July 2021 SMF Soap Un-Challenge - Confetti/Cubes

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Here’s one more soap made with indigo and white soap chopped up in my food processor. I was trying to repeat the look of the soaps here, but didn’t have enough of the soap left to make round embeds. I used a discoloring FO, BB Cedar & Amber (mixed with patchouli EO), as well as cocoa powder in the base batter. Darker base soap would have been nicer with the blue and white. I love the sweet woodsy scent of the FO with patchouli!

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Aren’t these cute? Took me half the day to make. Poured the green then let it set. Textured using a fork. Then used squeeze bottles for the blue and brown layer to form the tree trunk. Let that set a bit. Then added the confetti to more blue batter and poured. Shaped the top of the tree. Then poured more blue. And finally piped the white clouds.
Scented with NGs Green Tea.
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So beautiful!
 
Sign up list:

1. Spowers - this is right up my alley - love 'unchallenges'!
2. KimW -awe man - With summer in full swing I was going to sit out July's, but can't resist a chance to lessen my load of soap shavings!
3. Phoenix - I have just the design in mind!
4. Tara_H - Confettipalooza!
5. Mrs. Z - I have a little confetti waiting for me too!
6. peachymoon - I recently got a bevler/planer and have been saving shavings for confetti. Perfect
7. The_Emerald_Chicken - Mine's already on the heating pad 😁
8. Misschief - it's time I used up some of my odds and ends
9. bookreader451 - I was just thinking of making another soap curl drop swirl
10. Vicki C - Yes! Maybe I’ll attempt Tara Trees with all my scraps.
11. MarnieSoapien - I do love a good confetti soap!
12. glendam - perfect, have lots of scraps
13. MysPhoenix - yay! Now I will finally stop procrastinating on a confetti project I've been meaning to get around to for about a month now!!
14. ResolvableOwl - ConfettiConfettiConfettiConfetti, let's see how far we can nest soap recycling!
15. heartofnebraska - also been procrastinating a confetti soap!
16. Future_Ghost - this will be my first challenge here, and I need to use up some soap scraps so it feels perfect!
17. Mobjack Bay - I’ve gathered up the bits and pieces. Now all I need is an idea…
18. VikingChick - I tried one today. The colors are :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup: and i hope the rest of it worked (I may be looking at my first ever failed batch ☹). We’ll know in a day or two!
19. SideDoorSoaps - finally! I keep meaning to make some confetti soaps!
20. Sweet Potato Soap & Such- 1st timer
21. Trea - Spiritual Soothings Soaps - also a 1st timer!
 
I used a discoloring FO, BB Cedar & Amber (mixed with patchouli EO), as well as cocoa powder in the base batter.
That's a lot of colourful things going on here! As if indigo itself wasn't weird enough already. It appears that the FO browned strongly through gel phase except for the outer “shell”? (Oddly enough, this contradicts my cocoa observations that the colour gets deeper on the outside when exposed to air) Or is it late bleaching? Do you expect the brown to fade on the cut surface over time?
 
I used some soap leftovers from rimmed soap I had made for the lollipop swirl challenge and cut the thin slabs into cubes. I love the look of cubes floating in transparent soap, so after pondering making my own transparent soap I decided to use some leftover M&P (already had some with color added) and try out different methods. What worked best was placing the cubes in a cavity mold and pouring in the M&P. I did not master getting the M&P under all the cubes, I think because the cubes cool the M&P as soon as it hits them and it starts to congeal. I tried out different temperatures and different pouring speeds - too fast and you get bubbles, too slow and it cools too quickly as it hits the cubes. I’m sure there is a way to do it. Anyway, here’s what I made. The cubes are scented with mint EO, the M&P with lavender EO.

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Here’s one more soap made with indigo and white soap chopped up in my food processor. I was trying to repeat the look of the soaps here, but didn’t have enough of the soap left to make round embeds. I used a discoloring FO, BB Cedar & Amber (mixed with patchouli EO), as well as cocoa powder in the base batter. Darker base soap would have been nicer with the blue and white. I love the sweet woodsy scent of the FO with patchouli!

View attachment 59571
Love it!

I have very little confidence soaping with discoloring fragrance oil. I’ve made so much tan/brown soap that I resorted to avoidance. But I have a good amount of discoloring FOs and they are all lovely smelling. I just need to think outside of the box. Your creation is very nicely executed.
 
I used some soap leftovers from rimmed soap I had made for the lollipop swirl challenge and cut the thin slabs into cubes. I love the look of cubes floating in transparent soap, so after pondering making my own transparent soap I decided to use some leftover M&P (already had some with color added) and try out different methods. What worked best was placing the cubes in a cavity mold and pouring in the M&P. I did not master getting the M&P under all the cubes, I think because the cubes cool the M&P as soon as it hits them and it starts to congeal. I tried out different temperatures and different pouring speeds - too fast and you get bubbles, too slow and it cools too quickly as it hits the cubes. I’m sure there is a way to do it. Anyway, here’s what I made. The cubes are scented with mint EO, the M&P with lavender EO.

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Very cool! Looks like mosaics tiling. I love the color combination you used.
 
@Vicki C Heeey, you stole my design! 😒😍
Seriously, that's some great bars of soap there. The only thing I dislike is that you're too hard to yourself. Your cubes are much smaller than mine, and I not only like the look of them more, but they also didn't behave as stubbornly as mine. I too hate it when M&P crazes out (hardening, skin formation, bubbles) during putting in large embeds, and the cooling thingie is really annoying (but when you heat up the cubes beforehand, e. g. in the oven, they might be just too warm and keep the M&P base from solidifying…).
Worth a try, to prevent the lowest layer of cubes from not being wetted all around: first pour a thin layer of M&P into the moulds, and only then add all the cubes (not sure if it is better to let the bottom layer solidify first, or not). But anyway, during usage, the cubes are exposed anyway, so if the bottom sides anticipate this, it's not that bad at all.
 
It appears that the FO browned strongly through gel phase except for the outer “shell”? (Oddly enough, this contradicts my cocoa observations that the colour gets deeper on the outside when exposed to air) Or is it late bleaching? Do you expect the brown to fade on the cut surface over time?
I took the photo within a few hours of cutting the soap yesterday and it doesn’t look much different today. The FO discolors to tan and I used it at 1.5% of oil weight. I was originally intending to use it at 3%, but ran out. As I recall, patchouli, which I used to make up the difference, also adds a bit of tan coloring. If anything, I think the the color could deepen a little due to the fo and eo. Due to the confetti, I made this soap with what I consider to be a lowish lye conc (33%) and covered it with a blanket. It got fairly warm, but did not overheat. I‘ve seen indigo go colorless in soap (right after addition), which I assumed was due to a state (redox?) change, but I’ve never had any issues with cocoa powder changing color, Including in a soap I made last month with the same cocoa powder.
 
Love it!

I have very little confidence soaping with discoloring fragrance oil. I’ve made so much tan/brown soap that I resorted to avoidance. But I have a good amount of discoloring FOs and they are all lovely smelling. I just need to think outside of the box. Your creation is very nicely executed.
Well, thanks. It’s not my best work 🤣, but it smells great and I’m always learning something. I was planning on a light tan base in the bottom layer, but I obviously needed more of something to counteract the translucency of the gelled soap.

Anyway, here’s what I made. The cubes are scented with mint EO, the M&P with lavender EO.
I love these!
 
@Vicki C Heeey, you stole my design! 😒😍
Seriously, that's some great bars of soap there. The only thing I dislike is that you're too hard to yourself. Your cubes are much smaller than mine, and I not only like the look of them more, but they also didn't behave as stubbornly as mine. I too hate it when M&P crazes out (hardening, skin formation, bubbles) during putting in large embeds, and the cooling thingie is really annoying (but when you heat up the cubes beforehand, e. g. in the oven, they might be just too warm and keep the M&P base from solidifying…).
Worth a try, to prevent the lowest layer of cubes from not being wetted all around: first pour a thin layer of M&P into the moulds, and only then add all the cubes (not sure if it is better to let the bottom layer solidify first, or not). But anyway, during usage, the cubes are exposed anyway, so if the bottom sides anticipate this, it's not that bad at all.
Yes I should have said your soap inspired me! Love that mosaic look. And I considered the thought of the thin layer first but unless it was really hot I’d be worried about separation. And yeah I considered warming up the cubes, but they were a tad sticky and I was worried about them congealing into a clump. It actually occurred to me at the very end that the reason the M&P wasn’t completely covering them was that the cubes were creating a cooling effect. Something to keep fooling around with. 😊
 
Honestly, you did a better job than me in just about any way. Forget that I have had all the cubes fully covered, (I still won't show the bottom side to the public 🤫). The batter didn't stick too well to the cubes (too long in cure/too dry?), and it was too many of them and too large, so they arranged parallel to the wall and to themselves. You see how easily they break out.

Looking back, M&P would have been the better choice for me for sur, but I was too ambitious and wanted to embed the cubes in the same soap as themselves (the first time btw that I faithfully replicated a recipe 😲). Anyway, I can still cut these white-blue mosaic discs into small cubes and embed them…
 
So I’m really kinda disappointed with mine, even if I do love the colors. I would have made another batch, but honestly, between work stuff (to include a possible new job & move) and having company, I‘ve been too distracted to soap too much this month.

This was a weird batch; it refused to set up (I know why). I was going for a multi-layered drop swirl, which then morphed into an attempt to just do some irregular layers. I thought I put in a ton of confetti, but it didn’t turn out to be that much.

So yeah, here it is 😁 (PS, my photographer sucks)
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So I’m really kinda disappointed with mine, even if I do love the colors. I would have made another batch, but honestly, between work stuff (to include a possible new job & move) and having company, I‘ve been too distracted to soap too much this month.

This was a weird batch; it refused to set up (I know why). I was going for a multi-layered drop swirl, which then morphed into an attempt to just do some irregular layers. I thought I put in a ton of confetti, but it didn’t turn out to be that much.

So yeah, here it is 😁 (PS, my photographer sucks)View attachment 59643
I love it! It makes me think of a desert sunset.
 
So I’m really kinda disappointed with mine, even if I do love the colors. I would have made another batch, but honestly, between work stuff (to include a possible new job & move) and having company, I‘ve been too distracted to soap too much this month.

This was a weird batch; it refused to set up (I know why). I was going for a multi-layered drop swirl, which then morphed into an attempt to just do some irregular layers. I thought I put in a ton of confetti, but it didn’t turn out to be that much.

So yeah, here it is 😁 (PS, my photographer sucks)View attachment 59643
I like it, it looks like a pixelated sun set to me
 
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