Ideas on what to Use for the Column in a column swirl soap

[WithLovefromNature]

I used a cup turned upside down to make my latest (ok, and my first) column swirl soap batch. I split a 3 lb batch equally into 4 parts and colored them white, yellow, black and blue. First of all, blue mixed with a yellow base....for all those color illiterate folks such as myself, turns out green quickly. So while I was frantically trying to get blue and only getting green, I decided to add red to try to make purple and for whatever reason, I actually got pink as the final result. uurrggg...

Anywho, the problem with the cup upside down was that once I finished pouring, when I lifted the cup, the entire middle just sort of flopped together into a blah mix of muted colors.

Any suggestions?
Thank you for your support, invaluable advice, tips and recipes.

 

[dixiedragon]

With that many colors, your soap needs to be a bit thicker, so the colors will not simply melt into each other. Pudding thickness would be good.

It also helps to use uncolored soap as a seperator. So, spoonful of red, spoonful of plain. Spoonful of blue, spoonful of plain. etc.

I am also curious what you were using as a colorant?

 

[dixiedragon]

Just re-read your title. I recommend this: http://www.brambleberry.com/Silicone-Column-Mold-P5619.aspx. It is SO WORTH the $21!! I say this as a person with probably a dozen PVC pipe molds, etc. The size is perfect, it's easy to unmold. It's just awesome.

I also really like to use plastic downspouts, b/c they come in cool shapes. You can get those at Home Depot for a few bucks each. For some reason, Lowe's doesn't have plastic ones, only aluminum. The downspouts are also just a touch flexible, so it's easier to get the soap out of them than it is out of a PVC mold, which is NOT flexible.

 

[shunt2011]

I just use a small block of wood wrapped in plastic wrat to do my column swirls. My batter is on the thin side as it takes a while to go through the colors unless you are speedy. I bought a small fairly tall piece of 2x2 at Michaels for a buck or so.

 

[WithLovefromNature]

Actually I used some cheapy liquid colorant for soap that I found at Hobby Lobby. I bought two different oxides from Brambleberry but didn't want to waste the liquid colorant. Then I thought, what if I add titanium dioxide to all of my future soaps at the oil stage just to get the color base white first, then add whatever other color I want after I separate them. Thoughts?

 

[dixiedragon]

I would not add the TD to the whole batch. I think that will make your other colors pale. You could seperate the soap and add TD to a portion of it.

The colorants you used might not be suitable for CP soap, and possible they bled? Heck, some colorants recommended for CP soap will bleed.

 

[WithLovefromNature]

Thank you for the advice. I need to get better colorants anyways.

 

[Lin]

The color base in the batter isn't going to affect the end soap anyway, so you wouldn't want to be using td just to whiten your base. If you add td you're going to result with tints of your colors.

For example, you can have a very yellow looking base due to your oils that turns into a very white bar of soap. You're just really not going to see the true color until the soap has cured. If you want to see the colors, make up a small batch of soap and split it into a bunch of little containers (like paper cups) and put some of your colorant in each one. Then you can watch what the color looks like when you first add the color, when you unmold the soap, and after its cured. I recommend using something that you can easily unmold though, like waxed paper cups. My boyfriend left them in little plastic bowls (dollar store tiny dip bowls) which had to be broken off to unmold the soap. Each one is the right size for a small hand soap, so they'll all be used.

And I would also pour at a very light trace, it can thicken up fast even when you're starting to pour at a thin trace. I believe you're entire problem was the bleeding colorants.