'll post as soon as the browning part kicks in.

 

[seven]

i think the fo itself plays a part too. pink sugar is notorious for brown discoloring. you can see in some of the pink, there's a light brown ring around. that could be the fo turning.

 

[newbie]

I didn't even come thinking it was one of those lovely errors that they couldn't replicate because I saw this on their page, although the other soap (my error, I said it was F&M but it is indeed Pink Sugar and THIS one is F&M) is far more elegant than this one, IMO. And this one does indeed look like it's got just a surface treatment. The look is similar but not exactly the same as the pink and brown one I like.

I'm still waiting for more browning to see what I got in my latest try. I hope to post tomorrow.

 

[newbie]

Well, here's my second attempt. It's still going brown but I would say I'm not close to there yet.