Cosmic Wave Soap Challenge: Wavy Brights

Hello! Whew, I am squeaking by this month. I’m writing this literally 30 minutes before the link up for entries closes. And my photos are uploading to the computer as I write. Talk about cutting it close! Yikes.

Well, it’s not for lack of effort! I’ve made four batches of soap with this technique and I have to say, I’m mesmerized by it. When I first watched the tutorial, I had marble on the brain, because my parents are redoing their kitchen counter tops and we’ve been watching video after video on how to create that look with paint. So, I wanted the marble look for my entry this month, but I decided to practice with “pure” soap, because I was out.

• Pure Soap

I decided to try Auntie Clara’s ghost swirl technique for colors, because my Pure soap contains no added colors or scents. Well, as it turned out, this didn’t work for me at all. I was in a hurry and I didn’t vary the water/lye ratio as much as I should have to get a real swirl. There is a tiny bit of variation in color, but not enough for anyone but me to notice. So, as far as a cosmic wave, this one counts as a bit fat fail.

• Wavy Brights Take One

Next, I decided to try my hand at bright colors. I haven’t made any rainbow soap for a while, so it seemed like just the thing. I did six colors, green, purple, blue, red, orange, and yellow. I used my slab mold. The main problem with these is the colorants. I used colors which really need stick blending to mix properly, but since I had to divide 15% of my batter between six colors, I didn’t have enough of each color for my stick blender to be able to reach. It was awkward trying to do it, and the end result is some dots of color which remained unmixed. It is scented with Fruity Rings FO from Nature’s Garden. I love that smell. It’s perfect for kids and grownups, and didn’t accelerate my trace at all.

I did, however, learn a lot about how to make this technique work. At the beginning, when the mold was empty, it was really hard to get my pouring pitcher close enough to the surface to make a good cosmic wave. I switched from my glass measuring cup pourer to my long tipped plastic pourer, and it made a huge difference. Fortunately, about the first 2/3 of the pour doesn’t really matter that much. That is very good news, because it took that long for me to start to get the hang of it. By my 4th batch, I didn’t really worry about wave placement until closer to the end of the pour. Some tips: don’t put much batter in your pitcher at a time, pour very close to the surface of your soap, and pour slowly. Here are some photos of my first bright batch:

• Wavy Brights Take Two

After this batch, I just had to try again. I love the mixture of colors, and the practice batch had put my fears of the colors turning all muddy to rest. This time I made a double batch of soap and made sure to have plenty of each color so that I could blend the colorants in well. I think it was a great improvement, as the colors are more vibrant and evenly mixed. Here’s how that one turned out:

And here’s the “making of” video:

• Marble Waves

So, now that I had tried out the technique a few times, it was time for the marble soap. I have developed a recipe for women’s shaving soap that has turned out to be very popular in my neck of the woods, and I happened to be out of it, so I decided to try for marble shaving soap. The recipe has organic sugar for extra bubbles, clay for extra slip as the razor glides against your skin, and powdered oats for a little extra skin TLC. I used shimmery black mica, shimmery white mica, and an accent of gold mica. It is scented with lavender and peppermint essential oils.

For the gold accent, I dribbled a mixture of mica and olive oil onto the top of my pouring pitcher. I have used this technique in the past to create interesting mica lines. The cool thing about it is that it also creates textural interest in the soap, as the olive oil simply melts into the soap as it cures, leaving behind a crater of sorts and the lovely mica color. Here’s how that one looks:

And here is the “making of” video:

I love it! It really reminds me of marble. I was torn about which soap to enter for the contest. But, since I had about one minute to make my decision after the photos uploaded, I didn’t think about it too hard. I went with Wavy Brights Two.

All in all, I’d say this technique is a keeper! Thanks so much Amy and Tatsiana for hosting the challenge.