February 2017 SMF Soap Challenge- Ebru Soaps

If you try low water, make certain you use the best behaving FO you have.

In spite of my own advice, I recently tried low water with Moroccan Fig FO (a notorious accelerator) both added later and then mixed in with oils. It was frustratingly slow and in fact, I had to stick blend it a bunch. I didn't use a full 1 ounce ppo but still... In one batch, I kept adding more to try to get the soap to trace and it took forever. I don't know if I will ever get away with that again. More mysteries of the soap.

Saponista and newbie, thanks for bringing up low water because it perplexes me. Back in November I did an Auntie Clara Ghost Swirl soap using 45% and 30% lye concentrations. What astounded me was that the 45% low water portion took forever to reach trace and it stayed fluid for quite some time. It flew in the face of what I *thought* would happen and also contradicted advice I often see to use more water in a recipe for fluidity. Since then, I've played around quite a bit with water amounts and find I now soap in the 36%-40% lye concentration range for the very reason that soap batter seems to stay more fluid longer. My only explanation is that the batter is, well, "oilier." I know, not particularly scientific...

After the Ghost Swirl soap I started digging around here on SMF and came across a thread that discussed it. If I recall correctly, there was some discussion about how it might work better with some recipe formulations over others. My recipes are generally high in soft oils (60%+).

However. Along the vein of the mysteries of soaping (ala newbie's Moroccan Fig FO), for the soap I just made for the Ebru challenge I used the exact same recipe with 40% lye concentration as the bee soap. The bee soap was extremely fluid, almost too much so. I thought the idea for the new soap would work well with such fluidity, but... wouldn't you know, the batter started to thicken on me MUCH faster! I was, however, using a different farmer's beef fat this time. Aaaaah, mysteries of the soap is right!

I have had similar experiences. Same recipe, same FO and low water. One time it was fluid and the next time, it thickened quickly. I am wondering if the temperature of the oils and lye plays a fair role. I go by the feel by hand so it could be that the difference in temperature from batch to batch plays a role bigger than I would have guessed.

The low water phenomenon seems counterintuitive in many ways but boy, can batter stay open to work with for a loooooooong time. I also think the colors are more defined in relation to one another as well and the distinction between them is crisper. It takes a lot of patience to wait for trace though.

Newby
Your soap is beautiful!

I just love the bee soap! It is adorable! I appreciate your understanding HowieRoll. Like I told you, and I want everyone else to know, we try our best to keep in the confines of the rules we put forth. We, personally, have been in situations where rules are not enforced, and it was extremely frustrating. It was especially frustrating to us that were new soapers wanting to participate in something bigger and who wanted to be envolved in a soapy community.


That is why we hosts sometimes end up picking apart our rules to make sure everything fits within them. It is also why we scrutinize our rules down to the letter, and we always appreciate it when participants come to us concerned whether or not their soap qualifies.

As I told you before, I sincerely appreciate your understanding, I appreciate you coming to me immediately, and I hope the rest of the community that participates understands as well.

NOW
Onto the idea of low water...


Both of my challenge soaps were made with 40% lye concentration. I rarely, and I mean rarely, use higher water. I have grown to loathe higher water, in fact.

In lieu of the aforementioned fragrances that work in low water, I did a search for an old thread newbie and I posted on with good low water fragrances. I found the thread and copied our responses. Here are some good low water fragrances we recommended (for those interested).

For those unfamiliar with company acronyms, bb is brambleberry, wsp wholesale supplies plus, mo mad oils, fb fragrance buddy, ot Oregon trail soap supplies, ng natures garden etc...

Lionprincess quote-*


I like bb neroli Shea blossom, kumquat, lychee red tea I think it is, Summer fling A on me in low water, fresh snow behaves very well (if you like it, newbie can't stand it...love hate thing), BlackBerry sage went well, moonlight pomegranate clumps a little (ricing) and A, but smells good, champagne behaves, tobacco bay leaf though I don't think I used low water on it, i was able to do a butterfly swirl so behaves enough for that. Lavender forest is perfect.


OT fragrances in low water that behave, green Irish tweed, silver mountain water, but not made to measure, it says on the site it's a pale cream, no, it's a D to rich milk chocolate and A. Mysore sandalwood is supurb in low water.*


Fragrance buddy black cedarwood and juniper behaved well in low water, patchouli passion too.

Looking at my notes from previous soaps, here are more suggestions...
Almond from rustic escentuals worked in 40% lye, toffee sugar crunch from daystar, pomegranate black currant (from bb i think, can NOT remember, newbie would probably know) blended with earl grey from mad oils, black amber musk from wsp, oakmoss sandalwood did ok from wsp, be delicious blossom wsp, the perfect man from ng...

Several of those did happened to discolor unfortunately, but they did work in low water.

NEWBIES QUOTE (from the old thread)
I can tell you that Champagne, Blackberry Sage, Lemongrass, and Kumquat work well. Most Sandalwoods and straight Patchoulis work well. I think Espresso works well in low water.


(I *think* these are predominantly bb fos, but I am not certain.)

Newbie, that soap is gorgeous!!! wow! I love the colors and the heart shapes.

Thanks for the nice words!

I like using low water as well but don't use it exclusively in part for Fo reasons and in part because I don't always have the time to wait for it to come to trace. i need to refine how much you can SB before separating for coloring so I'm closer to trace by that time. It rocks for swirling though, I must say.

Another home run newbie! Your entry is outstanding.

I am still hoping to have a try at this. We just returned from traveling. I got sick while we were gone, and am still. And then there is all the life stuff that needs to be caught up on, so I guess we'll see if I can squeak out a try.

Wow, newbie, that soap is spectacular! The colors are very rich looking and the level of detail in the close-up is amazing. Just wow!

Thank you! Where are all the other entries, though?? I'm lonely sitting there all by myself.

Well, I am waiting for my oils to arrive... will do another one and decide which one I like the most..

I am dying to see more entries as well.

All who signed up, feel free to post more pictures of your non entry soaps on this thread

I'D LIKE TO MAKE AN ANNOUNCEMENT-

For your entry photos, I do need one picture with the swirl tool you used, however, I will upload your best picture to the survey. So if you want one close up along with the pic showing your tool (like newbie did), I will use the best and clearest picture for the actual survey.

lionprincess00 said:

I'D LIKE TO MAKE AN ANNOUNCEMENT-

For your entry photos, I do need one picture with the swirl tool you used, however, I will upload your best picture to the survey. So if you want one close up along with the pic showing your tool (like newbie did), I will use the best and clearest picture for the actual survey.

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Thank you! The picture with the tool is not a great one for mine, but one of the close-ups shows it nicely. I'll be posting them tonight.

Working on my next batch today. Lined a boot box to use as the slab mold. The smaller 'slab' substitute didn't give me enough room for design, IMO. But I don't want a lot of extra soap, either. So the bottom layer is going to be confetti, then layer of plain batter so confetti doesn't show through to the top, then the ebru. Hope it works out.

Just waiting for my micas to arrive! I'm feeling very indecisive on what kind of design I want to try. I much prefer the look of the straight patterns as opposed to the birds and flowers and such. But I'm worried that just a pattern won't turn out ebru-y enough... hmmmmm.

newbie said:

Thank you! Where are all the other entries, though?? I'm lonely sitting there all by myself.

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But your soap is so beautiful to look at! I'm in a quandary, because I really like the concept of the soap I made, but the execution needs a lot more practice and the one I made is a bit of an abomination. So either I carve out time to try again or everyone will just have to view the one that didn't quite work out right. And squint. That seems to help.

I'm waiting to see if I have time to make another batch. I like my first batch but it's in individual molds and I'd get a different swirl with a different mold

Howie, how about one of those soft romantic type filters? Or you can post a huge note: PLEASE DO NOT VIEW WITHOUT SQUINTING.

newbie said:

mx6- I love your flowers. They look just like petunias to me!

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Sorry Newbie, I just saw this! Thanks so much I was actually happy with the flowers, but the also ebru pattern under them just didn't turn out as I wanted. That just gave me extra incentive for the 2nd attempt tho!