Amy, of Great Cakes Soap Works, created a soap challenge in 2012 that was open to other soapers. I really enjoyed checking each week to see the challenges she presented and the awesome soaps that were being created by all the wonderful soapmakers around the world. So when I saw that Amy had decided to do a 2013 Soap Challenge I signed up! I thought it would be fun to try the challenge and maybe learn something new!
We just finished our first week's challenge to create a soap using the Tiger Stripe pattern. I watched a couple of videos that Amy put on her blog page first. I need to choose which recipe, the fragrance and the colorants. We were encouraged to use contrasting colors. I had some wonderful fragrance and essential oils so came up with a couple options using a basic recipe of olive, coconut, palm, castor and shea and goat milk.
Option #1: Peppermint essential oil with a chromium green oxide and a chocolate fragrance oil and cocoa powder for color. You see what I was thinking... chocolate mint! Yum.
Option #2: A blend of essential oils I had been wanting to work with that included cornmint, eucalyptus and spearmint, a clean, fresh minty scent. This time using the chromium green oxide with a small amount of titanium dioxide for a light color.
I was a bit afraid of my soap setting up too quickly as can happen sometimes so I was careful to not overblend. Option #1 may have been too thin due to my being so cautious so I wasn't too sure that it was going to resemble Tiger Stripe at all. Plus my cocoa powder wasn't as dark as I hoped, more like milk chocolate! Option #2 was a bit better but I still wasn't too sure I was getting the result I had hoped for this challenge.
I was pleasantly surprised when I unmolded both batches this morning! I can see room for improving this technique but they did turn out much better than I anticipated. These will go on the curing racks and should be ready the first part of May - just in time for the opening of the farmer's markets!
We just finished our first week's challenge to create a soap using the Tiger Stripe pattern. I watched a couple of videos that Amy put on her blog page first. I need to choose which recipe, the fragrance and the colorants. We were encouraged to use contrasting colors. I had some wonderful fragrance and essential oils so came up with a couple options using a basic recipe of olive, coconut, palm, castor and shea and goat milk.
Option #1: Peppermint essential oil with a chromium green oxide and a chocolate fragrance oil and cocoa powder for color. You see what I was thinking... chocolate mint! Yum.
Option #2: A blend of essential oils I had been wanting to work with that included cornmint, eucalyptus and spearmint, a clean, fresh minty scent. This time using the chromium green oxide with a small amount of titanium dioxide for a light color.
I was a bit afraid of my soap setting up too quickly as can happen sometimes so I was careful to not overblend. Option #1 may have been too thin due to my being so cautious so I wasn't too sure that it was going to resemble Tiger Stripe at all. Plus my cocoa powder wasn't as dark as I hoped, more like milk chocolate! Option #2 was a bit better but I still wasn't too sure I was getting the result I had hoped for this challenge.
I was pleasantly surprised when I unmolded both batches this morning! I can see room for improving this technique but they did turn out much better than I anticipated. These will go on the curing racks and should be ready the first part of May - just in time for the opening of the farmer's markets!
Tiger Strip option #1 Chocolate Mint
Tiger Stripe option #2 Minty Fresh
If you would like to check out some of the other great Tiger Stripes and learn about the Soap challenge here Great Cakes Soap Works blog page! http://www.greatcakessoapworks.com/handmade-soap-blog/
Next week's challenge is the Elemental Swirl! Stay tuned!
Next week's challenge is the Elemental Swirl! Stay tuned!
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