Circling Taiwan Swirl

Hello!  Today this blog is all about the Circling Taiwan Swirl Soap Challenge hosted by Amy Warden and how I made my entry.  If you want to join in on future challenges visit the Soap Challenge Club.  

Here is my entry:

Sexy Little Thing Lotus Blossom of Circling Taiwan Swirl

The version of the Circling Taiwan Swirl that we were tasked to complete is the Elaine Wright method.  Elaine Wright has several videos with unique and amazing swirls.  Check out her YouTube page!

Making Video by Elaine Wright: https://youtu.be/VIy8DMO4FYI
Cutting Video by Elaine Wright: https://youtu.be/CYMQgR_IVQM

There were several guidelines that we had to follow and I will summarize them below:
1. Use a log mold
2. Use 3 horizontal dividers 
3. Use cold process soap only
4. Demonstrate the Circling Taiwan Swirl only
5. The soap has to be poured 2X thick so it can be cut down the middle to show the swirl inside.  

First thang's first, I had to prepare my mold.  So, here is my mold with the homemade dividers.  I wrapped pieces of cardboard in packing tape to keep my soap protected from the cardboard.  Also, I got this spiffy new mold from Essential Depot.  Super awesome, yeah!   The basket keeps the mold nice and steady and the silicone is a great quality.

I decided to use a fragrance called "Sexy Little Things" from Wholesale Supplies Plus. This fragrance smells really awesome.  It is described as "A feminine blend of jasmine, lily and violet with juicy apple and lime."  I just think that is smells awesome!

Sexy Little Things and my sexy little colors

To go along with my Sexy Little Things theme I decided to use several sexy colors from Mad Oils.  I love Mad Oils for colors because they work so well in cold process soap.  They always disperse really well and are vibrant every time I use them.  The colors that I used are Flirt Mica, Tahitian Teal Mica, and Key West Blue Mica.  I chose these colors because of all of the flirting that happens in Tahiti and Key West in those teeny bikinis AND I may have got some inspiration of the image from somewhere in Tahiti . . . 

Doesn't this looks awesome!

Doesn't this picture just scream relaxation?  Well, scream might not be the right word for relaxing . . . anyway.  I am getting off point here.  I think the colors I picked match this inspiration picture pretty well :)

Beautiful colored swirls!

Back to the process!  I used my favorite soap recipe for this lovely challenge and I soaped at 90 F to make sure my batter stayed nice and fluid.  Once my soap was emulsified and brought to light trace I added my sexy colors and fragrance.  

Wet soap!

When I poured my soap into the mold I really had to press down on the dividers to get them to not leak from the bottom of the mold.  I decided to use the pink in 2 of the sections with the light blue and teal each getting one section.  Here is my soap with the dividers removed.  I forgot to take a picture of the soap with the dividers in.  

Pink, Teal, Pink, Blue

Right after I removed the dividers I used a small wooden dowel to swirl my soap (1/4 in in diameter).  I wanted tight, but, not too tight spacing for my swirls.  I didn't want the colors to get muddled by too tight of swirling.  So, I started at one of the short ends of the soap and dragged the dowel perpendicular to the color lines black and for the until the other end of the soap.  When I finished that I took the dowel and ran it along the edges of the mold in a circle (rectangular circle, that is) to create the wispy circling lines in the soap.  I circled around several times until I was satisfied with the pattern.  

My swirled soap!

I let this soap sit in my oven overnight with the light on to fully gel.  Worked like a charm :)

Here are my cut pics.  I cut the soap into 2 1/4 in sections and then cut the chunks in half to expose what was on the inside of the soaps. Every picture below is a look at the inside cut of the soap.  

End Lotus Blossom

Another end Lotus Blossom

One of each ends side by side

One of the middle sections