A new soapmaking experiment ~ The Hanger Swirl

On The Home Maker's Forum there is a challenge on the go for those who have made a few batches of soap and would like to experiment with something new. We have chosen the 'hanger swirl' for the first challenge and I thought I would try out some of the new clays I bought recently.

I was quite taken by the Lavender Soap tutorial on Eve's Garden and really liked the colours she used but when I had a good look at my clays the green was an Olive Green and the new Pastel Pink clay was too dark so I opted for the Australian pink clay I had bought a while back as well as the Pansy Mica I used for my last batch of soap with some Ultramarine that I have been trying to use up for ages. I also decided to add some Titanium Dioxide to the uncoloured batch to give a more whitish colour and had some ready to add to the pink clay if it was too dark.

Of course, that meant I was working with four different lots of soap mixture which also meant I needed to be really, really organised! OF COURSE I was organised....I had my lye and water weighed and ready to get going and had the olive oil and rice bran oil on the stove ready to heat up when I added the copha which was in the fridge....or was it? It was nowhere to be seen.

I had forgotten to buy it!!!! Oops!

Well, the delay was probably a blessing in disguise as, by the time I had bought the copha, I was much more organised with where to put everything and had the oils added to the colours ready to go....well kind of. LOL! With this type of technique you don't want to reach trace too quickly so I hardly used the stick beater so as to keep the mixture rather thin and easy to pour into the mould as I have been known to mix to a thick trace and end up with a globby mess when trying to get it into the mould.

In the end I was quite pleased with the result and couldn't wait until the next day to take it out of the mould BUT, as always I was too impatient and the soap was much too soft to unmould so I left some of it behind as it got stuck in the corners. Oh well, those bits and pieces will be dried and used for liquid soap as I just put some in a container and fill it up with hot water.

This is the recipe I used.

500g Olive Oil (I used some that I had infused lemongrass in but there was no scent)
250g Copha
250g Rice Bran Oil
140g caustic soda
380g water (I used SoapCalc. The Brambleberry calculator said 330g water)
Australian pink clay
Pansy mica
Ultramarine liquid

As you can tell from the photo some of the soap is crumbly so I did something very wrong with this soap as I made it last Thursday which is four days ago and, although it is getting harder with each passing day, it is still soft to touch. Still I quite like the design and I don't think it is too bad for a first try. I dare say it will dry out over the next few weeks and if I decide to try the hanger swirl again I might get it to a thicker trace before pouring next time. 

We were having a bit of a joke on the forum about what to name it...'Berry Mousse' or 'Mixed Berry Surprise' but I thought that 'Berry Crumble' would be more descriptive. LOL!  

Used with permission

Edited to add: One of the soapmakers on The Home Maker's Forum has given me permission to post a photo of the soap she made in the challenge and she used the hot process method which I have never tried before. It is very pretty.