The Final Week of The Soap Challenge

This is the final week of the Soap Challenge. I'm kind of sad. In taking up this challenge I was exposed to colouring techniques that I had never tried. Each of these techniques will remain in my creative arsenal for future batches. My favourites were the Tiger Stripe, and this week's technique, the Jaguar Spot Swirl. When I think about it, my life long love of all things animal print may be to blame for these two techniques becoming my new favourites.

The single most difficult thing, for me, about this technique was getting the soap to a medium trace. As you have probably figured out, I tend to avoid more than the bare
st trace for the most part. This largely suites my preferred swirling methods. However this would not at all serve the Jaguar Spot. So I stick blended and stick blended my black little heart out and got my soap to the appropriate stage of trace. I chose obedient scent combination as to avoid any acceleration. The last thing you ever want when you've got your soap at a medium trace is for it to start moving on you. Soap on a stick can happen in a heart beat.

For the first soap, which I made on Sunday, I chose to blend sandalwood, dark vanilla, amber and assorted woods to create Wild About You. The moment I read up on this swirl, I wanted to do a soap in Jaguar colours. So the base of this soap is a deep yellow and the spots are black and brown. When I cut this soap Monday morning I was thrilled with the results. Naturally this meant I HAD to make another attempt.

This second soap was in my minds eye before I even weighed my oils. Lime green and pink spots in a white base, what could be more fun? For this soap I chose to blend a mix of melons and kiwis. It's sweet and succulent. I've dubbed the soap Melon Mayhem. I did two lines of spots in each layer of this soap. They remind me of eyes, eerie, and very entertaining. There's some TD crackling the the centre of the parts. But not bad at all. What say you folks, should I make another batch using the Jaguar Spot Swirl?