Soap Art

I haven't done a lot of soap art, just a few basic swirls.  Because I use natural products and try to keep my costs down it is a bit limiting.  Unless I have reason to do something a bit more involved, I will just use turmeric for a basic swirl or colouring as it has so many skin/health benefits.

There are lessons on You Tube with some really impressive results.  I have seen colours that are incredible but have to admit wondering if they make you glow in the dark and Geiger counters tick.

This is very, very basic but will show you what a non professional can do with no practise.

I didn't realize just how orange the paprika would make the soap.

The black soap is coloured with Aussie Black Clay and is Man Soap for shaving.

Palm Kernel Oil made the round soap at the right very white.

The bar at the back is Goat Milk with turmeric.

The green swirl in the centre milk soap wasn't natural colour.

The side bars are from a batch of 50% Beef Tallow (creamy coloured) soap with swirls of Turmeric and Spirulina.  This was cut length ways in 4 then placed down the sides of two moulds.  An entire batch was made with spirulina to give it the light green colour rather than the swirls of dark green.  I put this in between the slabs of solid swirled soap.

This soap can't be stored for extended periods as the colours fade (the spirulina quicker than the turmeric).

This was done hot process.  I separated two cups of hot soap and mixed in the colours (mixed in a bit of water) I layered the coloured soap in amongst the uncoloured.  When the mould was filled I used a tablespoon to stir in a circular motion from the top to the bottom moving along the mould.  I repeated this twice and was very happy with the results.

I incorporated a soap that was too soft for my liking into a batch I made that was harder than normal.  The softer soap was a hot processed milk soap(hence the brown colour) and the harder soap had a higher level of Palm Kernel (the whiteness).  I hot processed the PK soap, remelted 3 bars of the softer soap and mixed it at the end of the hot process, not stirring it in completely.  My mould was a PVC drain pipe.

My daughter wanted me to make shaving soap for her boyfriend (he owned 180 of the real ones) and gave me 2 moulds used for cookies.  I had intended to put more black clay in but these chicks came out grey.  When I unmoulded them I built up the wings and contours with some excess soap I had while it was still a bit soft.