Let's see....hit the grocery, so the party's a go. Made 2 batches of soap: 1 "Whey too Cool", made from the whey left over from Sweet Geek's cheese-making, and 1 shampoo bar, made with Chamomile tea.
The Whey too Cool soap is my 2nd attempt at swirling - and I think I got it! The first batch (which is UGLY soap!), I tried to swirl in the mold; what I did was add the lye mix to the oils, blended to light trace (too much!), pulled out about a cup, added the colorant to it, and mixed (again, too much!), added scent to both, then poured the very thick cream-colored soap in the mold, topping it with all of the colored, and tried to swirl. That...doesn't work. You end up with layered soap, with scant swirling on top.
What I *should* have done with that one was mix to blended (NOT trace!!!), pull out some and color, then pour a layer of cream, a layer of color, and alternate to the top, then swirled the whole thing.
What I did this time was blend the oils, add the lye mix and blend until it got opaque - NOT trace. Pulled out about a cup, did the color/scent thang, then I poured the colored soap in "spots" in the bowl. (I did the 4 cardinal points and the center) - I did reserve some of the colored soap for the top. I used the OFF stick blender to stir the soap maybe 3 rotations, then we carefully poured the mix into the mold. I dribbled the leftover colored soap on top, then used a popsicle stick to swirl the top.
It looks FABULOUS - but we'll see how it looks when I cut it tomorrow. Unless something happens, my green dye came out red. :scratches head: It's green on my fingers, and green in the bowl, but the soap is RED swirled. :shrug:
I found out that a 24" long, 3" wide PVC pipe with flat bottom will hold a 4 pound batch of soap. Not more than, but 4 pounds exactly. :grin:
I need to get back to cleaning, but I think I'll take a nap instead. :lol:
tired