Any thoughts as to why I may have gotten this halo effect around my embed?
What’s with the halo?
- Thread starter KiwiMoose
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No clue, but if you figure out how to do it again, please share - it looks great!
Peachy Clean Soap
Well-Known Member
Not a clue' But you may half to claim & name your signature Design' That looks awesome! 
I think I remember seeing something about this on auntie Clara's blog a while back... Although I might be confusing it with something else 
How recently did you make the embeds?
Edit:
found it: Intentional Crop Circles: Water Discount As A Design Tool
So I guess the theory would be that the embeds kept the soap in their immediate vicinity from gelling by being slightly cooler?
How recently did you make the embeds?
Edit:
found it: Intentional Crop Circles: Water Discount As A Design Tool
So I guess the theory would be that the embeds kept the soap in their immediate vicinity from gelling by being slightly cooler?
Oh that makes perfect sense Tara! Yes the embed was made two days ago.I think I remember seeing something about this on auntie Clara's blog a while back... Although I might be confusing it with something else
How recently did you make the embeds?
Edit:
found it: Intentional Crop Circles: Water Discount As A Design Tool
So I guess the theory would be that the embeds kept the soap in their immediate vicinity from gelling by being slightly cooler?
When I made this soap yesterday it didn't appear to have gelled ( slow moving FO) after 5 hours in a warm oven, so I turned the oven back on to 60 celsius to warm up, then checked the soap after an hour or so and it was gelling then. In the meantime of course - the soap nearest the embed would have had time to harden and stay cool enough to create the halo.
It’s beautiful!
I’m pleased you all like it. I thought it looked a bit odd.
What is interesting about this is that the ring is so much lighter. The soap I made for the SMF diagonal cut challenge had a light line along the cut of the striped soap (which was made first, like your embed) and where the new soap started. I like the effect, and given your result as well, there must be something in the combination of premade soap, new soap and gelling that creates it. My result wasn't as striking as yours is. It might be the way it photographs, but it almost looks like your ring is glowing. Auntie Clara's soap was all made at the same time rather than using embeds. She used differing water amounts to create the crop circles - like a ghost swirl with color. I'd have to go back and look to see if my two halves had different water amounts, but I don't think they did.
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violets2217
Well-Known Member
@TashaBird didn't you have this problem with one of your soaps with embeds?
gladysjones
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ResolvableOwl
Notorious Lyear
FWIW, enough pointers in the room that it's no longer a pure mystery. The effect reminds me a bit of some odd observations I had with antioxidants (red palm oil) interfering with the fir green of chorogenic-coloured soaps (sunflower, yerba mate). At some time I have to challenge reproducibility, and wrap this up into a presentable form.
That’s beautiful Dibbles! Did you win?
My one used the same recipe for both parts, so it’s not that.
ETA: My son said, "mum I'll tell you what annoys me though - it's not centred. I can't unsee it."
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Own that design, @KiwiMoose! You gotta totally claim it and say you did it on purpose! It's an awesome effect.
What reminded me was I had been reading through the set of posts where she was experimenting with these effects, I believe she concluded that it was caused by a temperature differential both in the embed case and with the different water amounts.
I recognise that embed shape - got one from wicked lee as well but been too lazy to use it yet. It worked well If a little unusual around the edge.
What colorant did you use for the pink?
So what I think is possibly happening is either water migration or color migration or a combination of both, since the color would probably migrate with the water.
I have seen color migration in soap with red oxide being the most profound migrant in my experience.
I used micas. I don't think it would be migration because it wouldn't migrate away from something would it? It would migrate into it? There was no white batter anywhere to be seen when I poured - just the embed ( pastel teal) and two shades of pink for the main batter.
ResolvableOwl
Notorious Lyear
I tend to second this, just out of the reason of entropy, the principle of nature tending towards disorder and mess.
On the other hand, @Tara_H has pointed to Auntie Clara and her stunning glycerin river experiments, where she saw exactly the opposite: contraction of regions with mineral pigmentation during gel stage, that formed large, essentially de-pigmented pockets of soap at the interface between two regions of different soaps. It seems that, when glycerin rivers come into play, natural laws tend to become apparently unreliable at times.
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