Teach Soap

Hey guys! Okay, so while I'm waiting for my next big supply order to come in from BB, I'm getting totally antsy and decided that I want to use what I've still got to try a swirled batch. Here's what I'm thinking - almond oil, olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil and just a TEENSY bit of shea butter for superfatting.

I was thinking about using Black Amber and Lavender FO in just half of the batch, because it discolors brown (does anyone know how brown, perchance?) and using rose clay for color in the other half. I have a 2 LB wooden loaf mold, and I was just going to pour both halves of the batch up and down the sides of the mold simultaneously and then just drag a skewer through it to make the swirl...I'm HOPING it will give me a nice pink and brown swirl. Fingers crossed.

Does that sound about right, if a bit oversimplified? Does anyone know if there's a better way to swirl a loaf mold? I'm still a total newbie.

Almond oil is considered a "soft" oil. If you use it at a high %, it could make your soap soft and sticky. Add all your oils and butters right up front. Lye at trace is still VERY active and it will take whatever it wants. There is no guarantee that your shea butter will end up as your superfat. I haven't tried this FO, so I don't know how much it will discolor.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I've only made a test batch but it discolored to chocolate brown for me.

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Linda

I learn so much when I can't leave well enough alone!

Never used this FO, but if it colors to dark chocolate brown, I think your pink swirl will be lost. Perhaps you need to separate out a small portion to color pink w/out adding the FO to that portion, so it will actually be pink and not pink-brown.

Thanks so much for your feedback! I'm so glad I checked in here before starting this batch. I made some changes based on you guys' recommendations and changed up the formula a bit. SudsyFun, it's so helpful having an idea what that will discolor to! Thanks! Okay, so for a 594 g batch I used 50% olive oil, 10% almond oil, 10% coconut oil, 25% palm oil and 5% shea butter. I just used water for the lye instead of messing around with any goat's milk this time. At light trace, I separated the batch roughly in half and added 1/2 tsp of rose clay to one part and enough FO to lightly fragrance the entire batch to the other. Then I did a side-by-side pour and dragged a skewer back and forth, side to side, trying to drag the pink into the brown area. Which is actually more like beige for now.

This is what it looked like after half an hour in the fridge:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/99130041@N02/9323671059/

Hopefully that picture works, still trying to figure out how the forum works (update: I don't know how the forum works, so I just left a link). Fingers crossed! I don't think the swirl on these is going to turn out quite like I had hoped, but I'm definitely curious to cut into it!

Have you cut it yet? How did it turn out?

Okay, so I cut it and I'm pretty pleased with the results! It didn't quite swirl, but it did look pretty neat on the bottom and I think the pattern is pretty! Makes me wish I had scented it like baked goods, though, because it looks like it should smell like strawberry and vanilla - the whole thing makes me want to try a neopolitan bar. Here are a few pics of the cut bars - I didn't get a great photo of it, but the top turned out a pretty dark brown while the inside is still cream colored, for now.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/99130041@N02/9339883618/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/99130041@N02/9337102815/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/99130041@N02/9339892440/