Materials:
- Olive oil
- Coconut oil
- Palm oil
- Palm Kernel oil
- Lye (I currently get from the hardware store)
- Distilled water
- Silk fiber
- Sodium Lactate
- White Kaolin Clay
- Aqua Pearl Mica
- White Sparkle Mica
- Ultramarine Blue
- Neon Laser Lemon color
- Neon Mango Madness color
- Titanium Dioxide
- Fresh Bamboo fragrance
- Stormy Nights fragrance
- 4x plastic squeeze bottles
- 4 cup measuring cups
- High weight capacity scale (mine is old and can't remember where I got it)
- Pipette (for mica swirl)
- Hair pick, chopstick, and toothpick
- Pyrex bowl
- Make-shift double boiler (see image #3 :)
- Stick blender (ugh, mine is oooolllllldd)
Free Beginner's Guide to Cold Process Soapmaking.
Anyway, let's get started! (Click on any image to make it larger)
1. Here are all my materials gathered. I used 4 different colors: Blue, mango, yellow, and white. | 2. This is my lye cooling in some ice. I added raw silk and white kaolin clay to this mixture. | 3. Here are my oils melting down. I like to use a high olive recipe for this swirl. | 4. Here are all the colors mixed up, fragrance free. |
Both fragrances tout good behavior, but since I want this batch to move very slooooowww, I mixed the fragrance only in the base pour. There should be no discoloring, but I added a little titanium dioxide to the main part anyway and added about 0.7 ounce per pound fragrance. It's a pretty strong scent, so I didn't want to overdo it. Each color bottle is maybe 4-6 ounces of soap. I also like to add oil/mica to the peacock swirl (the little cup with aqua pearl mica from Bramble Berry, and white sparkle mica from Wholesale Supplies Plus), and I did it a little differently this time. Continuing on...
5. Here are all the colors. I was deliberate in my lines because I wanted a certain effect, like a sunset. The lines underneath are more free-hand. Pay no attention to the white blob. You won't see it when I swirl :) | 6. This is the initial pass through the soap. I use a hair pick, and I can pass it three times, but it's too big to do a fourth, so I hand stripe with a chopstick. I moved too fast on the 3rd pass, so it's a little smeared. | 7. Here is a closeup of the first pass. Isn't it purdy? I usually "spot" the mica in the mix, but this time, I striped it with the rest of the colors. I think it did very nicely! |
Here is OURANOS! Named after the Greek god of the sky, and is the father of Cronus (Saturn) and grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter). Part of the planetary series, I used the Greek, rather than the Latin spelling of the name to deter any wise-cracking remarks. :) It is the 7th planet in our solar system, usually depicted as a baby blue color in photos due to the layers of different types of ice in the atmosphere. However, I already had a "blue" planet (see Pluto), and since Ouranos is the ruler of the sky, why not a sky during sunset? Gotta say, think he's my new favorite! |
This is a neat technique, and it never gets old. I hope you enjoyed my picture-fest! Maybe someday I will be able to make a video. Until next time!