The Secret Swirl Soap Challenge

The Soap Challenge Club for March was to create the “Secret Swirl,” a feather-like swirl that’s hidden inside the center of the soap and revealed upon cutting it. The challenge was divided into 2 categories: all-natural soaps and synthetic soaps. For the first time ever inside the club, I decided to go for an all-natural design using only essential oils and a natural colorant. So really, this was like a double challenge for me! I’ve never tried this technique, and I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone a bit by going all-natural! 🙂

With the onset of spring, I’ve been loving using a blend of lavender and lemon essential oils around my house, in my essential oil diffusers, and in roller bottles to rub on my wrists and temples occasionally throughout the day. The blend is so bright and happy to my senses in a grounding, soothing way. It only made sense for me to create a soap with the same blend: 2 parts lavender to 1 part lemon 5x essential oil. I used a large amount of olive oil and rice bran oil in the soap recipe, yielding a yellow tint to the soap which coordinates well with the lemon scent. I naturally wanted to create a purple to coordinate with the lavender oil (did you catch that pun?!), and I happened to have a small bag of Purple Brazilian Clay from Bramble Berry. Before I began prepping the soap, I mixed 1 teaspoon of purple clay into 1 tablespoon of rice bran oil and blended it well.

Next, I began by prepping my lye solution, adding silk as well as sugar to give me a bit more time to work (with the added benefit of more bubbles in the final soap). I used a slow-moving recipe of olive oil, lard, coconut oil and rice bran oil. To make an ultra-luxurious soap in both smell and feel, I added the essential oils, some whole milk yogurt, and colloidal oatmeal to the base oils. Once the lye solution and oils cooled to about 90 degrees, I blended them to emulsion with just a few pulses of the stick blender and a bit of stirring. I split off 1 cup of soap, added all of the purple clay in oil and blended well.

Deep breath! Time to soap!

I poured some of the uncolored soap batter into the bottom of my mold until it was about an inch deep. Then I inserted 2 dividers into the mold (that I made ahead of time out of foam board wrapped in packing tape). Using a long-necked measuring cup, I carefully poured a small amount of purple down the center between the 2 dividers, followed by a small amount of uncolored soap. I repeated this about 6 times, also adding some uncolored soap to the outsides in order to hold the dividers in place. Once the mold was filled, I carefully lifted the dividers straight up and out of the mold.

Then, I pushed a hanger tool down the center of the mold right where I’d poured the stripes of yellow and purple soap.

I slowly pulled the tool along the bottom of the mold toward one edge of the mold and then lifted it up and out. Finally, I carefully added the remainder of the yellow soap on top of everything and dotted on the leftover purple soap, then created a wispy swirl with a skewer.

To ensure full gel, I placed the soap into the oven that I’d preheated to 170 degrees then turned off. I checked on the soap about every 15 minutes for the next hour. When it reached full gel (somewhere around an hour later), I pulled it out of the oven, sprayed it with alcohol and left it out on the counter to cool and harden. (Since I’ve never worked with this purple clay, I want to experiment with it a bit. This time, I wanted a full gel. Next time I use it, I’ll try to keep it cool so as not to gel. Then I’ll be able to compare the colors!)

Like usual, it was exciting and a little excruciating waiting to cut this soap! It amazes me that I still feel giddy cutting into soap after making it for 5 years (gasp…5 years already!).

Will there be a feather in there?!?!

The big reveal!

TADA!!! We have something resembling a feather in each bar!

This technique is certainly a fun one that I’ll be trying again with multiple colors. I’ll also try using a tall skinny mold next time which should give me more room to make a true feather. I’d like to try my hand a skinnier and shorter feather next go around.

In person, the feathers are more purple than they appear in the photos. I like the color that the purple Brazilian clay added. It’s truly the same color in the soap as it is sitting in the bag!

It’s apparent that a few bars may have overheated just a bit. I made sure that the entire soap was gelled before I removed it from the oven, but these end cuts show a deeper heat than the inside bars. They have a darker yellow color in the center, and based on my experience, this could be partly due to using full fat yogurt and sugar. Over time, the darker yellow in the center will lighten up a bit.

Thanks to Amy for a great challenge and tutorial, as well as Claudia Pazdernik who first created this technique and shared with the world how she did it! It’s always fun to be back in the club, learning from so many talented soap makers all over the world. I can’t wait to see what everyone made! (I forced myself not to look at the link-up until after mine was ready to go.) Happy Soaping, and Happy Spring!