My first one was Green Irish Tweed by Oregon Trail Soapers Supply. It thickened up slightly more than I intended, but all in all I like the look of the soap.
I decided to cut a few bars open to see the pattern inside. It looked pretty neat as well.
The next one I did was Lavender Forest by Bramble Berry and a little Cedarwood essential oil to give it a deeper forest smell. I loved the progression of this swirl, and I think the final swirl took away some of the neatness of the middle step swirls. Live and learn. Knowing when enough is enough is a fine art with soaping swirls.
Next swirl is a bugger. I tried Bramble Berry's Summer Fling fragrance. It had some floral notes, so I decided to use 33% lye concentration instead my typical 40%. Well not only did it thicken, my swirl was quite less than stellar, and the ash that ensued was nothing short of amazing. Here it is in mold. Then is a pic of cut bars that I attempted to plane the tops off of. I also did a hot water bath to try and rid the ash. Two bars in the back are not cleaned up, and you can see how heavily ashed it was originally. I also made extra batter, and those three soaps are gray white with a very thick layer of ash (originally colored black with activated charcoal).
Sigh. When making soap, as so many of you know, knocking out a disappointment can grate on the nerves. So being disappointed, I decided to have another go at swirling. I chose Fragrance Buddy's Patchouli Passion. I am not a member of the soap scent review board, so the only thing I knew about potential discoloration was there was 0% vanillin. Unfortunately it does go quite yellow on you, however, it behaved well for my 40% lye concentration. I like it in mold here. I can see two bird like creatures up top and a flower at the bottom.
