#butterflyswirl #coldprocesssoap #lemongrassandorangevalencia #sunnybutterfly
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Wednesday we made our 10th attempt to create the perfect butterfly swirl in our soap. We just aren't seeing the butterfly that we want. There are some gorgeous swirls and patterns, though!
This blog post will mostly be in photo format, so scroll through and enjoy. Let us know what you think.
We started out today with our fragrance. We knew we wanted to use essential oils, so Alison picked two that she wanted to combine - Lemongrass and Orange Valencia. Such a fresh and sunny aroma!
With that fragrance wafting around the kitchen, we selected colors designed to represent the sunshine in the wings of a butterfly. We chose green as the darker contrast color.
Shown above are the colors: (Top L to R) Fizzy Lemonade with Icicle Mica, Enchanted Forest Mica, and Titanium Dioxide with Icicle Mica; (Bottom L to R) Tangerine Wow with Icicle Mica and 24 Karat Gold Mica.
Above are the colors after we mixed them with safflower oil.
The orange essential oil has a very orange color to it. It changes the color of the soap batter. By the way, the batter is from a recipe we call Old Faithful - no new recipes today.
We knew that the color would change, though (from experience), so we had planned ahead. We wanted some white in our swirls, so we poured some of the batter into the TD/mica colorant before we added the essential oils. Boy oh boy! Aren't we smart?
We mixed to a light trace - okay it was a little thicker than light, but it wasn't as thick as we usually make it when we aren't trying to do a fancy swirl.
We poured about a cup of batter into each of the colors. Yes, Alison realized that used yellow colorant in batter that was already yellow. She was going for a variety of shades.
We poured most of the base batter into the log mold,
then we added the different colors in no particular order or pattern.
We poured from high above the mold
so the colors would go down into the batter
and not just lie on top.
Once the colors were all added, reserving just a bit for the top of the soap,
Alison used the hanger tool to swirl the colors and create what we hoped would look like a butterfly when we put two soaps together.
We topped the batter with the last of the base color and smoothed it out evenly.
Then we added the last of each of the colors.
Alison used a wooden skewer to swirl the colors into a pretty design on top of the soap.
We put the log mold into the curing box for 24 hours.
Thursday, January 22, 2015
This is the soap just out of the mold. Honestly, we couldn't wait 24 whole hours to cut it. It was still a little soft, but not too soft.
See the swirls on the end?
We looked for a butterfly in the mirror images we created when we put two bars of soap together.
Do you see butterflies?
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The Sunny Butterfly soap will be cured and ready to go on March 4.
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