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Saturday, April 13, 2013

Soap Challenge - Week 3

The third week´s challenge theme is "oil mica swirl". This is for the first time that I am trying it (the same with the other challenge techiques).
I chose to swirl with gold mica, and a combination of blue and yellow for the soap. After my last week´s fluid batter which refused to thicken, I wanted to try the ITP swirl again and decided to combine it with tiger stripes - a kind of revision of the learned techniques. This time I really wanted my soap to come to at least medium trace, so I decided to use buttermilk as usually.
For the scent I made a blend of EOs/FOs - Aloe Vera, Lemon are dominant, a little Peppermint and Lavender, with Cedarwood as a base note. I used TD to whiten the base and then coloured the soap - for the yellow I used Gold mica and a bit of Yellow Oxide, for the shades of blue I used Ultramarine, Yellow Oxide, Black Oxide and Zinc Oxide.
For the top swirl I took a little bit of olive and castor mix from the weighed oils and made quite a thick mixture with mica. At the time of swirling my soap was around medium trace and I found the thicker oil and mica mixture easy to work with.
I was lucky this time - no suprises, the soap behaved properly (which means not many mistakes on my side) - and I am really pleased with the results! Thank you again, Amy, for me the Challenge is mainly a great way to learn and improve my skills. And of course I love looking at other´s beautiful and inventive creations!

15 comments:

  1. Three challenges in one soap! That is so imaginative. Blue and gold are always perfect together.

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  2. Oh that is a really pretty technique!!

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  3. Perfection! I'm going to try it again using your suggestion of a medium trace and thicker mica/oil mix for the top. Mine was too thin and runny and just puddled. Love your tiger/ITP technique !

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    1. Thank you! I made just spots with my mica mixture and swirled through. My mixture was too thick to pour it in a line. I think that for more delicate lines and swirls one needs it to be a little thinner. But I like the look I got this way.

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  4. Thank you all for your replies, I am glad you like it!

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  5. Wow, this is so pretty!well done!

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  6. Looks like gold is popular for this challenge.. so pretty!!!

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  7. That is drop dead gorgeous! Your ITP swirl is fantastic as well!

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  8. really came out awesome- allot of work went into that soap and it looks fantastic

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  9. Thanks to all of you! It´s so nice and encouraging to read such comments!

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  10. Very creative, Barbora!! I'm loving the design and color choices! Probably wouldn't have thought to do an ITP swirl with a tiger stripe - it's very striking!

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  11. Beautiful! I love the color combos!
    Hummer Hugs,
    Misty
    http://deliteful-gifts.blogspot.com/
    hummingbird204 at comcast dot net

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