Mica bleeding at top of soap

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ibct1969

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Hey all,

First post after reading other posts for a while. I'm glad to be here. I just tried my first mica swirls on the top of my CP soap and they bled! After I added them they were so pretty but after the 24 hours was up and I took the cover off my soap, I saw that the mica swirls bled.

Can anyone tell me what I did to make this happen? I did notice beads of moisture on top when I first covered it (i did spray with alcohol a couple of times). Thanks in advance. Picture attached.

mica bleed.JPG
 
When I spray my soap with alcohol, I notice that it softens the soap surface. This happens with fresh hot batter, as well as with already cut and cooled soap. So I am guessing it was the alcohol that caused the color bleeding. Although it does appear that only the magenta bled (pink or red?) and not the green, so I'd also have to suspect that the pink/red/magenta is prone to bleeding.

That is a very pretty design and I do like the color combination.
 
I am guessing you caused it to run when you spritzed with alcohol. Other choices your oil and mica was to thin and ran or you used to much. It takes very little oil and mica to make a swirl. I also use little drops with a pipette to make the swirls. Dry mica on soap is very messy and to much oil and mica for swirling can be quite messy. I find it best to just use it as accent with my swirls, not as a complete swirl. Hope that made sense.
 
I get pock-marking when using oils too, as the oil absorbs into the surface. I haven't gotten that white look though, or is that what it looked like after the mica washed off?
 
Just curious because I've noticed some odd effects using mica in glycerin as a drizzle. Not the bleeding issue you mentioned but more of a pot-marked surface when the glycerin absorbs into the soap. I think your culprit is one of the things cmzaha mentioned in her post.

b4+dry.jpg
I have never had a nice mica swirl using glycerin, so I always use oil
 
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