Ok, I was able to dig up three fails and snap pictures of them. The first is a failed beer soap. Came out with ugly whitish spots on it. Almost looked diseased. Turned out to be a really nice soap from a technical standpoint...just really ugly.
The second was my first attempt at a goat milk soap. I wanted to keep a creamy color and was concerned about it overheating and turning brown so I used the goat milk as half my water amount and added it at trace. I immediately put the mold in a super cold freezer and left it there for 24 hours. Then I let it come up to room temperature on the counter before I cut it. Even so it went through a partial gel. The outer edges were the color I was looking for. The partial gel in the center, not so much. It actually turned out to be a great soap. Wonderful on the skin and smells heavenly, just a bit of an ugly duckling.
The third was my first attempt at a mantra swirl. This batch was a bugger from start to finish. The colors behaved badly and morphed on me, the scent all but completely disappeared, and it traced so quickly that by the time I got it in the mold and removed the divider there was a large gap left where the divider had been. Foolishly I attempted to do the swirl anyway(because I'm stubborn) and it was like trying to cut a semi-soft cheese. I managed to smoosh everything back together for the most part, insulated it like crazy, and prayed that a nice hot gel would at least mesh everything back together so it wouldn't be a total loss, which it did. It feels great on the skin but has virtually no scent and looks like hell.
That's disgustingly awesome! And of course, probably impossible to replicate, and naturally, ends up being one of your best.
