Soap Challenge Club: Secret Swirls for March

I’m at it again! This month’s challenge involved the “secret feather swirl”, a feather-shaped swirl technique that you can’t see until the loaf of soap is cut! It’s a beautiful technique that also gives you the ability to be creative with your colors – and it’s damn impressive to non-soapers when you’re all done!

I chose to go with synthetic colors this time (versus the other category, all-natural), as I don’t have a ton of experience working with natural colorants.

We were allowed to use either the secret feather swirl, or “reverse feather swirl”, where the feather ends up looking more like a tree. Since this was my first time doing the feather swirl, I decided to keep it simple and use the original technique.

The recipe I used was:

• olive oil (33%)
• coconut oil (30%)
• palm oil (33%)
• castor oil (4%)
• Apple Green fragrance oil
• water as percent of oil weight: 30%
• super fat: 5%

For my colors, I didn’t have to think too much, as I like bright, bold designs. I colored my base using black oxide, and used Green Neon, Blue Neon, Purple Neon, Pink Neon and Orange Neon (in that order, all from Nurture Soap), and also added a touch of Nurture Soap’s Glow in the Dark Pigment for some extra fun. I soaped at around 100°F, which was about ten degrees higher than suggested, however everything worked out okay, and my batter stayed nice and fluid for the entirety of the pouring process.

I just did random lines/drips on the top of the loaf, stuck it in the oven with the light on to gel, and waited until the next day to cut. It was so hard, but it was totally worth it, because…

…AWESOMENESS!!! I cannot believe how amazing this turned out. And the technique wasn’t nearly as difficult as a I initially thought, so I’ll definitely be doing it again in the future for other soaps I create!

(Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to properly capture a photo of the glow effect…I think I used too small of quantities!)

Good luck to everyone else participating this month!