Teach Soap

So I was making my 3 colour ITP swirl with peony FO. I mixed the colours, added the soap batter, even stick blended the colours some.... poured the pink into my pot and!!!! My soap in the pot was THICK. So I added the colours and mixed it a couple times with my spatula. Glopped it into my fleur de lis mold (I had nothing else available) and tried to get most of the air bubbles out of the fleurs. So I have nice pink green and white swirls with clumps of uncoloured muck in it Mom says its fine, but still! ARG!!!! Darn little gremlins! STAY OUTTA MY HOUSE!!!! At least I now know that peony FO accelerates like mad!

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

Peony does accelerate for me. I use a whisk and don't swirl. Try bribing the gremlins with cookies and beer.

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

I also learned (thru trial & error) that some colors can accelerate trace. I have a chrome green oxide that I absolutely love, but can't use it for swirls because it always speeds things up.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

Linda, I have used chrome green oxide and never noticed a speed up??? In fact I will be using it either tomorrow or Thursday... but not as a swirl. I will watch close to see if my batter does thicken on me.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

Gremlins foiled!!!! I checked the soap today and it was pulling away from the sides so I decided to flip it and just see if the suction would let go... and it did. Around 30 hours in the hard plastic mold and it is now unmolded! The ITP swirls look AWESOME! Mom really loves her soap! I won't try this with peony again though! Pics are up in the pic thread!

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

Well, you can always save it for your M&P soaps.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

Yep! MP or single colour non-swirled CP. I didn't like the FO so much in the bottle, made me sneeze up a storm, but I really like it in the soap! The best part about batches like this: I learned something new!

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

Heather, after two years I still learn something new with each batch. I am going to do a 12 bar test batch this afternoon.... one of those will be the peony, and a lily. Actually I will be doing 12 different fragrances in all, but no swirls and very few will have color in them. This will allow me to see what the fragrance itself does to my bar of soap. I have not done much florals .... tend to get worried about the excelleration.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

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The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

I read somewhere that floral fragrances really speed up trace. I've avoided them so far - but I only have 4 batches under my belt.

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www.facebook.com/Semplice-Naturals

My jasmine bamboo didn't speed up much, but oh boy the peony did! Going to do a tuberose batch next week once my replacement order gets here. Thinking a darkish pink, solid colour though! The first batch I ordered the tuberose leaked everywhere, my jar had no lid, and my passion fruit pink jojoba spheres came as a white powder! The company has resent the entire order though. I have a lot of trouble with leaky FOs

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

My Tuberose FO accelerates trace. I would use a whisk instead of a stick blender.

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

Good to know! Thanks Irena!

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist