ugly swirling after major seizing (pics)

[Hazel]

Elly -

I think your soap looks beautiful, too. I'm swirl challenged and I love looking at other people's examples. I don't remember who said it but I have to agree - we are our own worst critics.

Ya, I get that result with florals and spices soaping at 33%. With Fleurs d'Oranger even with full water it's still exciting getting that into the molds. That one I don't mess with at all - no color or special effects. I'm just glad if it's smooth in the mold!

BakingNana -

I love your attitude and your comment made me laugh. Only you would view a difficult possibly pain in the butt activity as excitement.

 

[ewenique]

Sometimes mistakes turn out better than the original idea. You soap looks amazing!

 

[BakingNana]

Elly -

I think your soap looks beautiful, too. I'm swirl challenged and I love looking at other people's examples. I don't remember who said it but I have to agree - we are our own worst critics.

Ya, I get that result with florals and spices soaping at 33%. With Fleurs d'Oranger even with full water it's still exciting getting that into the molds. That one I don't mess with at all - no color or special effects. I'm just glad if it's smooth in the mold!

BakingNana -

I love your attitude and your comment made me laugh. Only you would view a difficult possibly pain in the butt activity as excitement.

Ya, it's amazing what I find exciting these days!

 

[Elly]

Not only am I swirl challenged I even manage to mess up plain no additives soaps. So true Hazel we are our own worst critics specially me, no soap I have ever made is good enough I always find faults, its a nasty habit of mine, but I am working on it. I keep on making soaps expecting that the next one will be the perfect one but it never happens, then I end up with tones of soap to last me a lifetime. But I love making soaps it is a lot of fun specially the next day unmolding your master piece!!!

 

[Hazel]

I'm this way, too. I don't feel anything is "good" enough but I'm slowly learning to accept that my soaps/bath products aren't horrible, either.

How did you mess up a no additives soap? I ask because it's info I may need to know to avoid the same problem.

 

[cmd439]

I like it, while it may have been hard on you during the process, the end result is great.

 

[Fyrja]

I think it's pretty!

Some of my favorite things have been happy accidents. Like the time I was making an italian meringue buttercream for a chocolate cake infused with Bailey's Irish Creme.

I got distracted and my syrup mixture got about 10 degrees too hot. What happens with sugar gets too hot? It carmelizes. I added the sugar to my egg whites anyway, beat the crap out of it, and added the butter. What did I get? Italian Meringue buttercream with a light caramel flavor. It was an INSTANT hit, I've ended up re-creating that happy mistake icing for every major holiday since. :-D

 

[Joni342]

I think your soap looks awesome - I'd buy a bar!

 

[Hazel]

Elly -

Have you tried doing a funnel swirl? Somebody said it's easier than regular swirling with a chopstick or skewer (or whatever you use).

I think it's pretty!

Some of my favorite things have been happy accidents. Like the time I was making an italian meringue buttercream for a chocolate cake infused with Bailey's Irish Creme.

I got distracted and my syrup mixture got about 10 degrees too hot. What happens with sugar gets too hot? It carmelizes. I added the sugar to my egg whites anyway, beat the crap out of it, and added the butter. What did I get? Italian Meringue buttercream with a light caramel flavor. It was an INSTANT hit, I've ended up re-creating that happy mistake icing for every major holiday since. :-D

Aaargh! I gained 5 pounds just reading this paragraph. Do you send care packages?

 

[dcornett]

I'm with ToniD, it looks like fudge ripple icecream to me too.

 

[Traceyann]

Can someone please tell me what EO is....im new to all this ....Thanks in advance

 

[Dragonkaz]

EO - essential oils

Welcome Traceyann I'm a newbie also and I've noticed there's a load of abbreviations to learn. I think I saw a topic to read on the subject of abbreviations ... but I've not made it there yet.

 

[Traceyann]

Thanks for that and yes I have noticed the abbreviations , I am just starting to get them lol

 

[Elly]

You guys are so encouraging thank you. Hazel I managed to mess up a plain no additive old soap by forgetting the SF oils which I was supposed to add at trace, soap went into mold when cleaning up I noticed the extra oil I put aside for trace time ... then it had to become a HP soap the next day turning from a beautiful off white smooth soap to a darker not so smooth one because of the HP. I don't really know about the funnel swirl where can I get some info? It would be good to learn an easier more manageable way of swirling, so far it has been pretty challenging, particularly because of the accelerated tracing I've been experiencing lately, don't know what I am doing wrong because my soaps are tracing so fast, it could be that I am discounting too much liquid (at 30%), I mix my soap at very low temp (lukewarm) don't measure it.

 

[Hazel]

How frustrating when you forget something. Thanks for letting me know. I add all my oils in the beginning but I have gotten the soap in the mold, looked over and have seen my FO/EO still sitting on the counter. This the point when I usually scream.

Here's a link to the funnel swirl tutorial. I keep telling myself I'm going to try this one day. There's also been discussions on the forum about it. Use "funnel" as your search term and it will bring up a lot of posts.

http://www.smftutorials.com/how-to-funn ... orial.html

I really don't discount my water much (33%-38%). I think it allows me a little more time to play with colorants. However, I'm not positive that this is the reason. I'm not very experienced at soapmaking.

 

[Elly]

Hazel thanks for the link it looks pretty easy but I bet if the soap has accelerated tracing it wont work, but I'll give it a try. :wink:

 

[Hazel]

Yeah, I didn't think about that. You would have to pour it at a light trace. Good luck! Let us know how it works out. Maybe I'll get around to trying a funnel swirl later this month. (It would have to look better than what my swirls look like now. It certainly can't look any worse. )

 

[AZ Soaper]

Did your coconut cream have any additives? That may be why it traced so fast. I know cinnamon EO can accelarate trace also but none the less the soap is just FAB!!!!!!

 

[Elly]

AZ soaper, No additives besides the coconut cream and cinnamon EO, but I have been told that CC also accelerates trace, so it was double trouble no wonder the soap behaved as it did. Thanks for your comment on the soap, I have grown fond of the look after checking it out almost everyday.

Hazel I had a good attempt at the funnel technique today but soap again traced too quickly for me, I am hopeless. I started mixing the color into the amount of soap for swirling and it took me that long to get all the color to blend in without specs that it traced thick as did the base color soap, what a mess I had spills everywhere trying to hurry mixing the color, then all I had left to do was to pour the thickened soap into the mold as good as I could, stirred the colors with a stick and it is now gelling. Maybe next time will have better luck, I am having problems getting the oxides to mix well into the soap quickly they need the stick blend which makes soap trace rapidly. :?

 

[judymoody]

I have seen people use those little frothers that you use for cappuchino, etc. to mix their oxides and micas in separate cups. There's a video tutorial on youtube (go to the tutorials on this forum and you should find the link). The colorants are premixed - maybe with a little bit of warm water (?) so they are ready to add once you begin mixing your lye and oils. This and other swirling tutorials suggest that you begin work when the soap is just emulsified - so very light trace - almost like light cream. Adding coconut cream or coconut milk will make the soap mixture set up too quickly to get a decent swirl. Ask me how I know! :wink:

I am going to attempt swirling again this weekend. Wish me luck!

p.s. At the top of the introduction section of the forum is a "sticky" that explains the many acronyms. I find it very helpful and still refer to it.