How do I 'paint' or 'glaze' CP soap with MP?

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

earlene

Grandmother & Soaper
Supporting Member
Joined
Apr 30, 2016
Messages
9,778
Reaction score
12,053
Location
Western Illinois, USA
Has anyone successfully tried 'painting' or 'glazing' a surface of CP with MP soap? In other words, what I mean is, has anyone successfully found a way to apply a glaze-like surface using MP soap? *

I am envisioning putting a clear glaze over the entire surface of some CO Easter Egg Soaps I made, but am having some difficulty coming up with a way to do so without making a complete mess and wasting a lot of MP base. The soaps themselves have a rounded surface, which is the surface I want to cover.

At this point, I am pretty much in the planning stages, and thought a couple of weeks to think about it might help me come up with something, but I haven't thought of anything other than:

1. pour some MP base into the mold & squish the already made soaps in on top and hope for a smooth enough fit that I'll have good surface coverage that way. (the problem here is that it wouldn't cover the sides that would stick up out of the top of the molds)

2. paint it on with a paint brush and hope it doesn't drip off and make an ugly mess (this doesn't seem like the best option, though, and I can't imagine doing this without it resulting in brush strokes)

3. heating some clear MP base and dipping the Easter Egg Soap in the same as I would a strawberry into melted chocolate (I'd still have unglazed spots where my fingers hold onto the soap, but maybe after they dry I can do a second dip and get those bits glazed)


Another question I have is will I need to spray the CP soaps with ETOH before pressing them into the MP or is it better to spray the MP surface itself, then press the CP Easter Eggs onto the MP?


* Well, I have to say, I do know that mzimm has successfully done such a thing because her entry for the June 2016 SMF Mosaic Soap Challenge was one of the winning entries and she used a clear MP glazed surface which she describes as 'immerse the top with clear MP'. Her winning soap is quite gorgeous, in fact, and probably why I thought of doing this in the first place.

So maybe I might try #3 first. And if I'm not happy with that, I might move to #1. I should probably try #2 just for the heck of it, although I don't have much faith in my ability to do that without leaving brush strokes behind.

Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated. There's no rush on these soaps because they are really for next year. The cure of the CP soaps won't be ready in time for Easter this year.
 
What about dipping the soap like chocolates (similar to your #3)? The difference being you use a spoon to dunk the entire soap rather than your fingers.

Of the options I can think of, your #3 sounds the best. Unless you want to treat the soap like a chocolate production line where they pour the chocolate over the fillings but I imagine a ton of mess/waste unless you recycle the glaze into its own molds.
 
BattleGnome, thank you. I had not thought of that. Maybe spooning it over the top and recycling the drippings would work. I'll try that, too. Since the soaps are rounded on the pretty side and flat on the back, I can potentially place them on some kind of pedestal-type thing set inside a plastic or glass container and the drippings can just fall into the container for re-melting.

Or the spoon method might also work better than my finger method. I'll give that a try as well.

I only have 6 soaps to test this out with, but now I have a few methods to test out, and I am sure at least one of them will be satisfactory.

Do you think I need to spray the CP with alcohol before dipping? I haven't used CP with MP in such a way before.
 
That IS gorgeous soap! From the pic it looks like the MP glaze is only on the top. To do what Mzimm did, I think you would make your soap and cut it into tiles, then arrange the tiles in a slab mold and pour MP over it.

Earlene, what about getting some shish kabob skewers, impaling the soap, and then dipping? You'd have 1 small, neat hole in the soap but I think that would be pretty minimal. Like a cake pop. If you get a metal skewer, the hole would be smaller.
 
I'm brainstorming and will try to come up with a better solution, but my first inclination is soap-on-a-rope (similar to Auntie Clara's Mignon soaps):

http://auntieclaras.com/2015/01/soap-eggshell-mignon-soap/

This would allow you to carefully dip the soaps in a vessel of M&P and hang them to cool/harden.

The egg shape and colored ribbons are also apropos for the Easter season :)

ETA: I just realized that these are soaps that you have already made, negating the usefulness of my suggestion. What about using one of those wire holders utilized to dye Easter eggs (rather than a spoon). That might be less messy/wasteful and should be easier to find this time of year. You could possibly arrange trios of pennies on parchment/freezer paper to support the eggs in an upright position to restrict any pooling or surface irregularity to the base.

http://www.pysanka.com/en/product_info.php?cPath=24&products_id=83&osCsid=d3nbit6f2fc4ntbl0mbn600u04

Save
Save
Save
 
Last edited:
Back
Top