SMF Soap Challenge -July 2017 Mermaid Tail Soaps

[Kittish]

jewels621, is that swizzle stick what you used to form the scales? Great idea, if so.

Beautiful entries for the challenge.

 

[galaxyMLP]

Please remember that the thread for this challenge will close tomorrow about 24 hours from now. I'll try to post the survey link as soon after that as I can.

I will do my best to post a reminder on the thread one hour before close!

Great job so far everyone, really gorgeous soaps!

 

[SunRiseArts]

Alright, I will post mine, but do not laugh ..... :cry:

 

[Kittish]

SRA, your soap is lovely! The only thing that I see is you maybe needed a slightly thicker batter for the scales, but that was a recurring problem for lots of people, me included. Most of the time we seem to struggle to keep our soaps from thickening up too much.

 

[penelopejane]

Alright, I will post mine, but do not laugh ..... :cry:

Very nice and excellent staging for the photos!

 

[jewels621]

jewels621, is that swizzle stick what you used to form the scales? Great idea, if so.

Beautiful entries for the challenge.

Yes....I couldn't make the spoon work with tha small of a mold so I used the swizzle because I could hold it upright and still get the effect. Everything I see now becomes a potential soap tool or mold!

 

[MySoapyHeart]

Wow, I had to click like on ALL THE PICTURES!

They were so lovely all of them, well done!! I really want to try this tecnique soon, but haven`t soaped in 6 weeks because of health issues, so I am soooooooooooo wanting to make soap. Like now >.<

 

[toxikon]

I totally ran out of time, this month has been super busy! Beautiful entries regardless, and it's a technique I'll definitely try eventually.

 

[jewels621]

I totally ran out of time, this month has been super busy! Beautiful entries regardless, and it's a technique I'll definitely try eventually.

It's amazing, to me, how fast a month goes by when you've put your name on a list! I find myself constantly thinking, " Can I get a batch in somewhere here?", or obsessing about the design, or color, or scent, or recipe, or mold.....and then all of a sudden the month is gone.

We'll miss you this month, but I'm sure we'll see your name on next months list, and I hope you find all the soapy time in the world. It's therapy, I tell you, THERAPY!!!!

 

[toxikon]

It's amazing, to me, how fast a month goes by when you've put your name on a list! I find myself constantly thinking, " Can I get a batch in somewhere here?", or obsessing about the design, or color, or scent, or recipe, or mold.....and then all of a sudden the month is gone.

We'll miss you this month, but I'm sure we'll see your name on next months list, and I hope you find all the soapy time in the world. It's therapy, I tell you, THERAPY!!!!

Yes I looove the challenges, they've all been so fun. I totally agree, I kept thinking "Okay, maybe this weekend I'll have time..." then the weekend rolls around and NOPE, busy busy busy.

 

[earlene]

Kittish, it looks like you got your batter to just the right thickness to form your scales. I kept fearing I'd get it too thick and by the time I was done not be able to squeeze the batter out at all.

Wyredgirl, your varigated scales are brilliant. I cannot even imagine coming up with that idea! I've seen it on cupcake frosting soaps, but would not have even thought of it for this challenge. Impressive. And your base swirl is spectacular. The varigated scales really tie in so well with the base swirl.

Soapprentice, your black and white swirl is so beautiful. And the dragon's scales top I want to imagine has the DB fragrance, which I know you couldn't include in the base and stay so white. Now I want to try this with DB FO and some colors I want to darken.

Jewels, gorgeous. Good thinking to use the swizzel stick in the confined space.

SunRiseArts, lovely greens. So how did you get the yellow and the pink in your base color? You mentioned green beans, but I am curious about the other colors.

Well, I made one more attempt and so far (uncut) it looks pretty good to me. I did not CPOP it yesterday because I was afraid to have my scales loose any of their shape, so I just left it out overnight. This morning I stuck it in the warmed oven to see if I can do a CPOP after the fact and in a few hours I will cut it. I used vinegar to encourage a harder bar sooner, so I am hopeful I can get it all cut and cleaned up before the deadline in case I like it better than my first entry. We shall see.

 

[Kittish]

I actually wound up using disposable piping bags to do my scales. I have a big roll of them, but don't use them often for decorating baked stuff. They worked really well, no drippiness from the open ends (though with a thinner batter they probably would drip).

 

[Soapprentice]

...Soapprentice, your black and white swirl is so beautiful. And the dragon's scales top I want to imagine has the DB fragrance, which I know you couldn't include in the base and stay so white. Now I want to try this with DB FO and some colors I want to darken. ...

No, it wasn't Dragon's blood... I could not get it as it's FP is less than 200

 

[earlene]

I made one more attempt, and I think it's probably more perfect in design than my entry. But I like my entry more even if it the scales aren't as uniform and well shaped as this one. The colors are more to my liking overall and the photo quality seems to do it more justice than the one below. One fun fact is that when the soap wears toward the middle, there is another layer of scales there as well, so it'll be fun to see how it looks during use.

So here is my attempt from yesterday. The fragrance is a mix of Lavender EOs and a tiny bit of Tea Tea Oil.

 

[galaxyMLP]

I was going to close the thread in about an hour but there is no way I'll be able to post the entry thread and get the password emails out tonight! I'm super tired! I'll be closing the thread in 8 hours and releasing the survey within the next hour after close.

Please remember that you must have a cut soap and a full soap top picture to be eligible for entry. We have one entry right now that does not meet this criteria. They are missing a cut soap. Please feel free to add the necessary pictures until the close time 8 hours from now. Otherwise, unfortunately, the entry will not be considered for the vote.

 

[lenarenee]

Oh shoot. I thought we had until the 28th! Oh well. Maybe in September.

 

[galaxyMLP]

Ok, entry thread is now closed! Thank you to those of you who added the correct pictures to your entry. I'll be making the survey now and sending out the pass codes to the emails.

Sorry lenarenee, hopefully you can post a picture when you do try this method!

 

[earlene]

Thank you, galaxyMLP. This was such a fun challenge. A lot more difficult than previously anticipated.

BattleGnome, what colorants did you use? I was surprised how quickly your orange changed to yellow. The green still looks pretty much the same, though. I can see why you call it sunflower soap. I can see this method would be quite useful for creating a soapy sunflower on top of the soap, if the scales are elongated into petals. It might be something to try in a slab mold. Now I want to do that! Brown for the center and shades of orange or yellows for the petals. I love driving through Kansas in the Spring when the sunflower fields are in bloom.

Cheerycoke16, your color choices are quite lovely and your fragrances peak my interest. When cut, I imagine these are going to be spectacular to sniff and the colors pleasing.

 

[galaxyMLP]

Survey link and passwords have been sent. Please let me know if you did not receive it!

Edit: please remember that anyone who signed up for the challenge is encouraged to vote!

Great job with the challenge everyone!

 

[earlene]

For some reason my photo in the survey is quite distorted. It looks really strange, elongated and possibly turned on it's side as well. I can't go back and look at it again after taking the survey, so am not sure that anyone else's photos were distorted, but as I recall none were or I just didn't notice. Strange.