April SMF Soap Challenge, Hanger Swirl Petra Style

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I've got everything ready for my fifth attempt, except me. I've been out of my migraine meds since Friday and I'm feeling it. I finally picked up the Rx today, but I'm going to bed. I'll get that last on in tomorrow after work if it kills me! I've done 50/50 water/ACV hoping to be able to unmold and cut it cleaner (and sooner) than my last tries. I like this technique. I just need to learn more about, and work with, colors before I attempt another challenge that seems so...uh...challenging! 'night y'all.
 
Oh man dibbles, I'm seriously drooling over your attempt #2! It looks like an exquisite moth instead of a butterfly and the earthy colors are to.die.for. Orange-patch is one of my all time fave EO blends so you basically just made what I'd call the perfect soap, high five!
 
Oh man dibbles, I'm seriously drooling over your attempt #2! It looks like an exquisite moth instead of a butterfly and the earthy colors are to.die.for. Orange-patch is one of my all time fave EO blends so you basically just made what I'd call the perfect soap, high five!

Thank you - I love orange-patch too. If you want to know, the colors are (Nurture) Teal Green (which I just found out is being discontinued :cry:), Bronze Brown, Orange Vibrance to which I added a touch of the brown. The batter is discolored from the EO.
 
Oh wow!! Getting up this morning to so many beautiful entries! Dibbles I second (or third, forth) what everyone else has already said - gorgeous, all of them.

So I have a quick question about why people might think my coloured section is a bit flatter and not as full as I would have liked? Could it have been at too thin trace so just flattened out too much?

Definitely going to be trying this technique again soon to try get more of a full butterfly shape.
 
Oh wow!! Getting up this morning to so many beautiful entries! Dibbles I second (or third, forth) what everyone else has already said - gorgeous, all of them.

So I have a quick question about why people might think my coloured section is a bit flatter and not as full as I would have liked? Could it have been at too thin trace so just flattened out too much?

Definitely going to be trying this technique again soon to try get more of a full butterfly shape.

Sonya,
Do you think you had your mold on a smaller slope than the others?
 
You got beautiful thin layers, Sonya. It's possible that your layers reached the far end sooner if the trace was thin than if it had been a bit thicker, or if you had a steeper slope (the soap would travel more down the slope because of gravity and reach the other side with less soap than if your slope had been flat, or is my thinking wrong on this?) It looks to me like you have less soap for your color band than some people do but I notice a fair range in the entries.
 
Hoping to get ONE that will resemble the technique before the deadline. I had given up on it and then saw the barbecue sauce bottles at the store.... Those would work for soap colors and a wall pour. So I tried again. I may just post up several of my failures since some of them are so similar to others that didn't quite work out. Went low water so hopefully my trace isn't too thin. Time will tell. Night all for now.
 
Thanks LisaAnne & Dibbles! Just saw dad ~ he looks and sounds SO much better. Whew! We're still scratching our heads over the decision to put him on BP meds since he's never had high BP. Ah well, they're the docs and I'm not. :confused:

Good to hear!
 
Just finished try #5. What a waste of time and resources. I think I'm just going to stick to plain soap from now on and leave the fancy stuff to you. I don't have enough experience with fragrances and colors to do stuff like this. I need to practice simple stuff first. I still haven't done a butterfly swirl. I'm not even sure I understand the concept. Is it the way you pour or the way you move the tool? The fanciest thing I've done so far (besides this challenge) was the hidden feather swirls. Anyway, I'll cut my latest disaster tomorrow after work and post it. Who know, I may end up getting the surprise of my life and have a winner.
 
Unmolded but still a little too soft to cut. Arrgggh these swirl challenges where you have to cut to see how it turned out just kill me!
 
Oh dear Teresa, please don't give up. Fragrances are a nightmare with soap. I suggest you make a batch of uncoloured soap, divide it into small mini bar sized amounts and test a batch of fragrances with it. That way you will know if you are dealing with an accelerating one before you start. It's the same with everyone, I decided to take a short cut last week and used a marine fragrance, I thought to myself (it doesn't smell like a floral or spicy so I will just go with it, should be fine) I got instant soap on a stick. I can usually salvage these things, either by wrapping the pot until it gels then getting it into the mould or crock pot, but this heated up and stayed like a solid block of cement. I ended up hacking it out of the container and chucking it. Anyway, the point of my message was that it happens to everyone so try not to be disheartened. I also find essential oils have less tendency to accelerate, unless they are the spicy ones like clove, so perhaps try an essential oil blend next time you are attempting something complicated to avoid issues. Oh and work yourself out a standard slow trace recipe that works for you that you like the feel of. I know all this sounds a lot of work, but will save you time in the long run. High olive and lard soaps trace fairly slowly.
 
I don't think I'll have the time for another attempt before the deadline. Between work, yard, and grandchildren, I just can't see it happening. I'll try again when things settle down around here. At least I ended up with some very funky soap. :mrgreen:
 

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