Soaps and Swirls

I decided to finally use my log mold once and for all! It;s been sitting there waiting for me to have the courage to actually make enough soap to fill it! And I finally did! This is what came out... Not exactly what I had in mind, but quite decent all the same...

So, I decided to perfect a recipe I had tried and I amtesting at the moment. The original one had oats and even though soothing, I find it slightly, if not quite, exfoaliting. but I liked the bubbles and the texture of the soap, so tried to go for that.

I followed this recipe that I created:

Olive Oil 40%

Cocoa Butter 12%

Coconut Oil 18%

Almond Oil 5%

Grapeseed Oil 3%

Castor Oil 5%

Shea Butter 17%

Using the Soap Calculator I got good number on hardness (a bit usual than the other soaps I've made) and a bit lower on conditioning which it's something I was looking for. I still would like to reduce the number of oils to make soap in a more cost-effective way.

I was planning to do two main layers and do some "in-the-pot" swirls with blues on one side and pink and purple on the other. My problem, or which always seems to be my cross, is that I reach trace very (VERY!) fast... just a few bursts with the stick blender and there we are.... Adding mica and fragance speed trace even more, and leaving it there ont he top even for 2 minutes... everything seems to make my trace thicken very quickly! I was still able to make some kinda swirl, but it was like playing with slime! The result is so much better than anything I would have imagined!!!! * Since it was a very thick paste, you can see some air bubbles. Once cut is not a big deal.

My final bars now to cure for 4 weeks!

Oh! As you can see there is a thin darker line betweekn both colors, I did that with some dark golden mica that I also used to decorate the top of the soap. Feels quite lush!

I used the "avocado and cucumber" fragance and it's quite fresh.