January 2021 Challenge Entry Thread - Planet/Galaxy Soap

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amd

Please post your entry photos here. You have until January 26, 2021 at 11:59 pm GMT to submit your entry, so there is still plenty of time (please note - the closing date and time is GMT - a quick Google search will help you convert to your own time zone). Because I screwed up and forgot to post a reminder to my calendar and am starting the thread a few days late, please let me know if you need more time to get your entry posted, I can shift dates if needed by one additional day.

Your Entry picture(s) must include a photo of at least 2 bars of soap.

Remember, this thread is for entry photos only. Please post all comments on each others' entries in the general challenge thread.

Good luck!
 
Da da da dah dah 🎶 (that's the Star Wars theme, doncha know)!
Scented with eucalyptus, rosemary, and cedarwood essential oils. Colored with a whole lotta activated charcoal and black oxide. This was a fun challenge and had been on my bucket list anyway.
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I wasn't planning to enter this month's challenge until I made a layered soap that happened to remind me of a planet....so I chopped up a few bars and used them as embeds in a mini (2-bar) batch. The planets are scented with Midnight Waters FO, and the "space" with Energy (both from BB). The star specks are shavings from a recent batch of English Rose soap.

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Inspired by the Eye of God Nebula and many other deep space photos on the NASA and other websites. I used a bunch of techniques to make this soap - ITP swirl, faux funnel swirl, fluid dirty pour and ebru-ish surface designing. I managed to use ten colors in what was truly a fast paced, but fun soaping session. All micas from Nurture: Cheshire Cat (purple), Blue Vibrance, Synergy (green), Yellow Vibrance, Summer Crush (pinkish/orange), Love Song, Neutral Grey, Celestial (lt grey/blue), Nocturnal w/AC; white is TD. I managed to forget the FO until near the end, so the soap is very lightly scented with NS Awaken. Thank you @amd for a very inspiring challenge!

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I had wanted to make a soap inspired in The Rose from the Little Prince for Valentine's. When I saw this challenge, and the text saying that it did not have to have planets, it could have starts, I thought I could adapt the idea of that soap to this, which meant adding the stars. (I already had the one planet) I wanted to keep the colors light, to match the illustrations from the book, but I was concerned that the stars would not stand out, then I saw a video of someone dusting their extruded starts with black mica or AC, so I used something similar. I got a lot of soda ash but I liked how it looked. I did try to remove it from one bar (bottom left) and the bar on bottom right shows how the look from the back. The rose is made with soap dough and it is embedded in MP. I used a blend of Rose, patchouli and yuzu for the fragrance.
 
Like Mobjack Bay I was inspired by the NASA and Hubble pictures. Unlike Mobjack Bay, I did a simple ITPS. My scent is glacier bay from NG because I wanted a cold scent. I did include a black hole but I am not sure if it is visible in the photos. Some of you will understand my reference. I did use the glow in the dark mica for the stars. Instead of making a confetti soap I just threw the chopped soap into the pot and let them find their places randomly. The MP stars were hanging around so I used some of them to just to make sure you know it is a galaxy.
 

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The Aurora Borealis. I couldn't find an EO that smelled like burning diesel, the odeue de winter of mine old home, so I used Pine Fir Needle and Tea Tree EOs (tea tree for the smell of marsh reeds). Some things went wrong with the design (like where are the valleys I scooped out!? lol) and the true of the green is lost in the pics without photo-editing. In reality, the green is spot on for the color of the lights, and they look like the lights over the hills behind the Tanana in Nenana, so I'm kind of stoked about it!

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The background of this soap was supposed to be dark navy blue (Nurture). Since this batter was going to move fast, I mixed the color and the fragrance into the oils. It was a gorgeous deep navy, but it all morphed to gray when I added the lye. 😭 It's turning bluer as the day goes on, but I have to upload this now or I'll miss the deadline while working later. Scented with WSP's Enchanted Orchid, this is 100% CO because it needed to set up fast to get this entry done.

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It didn’t come out quite like had hoped but I modeled mine off a pic I saw of the Phoenix Nebula. I ran out of purple mica so I couldn’t do what I had initially thought. This was kind of a drop funnel swirl. Scented in a blend of NS All Soul’s Day and May Chang eo. Colors: Activated charcoal and Micas from NS Mango Tango, firefly and Lime Appeal mixed with Brilliant blue to get that teal.
 

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I did a nebula soap a couple of years ago, and have wanted to try it again. I had even ordered Black Onyx glitter from Nurture, but never got around to it. So, thank you @amd for hosting and moving it forward on my soap bucket list! I think I'll have to try again since I still haven't made it what I want it to look like. I used a mildly accelerating FO (BB Night Violet) to help set up the base layer and the thin black layer over it, and I left the colors unscented. I poured small amounts in the center of the mold and blew through a straw to get the colors to fan out and move toward the edges. This worked pretty well, but the resulting top got super lumpy and a little ashy and I ended up planing the tops. Which lost a lot of the design and virtually all of the glitter. It was fun to do anyway!
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By the slimmest of margins:
It's Cold Out There
FO BB's Magnolia Leaf and Tonka Bean, with VCS, a woody/earthy/spicy fragrance.
The icicles, fragrance, and color gradient to emphasize the view is from earth, which is why it is the only planet in the solar system not represented. The lighter flecks with aqua edges are stars, and just under the icicles are spiral, oval, and shapeless galaxies, as well as some black holes with red phasing on the edges.
The stars, planets, and galaxies glow in the dark. The sky does not, nor do the black holes.
The stars were piped embeds, the icicles melt & pour over a scraped top, and the rest of the cosmological elements were extruded soap dough.
These are the only bars I'm cutting for now, I want the loaf to harden more so the detail shows up better for the rest of the bars.
 

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