Earth Day Soap (even if it's a day late)

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Ok, before you remind us, we know Earth day was Tuesday (yesterday).  And honestly,  in the long and short of things does it really matter that we're late?  We are all about Mother (Nature) Earth (think we just gave her a middle name), actually she is one of the reasons we are making soap, no chemicals, natural ingredients, home-made etc. 

So in honor of Mother Earth and her "day" we are making a block pour using "earthy" colors of green, greyish blue, and a coppery green, and white, here is what they  looked like after we had mixed the colorants and before we added them to the soap.

The mold we used was the 18 bar wooden mold from www.brambleberry.com

it comes with inserts that help to create even bars (see later picture).  So here goes, first we put a wooden block in the center of the mold, then we begin pouring one color at a time using the 1, 2, 3 Mississippi counting method so that the colors will (hopefully) have a uniform look.

The next few pictures will be progressive shots of the pour as we added colors; you can see how it visually changes the soap.

1 Mississippi,

2 Mississippi

3 Mississippi

Ok, no more Mississippi, you get the general idea.

As the mold filled up the pattern constantly changed, and the soap got thicker and thicker, especially the white, which we had to coax out of the measuring cup towards the end of the pouring.

Once all the soap was poured, we scraped all the remaining soap off the block, then removed it, very, very carefully so we wouldn't mess up the design.

This is what a finished column pour looks like.

We had reserved a little white soap, so using a squirt bottle (think ketchup bottle), we traced white around the edges of the designs. You will see why in the next few pictures.

"K's" favorite part of any soap is when she gets swirl the colors with a skewer.  "A" snatched the skewer from her.  We didn't want to actually "swirl" the colors, but we created a swirl effect using the white that we had piped on with the ketchup bottle. Rather than swirl, we started at the center and pulled the skewer out to the edge of the mold. This makes an amazing design in the soap and makes us feel very artistic.

Per usual, "K" kept finding spots to "swirl", but  "A" kept the skewer out of her reach and we declared the soap finished.

The Earth Day colors are so pretty; here is a close up.

We inserted the plastic dividers into the soap.

Earth Day soap ready to cure. Next picture in 24 hours once it's cured.

We are so happy!  The colors are still great, and the soap smells so good! The last picture is a close up of one of the bars; you can see how the colors layered through the soap.

In honor of Mother Nature....we present Earth Day Soap!