Listen, (do wah do) do you want to know a secret?

Rebatched Lily of the Valley and Secret Feather Swirl (to be named later)

Monday November 10, 2014

Ok, we're using a play on words, words from the immortal Beatles...do you want to know a secret, do wah do.

Alison was in the hot seat today and attempted (and succeeded) a technique called the "secret feather swirl." (hence the play on words)  As I write this we haven't seen the finished product and who knows, once we see it we may decide the whole batch should remain a secret.  We hope not but when making soap, you never know.

Side note, while Alison was secretly feather swirling, Kathy rebatched the Lily of the Valley soap.  We made the batch back in the spring and the scent was never strong, consequently it never sold.  Hopefully rebatching and adding several ounces of additional scent will do the trick, pictures of this venture will be posted below Alison's batch.

And now, our version of the "secret feather swirl"

First order of business is choosing a scent. Today Palm Island was the lucky one.   +Natures Garden describes it as "a rejuvenating medley of sweet orange blossoms, yuzu, and kumquat; followed by middle notes of juniper, Mediterranean fan palm, and rosemary; and creates complete ecstasy with base notes of fresh sandalwood and Tahitian vanilla beans."  What more could a scent need?

Alison decided on 5 colors you might see in a tropical sunrise. 

We used 1/2 tsp. each of Tangerine Wow and Ultramarine Pink   (both from +Bramble Berry), and to both we added 1/4 tsp. Diamond Dust Mica (from +Natures Garden.

We've found adding the sparkle gives the finished soap a nice look, plus it makes the oxides easier to mix into the oil.

To the Fizzy Lemonade we added Light Gold Mica (both from +Bramble Berry), 

again to give it sparkle and depth.

The Blushed Pink Mica from www.rusticescentuals.com and the Amethyst Purple Mica 

from +Bramble Berry both come with sparkle in them.

Using oil from what was measured out for the recipe, we added the colorants and sparkle micas.  The bowl at top left has Titanium Dioxide (TD), which we will add to the base batter once it's mixed.

Here are the colors mixed in 1 TBSP of oil each.

Top row L-R Amethyst Purple, Blushed Pink, and TD

Bottom row Fizzy Lemonade, Tangerine Wow, and Ultramarine Pink

Once the batter got to light trace we mixed in the TD. You can see the difference in colors before it was completely mixed in.  We also added silk to this batch of soap, dissolving it in the lye/water mixture. 

Next we added the Palm Island FO to the batter. This is the point of no return, and we have to work fast from here on.

Alison poured about a cup of batter into 5 different cups.

Each cup got one of the 5 colors, and we mixed thoroughly.

We had already divided the log mold into 3 sections.  First, we added uncolored batter to all three sections, then we layered the different colors in only the center section.

Amethyst Purple

Blushed Pink

Tangerine Wow

Fizzy Lemonade.....you get the idea.

At some point we had an AH HA Eeeeek moment when we realized that the center compartment was slowly working it's way toward the sides of the mold due to the pressure from batter in the middle section. So we pushed and prodded and madly added white batter to the side compartments until all three were fairly even again.

Once all three sections were pretty full Alison carefully removed the dividers, scraping off the batter as she went.

This is what the soap looked like with both dividers removed.  Colored batter is in the center, and white batter is on each side. Notice we have about an inch left until we hit the top edge of the mold.

First things first, Alison inserted the hanger in the middle of the center section and pushed straight down until she hit the bottom of the mold.  Once she hit the bottom, she slid the hanger to the side, then carefully kept it pressed to the side while pulling it out of the batter.

We covered the sloppy remains of the hanger swirling with a layer of white batter.

Next, we dolloped all the remaining batter onto the top of the mold. 

We started with Blushed Pink.  

no rhyme or reason, just good coverage and use of all the remaining batter.

After tamping the mold several times (trying to get rid of air bubbles) all the little blobs of batter flattened out.  This made no difference as very shortly Alison went into super swirl mode x3!

Here is the first swirl. 

Then Alison noticed that some of the batter had squished out onto the side of the mold.  So, she scraped it back over inside the mold, but it changed the look of her swirl.  She decided to swirl it again and incorporate the bits that she had just scraped back in.

And here is after she swirled it again. Lovely isn't it? So artistic and sunrise-ish.

Now for the third swirl...we had held back about 1/4 tsp. each of the colors when mixed with the oils in almost their purest form.

Alison dribbed and drabbed just a bit of the micas/oils onto the top of the batter. The colors really pop against the pastel batter.

Here all the dribbing and drabbing is done and all remaining (pure) colorant is on the top.

And here is the final swirl. 

Alison did lazy "S" swirls all over the top of the batter.  She was careful to only swirl the micas and not dig down into the soap itself.  Isn't it pretty? We really like the look of this, and more than likely we will use this technique a time or twenty more.

We put the soap in the curing room for 24 hours and will cut it on Tuesday.

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Tuesday update! Alison's secret feather swirl is no longer a secret!!

Here is what the "24 hr cured" soap looked like just prior to being cut.

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Now we return to the rest of our Monday activities

A quick trip to the land of rebatching, - kind of dull after all the excitement of the "secret feather swirl."

As I mentioned earlier, this rebatch is the Lily of the Valley soap we made on June 5th, but this time we will add more scent and hope that it sticks with the soap.

Here is the original Lily of the Valley, it was really pretty, just not much scent, and we know....it's all about the scent!

I cut the bars up dividing them,  part was white and the other had green in the pieces. 

The ingredients didn't change, we added a bit of distilled water and the extra scent.

The Lily of the Valley EO comes from +Lebermuth Co, it is distilled from the Lily of the Valley flowers.

Using my Cusinart I ground up the white pieces using the "fine" grating disc.  The smaller the grated flakes the easier it is to melt.

I wound up with 3.25 pounds of white soap flakes.

I placed the white flakes in a Turkey roasting bag (water and heat proof).  I will grate up the green pieces separately.

I had considerably less of the green flakes, approximately 1.25 pounds.

I heated the green flakes in the crock pot, set on low, it took about 1-1/2 hours and I had to add distilled water several times, it was very dry.

Once the two batches of flakes were heated enough to melt, I added the extra 2 ounces of Lily of the Valley EO.

This is what the green flakes looked like when "cooked." It's kind of disgusting to look at here, but it smelled very, very nice.

Alison helped me squirt the white batter through a hole I'd cut in the roasting bag. The idea is an in the pot swirl.

I was able to completely fill up a 10" silicone mold and had enough left over

to partially fill this small butterfly, flower, and heart mold.

Tuesday update, you've seen the secret feather swirl, now for the finished,  dull, uninteresting, Lily of the Valley rebatch soap.

I'm not trying to feel sorry about the green, dull soap, but after the fantastic looking secret feather swirl.....well I'm being honest!

Here the soap is after resting overnight, remember this is a rebatch of cured soap so all we have to do is let it harden a little and it's ready to use.

Here are the cut pieces, the soap smells so nice, very much like a blooming lily of the valley blossom.

Here are a few of the smaller soaps from the silicone mold, they are a great size for guest soap.

And here, once again is the Lily of the Valley rebatch next to the 

Palm Island secret feather swirl.