Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Soap Challenge Week 3 - In The Mold

Hi All! It's challenge time again! I must say I'm loving this challenge business! Thank you so much Amy! It's so nice to have a goal to work towards each week and I'm learning something new with each one, which I bet was Amy's goal in the first place. This is only going to make us all better! I certainly don't need any more soap around here and so I had planned to quit soaping for a while. But I HAVE to do this so you know...the soap piles higher! :-)

The challenge for this week is to pipe soap. Now, I have done this before with some cupcakes. It was so long ago (almost two years) and long before I ever watched Karen with Eden's Secret pipe cupcakes over and over and over again. Here is the best looking one of the six I did in May 2010:


I feel like if I had attempted the cupcake again, that I would have done alright now. However, I don't care for the cupcake soap when it comes to use. They are so pretty and cute and fun but when it comes to using them, I don't really want to have to cut it in two pieces to actually use it. To me, that defeats the purpose of the work put into it. Not to mention that it has lots of bubbles and gaps and I prefer a smooth bar. But to each her own right?

I was still going to make cupcakes (it IS a challenge after all) but I didn't think I had the appropriate icing tip. You know, if you use a tip that doesn't make big ridges while piping, things can start looking a little...well, dog-like and gross. :-) Turns out I did have the right tip but by then I was downstairs and had my oils melted and my mind was already going in the loaf direction.

To this batch I added a bit of cream and made up my own scent blend of fruit loops fragrance and frosted lime cupcake fragrance. I originally was going to do mostly frosted lime cupcake but the fruit loops smelled so good that I made it the dominant fragrance in the mix. I poured my base plain as it will discolor (oh such a sad thing for fruit loops fragrance!) and mixed up five colors for the piped topping. All was going great and the soap in the bag looked so cool. I used pink, green, yellow, blue, and purple. It was like the best spoon swirl...only the soap was still in the bag.

Oh look! I figured out a snapshot from my video!



Once I began piping, I realized that my soap was blending too much and the blue and purple were overwhelming the batch. I continued on and I didn't get the color payoff but oh well! I don't get too caught up on such things. But I did learn that you must (and I'll have to try this sometime to find out for sure) add your colors to your bag in bigger amounts and not just spoon by spoon. The color has to squeeze through such a small opening. I would have rather had a pink star here and a green star there instead of the grayish tinge the stars took on.




I made some embeds with the extra soap...






See you Saturday ( I hope) for the cut!

10 comments:

Two Blooms Design Studio said...

The top looks cool, were making ours today and also are doing a log mold as we don't think our customers will go for the cupcake soaps.

That Paris Pink from TKB looks so pretty. I still have my pop colours but will think about alternatives when I run out.

Michelle

Holly said...

I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with Michelle!

Paris Pink is like a twist on an ultramarine I think. I think it is similar to pink ultramarine but the pinker version that sometimes occurs. I still haven't found a cute pink that I love. The raspberry pop always morphs on me.

WhiskandBowl said...

The colors showed up much better in the picture than they did in the video, I think they look good!

Topcat said...

Holly, I haven't piped soap but why not start out with a two colour combination first? I think you get each colour into half the bag lengthways and then it will pipe out in to two colours for you.

I love your piped soap star top. The colours are soft and mutes, yes, but oh so pretty!:)

Holly said...

Ha! Well Tanya, why not do two colors first? Because that is not how I roll! LOLOL! Why do two colors when I can do FIVE?!?! hehehe

Amy W said...

If you want a non-discoloring Froot Loops type, try the one from Oregon Trails. It's super strong too! Looking forward to the cut pics...

Holly said...

That's good to know! Thanks Amy!

ellebulle said...

They so pretty ! i Love this methode !

Donna OShaughnessy said...

Haven't started my challenge yet but having so much fun watching all of you. I thinks your will be lovely when cut!

Pipestone Soaps said...

Loved watching your video as usual! Good Job! :)))