I did it! The Holly swirl was a success! It’s amazing how excited I get over making a beautiful soap. After my first try didn’t work out quite as I’d planned, I was super antsy to try again. A lavender and vanilla scented soap has been on my list of things to make for quite a while. I need something calming after chasing around those energetic kids all day! So I wanted to go for a dreamy nighttime swirl of colors in hopes that some night I can sit in a bath tub relaxing with my soapy creation. (I’d also settle for a quick shower while the kids are napping. Have I mentioned how much I love nap time?)
For this batch, I made sure to soap at lower temperatures and not to blend too much. After adding the lye solution, I poured off a bit of unscented soap to color white. Then I added fragrance to the main batch and only mixed it in by hand. I separated out more soap to turn light blue, and some to turn midnight blue. The main batter is a lavender/bluish/gray color, similar to the nighttime sky at dusk. While everything was still very fluid, I poured the white and midnight soaps into the light blue pot. I put about three-quarters of the main batter into the mold, then poured the mixture of 3 colors into the mold from high above.
Everything was perfectly fluid, and I knew immediately that this was exactly what I’d been going for! Pure satisfaction! To finish it off, I painted the top of the soap with splashes of each color and had fun swirling it as well.
Oh, the joy of cutting into a loaf of soap that you’ve worked hard at planning and making! Each slice of the soap was fun to study. I had a hard time deciding which beautiful swirl was my favorite. And I love this scent blend. So much so that I may just schedule time for myself in the bathtub very soon. I will most certainly continue to use this technique in soaps. Success looks (and smells) sweet!
