Playing with colors!

*waves* Hey y'all, hope everyone has had a wonderful Wed. I have some exciting news for today. My shipment of colorants came in, and the other scents I purchased with them. The supplier was nice enough to put in a sample scent for me. I was pleased as punch! So even though I felt a bit under the weather, I couldn't resist making a batch of soap! ;)

    Ok so today I have pictures! Can I get a yee-haw? lol Ok so I got everything organized,cut the recipe that I was going to use in half and checked it with the lye calculator, made my lye water and had it set to cool. I Went to get my oils together, and wouldn't you know it..the Palm Kernal Oil was solid! Mind you it wouldn't have been an issue, but unfortunately the supplier poured it into a a big jug with a small spout. You can visualize me rolling my eyes here.
So I figured that I would get a pot of water boiling on the stove and stick the container in it to get what was in it to melt. It only melted a tad bit unfortunately. :(
    After about 20 frustrating minutes of no can do effectively without burning the crud out of the container , I took it outside to the shop for some help from my husband. What does he do but whip out his handy dandy box cutter and cut the top of that sucker off. Now why didn't I think of that!! I guess thats another reason why I married that man of mine. ;)
Anyhow, got the oils melted and blended, checked the lye water temp and it was cool and away we went!
                               It's picture time!

Stir blend, stir blend, stir blend.

Double Double Toil and Trouble

So I begin to hit a very nice light trace and decided that it was time to separate the batch and color one part blue because I was scenting it with Blueberry.

My inspiration for making this soap is one of my sons who loves Blueberry, he also loves the color green. So I would like to be able to tell you that I meant for the color to be this way, but I would be fibbing just a wee bit. lol The color was a total accident. I honestly didn't take into account that the yellow batter would make the blue colorant turn green. Yes I know, we learned our colors in Kindergarten, but apparently I was napping during that lesson. lol

Pouring the yellow batter into the mold.

Time for the swirley thingamabobber's!! *grins*                      

I decided that there was enough "green" batter in the yellow soap and poured the remainder in the sample molds. I really should have colored less batter. I then took my bamboo skewer and began to swirl the loaf a bit.

When I was done I felt the sides of the loaf mold and could tell it was cool. I realized that I was having the same thing happen with this soap as I had the other one so I ran inside to pop it in the over to force it to gel a bit. It took a bit longer this time. We brought the mold back out to the shop and took a good look at the loaf again and lookie here!

I guess this makes me a bit of an "Arteest" with this swirl *winks* Yes I spelled it right, "Arteest"..just how we say it in the south. lol

Now if you look closely, you may be able to see the tiny dreaded air bubbles, which I don't like at all. I tried very hard to not have them, but I am still learning. I am however proud of the design. ;)

In the picture above it appears to be blue, but when I checked the loaf about an hour ago, the color has shifted to a sea green which was what I expected based on my color accident. My main goal today was to try to swirl, and see what it was like to cut a batch in half as well. Let's hope that when we cut the bars that it doesn't look wonky and terrible. *fingers crossed and prayers said*
Ok folks, am tired as I don't know what. Stay tuned for tomorrow mornings cut bars! Sleep good folks!
Suds & Bubbles,
Soapy