Holly Swirl Challenge

This month's challenge is the Holly Swirl, a technique named after Holly Bailey of Missouri River Soap Co.  Basically it is an in-the-pot swirl, and then swirl it into the soap in the mold. Cool. Looked like a fairly simple technique using two different colors for the in-the-pot swirl plus the two layers of colors for the base. Well, I quickly discovered that it was not as simple as I had imagined. In fact, I really struggled with not only the colors but getting the swirls to cooperate. Amy Warden of Great Cakes Soapwork cautioned us about our colorants mixing and making "mud" and my colors did manage to mix too much so that the differences were not so easily seen. I ended up with four soaps trying to achieve the Holly Swirl. (This is Amy's blog site: http://www.greatcakessoapworks.com/handmade-soap-blog/)

I choose a recipe of oils that I knew would give me some time to work that included olive, coconut, palm and rice bran. I also added a bit of shea butter to the first batch and choose a scent called Harvest. I got so caught up in my preparation and making the soap I forgot to take photos until I had it in the mold! Below is the soap in the mold and the results. I ended up using more oils than I normally do (miscalculated my batch size) so these will be bigger than normal bars. The colorants turned out more pink than reds/oranges. I also got quite a bit of TD crackle, which creates an interesting look to the soaps but not what I was looking for! Though the scent was called Harvest, it does nothing to remind me of a fall
harvest and my daughter says it smells more like the Big Red gum! I think she is right. Definitely going to have to change this name! Maybe Cinnamon Drop!

Harvest scented Holly Swirl Challenge

Harvest soaps cut

For the 2nd attempt I had some Apple Jack & Peel fragrance that I thought would be good for a fall soap. This time I used a smaller mold and I did remember to take a few photos along the way. I used some of the same colorants as the Harvest soap but with the yellow being the predominant choice.

Apple Jack & Peel colorants: red brick pigment, yellow oxide and titanium dioxide

Apple Jack & Peel in the mold

Apple Jack & Peel soap cut into bars

Third try! This time I chose to use a fragrance called Celestial Waters with blue colorants of blue and aqua mica, ultramarine blue and titanium dioxide. I also replaced the shea butter with some mango butter.

Ultramarine blue, aqua pearl mica, blue mica and TD

Well this one went together a bit better than the first two tries except for one major problem. I forgot the fragrance oil until I was ready to pour the top layer! So it is only partially scented. I really like this scent and it seems to be coming through really nice. Now for a name.... this soap reminds me of blue waters on a clear sunny day.

Third attempt at the Holly Swirl, soap out of the mold

Cut bars of my third attempt

One last try! This time I went for some greens to go with a Christmas Tree fragrance oil. This is a wonderful, soft and refreshing pine scent so I went with a moss green pigment, pearl green and blackstar blue mica for colorants. To add a bit of sparkle for this soap there is a just a hint of body safe glitter on the top!

A green Holly Swirl out of the mold

Green Holly Swirled soap cut

So out of the four attempts at creating a Holly Swirl I choose the blue water soap for the challenge. All of these soaps will be ready for the fall markets. And here are the final photos of the Holly Swirl soaps!

Cinnamon Drop

Apple Jack & Peel

Blue Waters

Christmas in the Pines

Once again I want to thank Amy Warden of Great Cakes Soapworks for her work to organizing and creating the monthly soap challenges and to Holly Bailey of Missouri River Soap Co. for her inspiration for this particular challenge.