Saturday, September 1, 2012

Swirls and Layers

Well after my little experience with the failed "Gardenia Swirl Soap" I decided to give it another go with a much "safer" fragrance oil!  In comes Coconut Fragrance Oil :o)

I must say that when I opened up the bottle it took me back to childhood summer memories.  We used to smear on this sunscreen oil (ah...yeah...maybe not sunscreen but more like tanning oil) and it had this wonderful scent of coconut.  I closed my eyes and I remembered the beach, waves and hot sunny days!  So I was pretty excited about making this soap. 

This time I tried something different. I mixed the fragrance with my oils first instead of adding it to the soap mix before pouring.  I think it worked!...or this fragrance oil is a little more forgiving and it allows you to play a bit.  But I must say I am very pleased with my second attempt at swirls.  Here is a pic:


I was a little disappointed that the coconut fragrance faded a bit...but oh well.  Maybe next time I will increase the amount.

Since I was feeling pretty happy with my swirly soap I decided to try my hand at the next challenge!!!  Gradient Coloring! 

I tried it once but sadly the Goats Milk got to the chocolate layers and instead of different chocolate color layers they all blended into one dark chocolate shade.  The milk in the soap tends to darken colors, plus the vanilla fragrance oil that I added to it also made it darken as well.  This time around I decided to go with blue and tried Pure Rain fragrance oil.  Here are my results :



Not bad I must say for my second attempt!  :o)
I really like how the blue turned out and the white on the top with the textured top looks pretty good.  I did have a little bit of a panic at one point when my soap started to thicken up.  I thought the fragrance was once again going to turn hard on me but it actually worked really well with the layering and the texture top :o)

I do need to work on my cutting skills.  My little pencil line (which I made with Cocoa powder) it's a little messy :o(

But not bad :o)... a nice clean soap bar.  Even my hubby was impressed!

So my next project will be a Coconut Milk bar.  Wish me luck!


 
 
 
 
 






 
 

5 comments:

  1. Both soaps are gorgeous, Roxana! I love the swirls in the coconut soap. And your gradient layers are stunning! I'm planning to make a blue-to-white gradient soap using Fresh Snow FO for the holidays. I love the pencil line, too. You mentioned having a problem cutting it - did you cut from top to bottom? If you cut the soap on its side instead, the pencil line won't drag through the soap. (Remember to wipe your blade in between cuts, too.) Good luck on the coconut milk soap - can't wait to see it!

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  2. I have yet to find a coconut fragrance oil which does not fade after curing. I do love your blue Pure Rain soap, it is wonderful looking. I have a give away going on right now on my blog, you are more than welcome to join along. Happy soaping

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  3. Thank you Paula! I am keeping an eye on the Coconut FO Soap, and so far so good. My only disappointment is that the fragrance has faded somewhat. I'll check out your blog! Thank you for the invitation :)

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  4. That's really interesting about the coconut fragrance fading, I didn't realize they tended to do that. I think they both turned out really great, I especially like the gradient layer, good job Roxana!

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    1. Hi Cee Gee!
      Thanks for your post :o)!
      I am thinking that I may have been too cautious with the amount of fragrance oil that I used. It was about a 2.5 lbs soap mix and I added only 1.58 oz (I used Brambleberry's Fragrance Calculator to figure it out). Maybe next time I will go up a notch :)

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