Honeydew Soap Shop: Great Cakes Soapworks Challenge #3.. Mica Oils

Hello folks... This is Challenge #3 at Amy's Great Cakes Soapworks... Mica Oils. If you have missed out on the challenge you can check it out here.

My son and his fiance are getting married next month and I took the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. I am making soap for wedding favors and since I have to make a batch for the challenge I might as well use the colors for the wedding.

I have made several batches of soap already and decided early on that I didn't want all the soaps to be the same style but definitely the same colors. So I am working with purple, green and white.

I have made layers, and faux funnel, and a plop kind of technique so this time I thought I would make an in the pot swirl. I wish I had the foresight to have my camera near while I am soaping to give you all better pictures but I am always afraid I will drop it in my soap batter or get raw soap on my camera. So, the only pictures I have for you are in the mold foe now and cut later.

I had no issues to report on this batch, yet. Everything went as planned. I used the same Bastille recipe (olive oil, coconut oil and castor oil) that I have been using for most of my challenges. I really like the simpleness of it and I truly like the soap afterwards too. I used sodium lactate in my last 2 batches and so far so good.

I had somebody ask me when and how I add my additives and what temp do I soap, etc. Well, I measure and weigh everything in separate containers. I mix up my lye and water first so that can be cooling off while I get everything else ready. I poured a small amount of water out into a small cup before I added the lye so I can use the water to disperse my titanium dioxide. Next, if I am using my wooden mold I line it and put it aside so it is ready too. Then I melt the coconut oil and add that and my castor oil to the olive oil and give it a quick buzz with my stick blender. Then I pour off a small amount of my oil to mix my colors in and put that aside.

While my oils and lye are dropping to room temp I prepare the colors. I mixed about 1 heaping tsp of the purple cosmo mica in the reserved oil in a small cup. If I were using a dry colorant for the green I would do the same for that one. But I have a premixed green oxide that I used this time. I then added 2 heaping tsp of TD to the water in the cup that I reserved. I also mixed a tsp each of purple cosmo and super pearly white in a bit of sweet almond oil to drizzle on top.

Once my lye mixture and oils are room temp (77 F today) I then add my FO to the oils in the big pot and give it a quick blend with my stick blender so everything is incorporated. I add the sodium lactate to the lye mixture and give it a stir and then add the lye mix to my oils. I alternate stick blending and stirring with a spoon until I know it is all incorporated. It took several minutes to get it to a very light trace. I then poured off some batter into 2 measuring/mixing cups for my colors. Then I added the water/TD mixture to the large portion still in the bucket. Once I know that is well mixed with my stick blender I mix up the other colors the same way.

Now that all my soap batter is colored the way I want it to I pour back the green and purple into the white to do an in the pot swirl. I save a bit of the colored soap to add to the top. The trick to this technique is to not have your soap too thin that it makes mud but not too thick that it doesn't pour or mix easily.

So then I I just pour it into my mold and let it do it's own swirling. I drizzle the remainder of the purple and green and make a bit of texture on top so the mica oil has some peaks and valleys to ooze around on. Once I have dripped the mica oils the way I want I do a little swirly with a skewer and that's it.

Put it to bed until tomorrow :)

The FO I used in this batch is called Mardi Gras from Natures Garden. It's very nice and it soaps like a dream. Natures Garden is one of my favorite places to buy FO. They test all of them before they sell them to us and they post the findings on their website. If it changes colors, rices, accelerates, or seizes they will tell you. If the scent morphs or fades, they will also tell you.

Ok... so on to some pictures :)