Ghostly Teardrops

This month, Amy Warden's Soap Challenge Club is exploring the ghost swirl.  A very aptly named challenge for the month of October!!!

This swirl utilizes different lye concentrations to obtain color variations in the soap.  The first time I had read about this technique, years ago, was on Auntie Clara's blog.  She has recently posted another blog on the same technique, explaining the process in more detail.  I love all of her posts, and it's a good day when I can sit with a cup of tea and peruse websites like hers for hours :)

Auntie Clara's Ghost Swirl

Amy Warden's Ghost Swirl

In both of these examples, no added colorants are introduced to the soap batter.  Auntie Clara has used a more traditional soap recipe giving a palette of natural white shades, while Amy Warden has used natural red oils in her blend, providing the lovely fall friendly colors.

I have chosen to go with my typical recipe with three different lye concentrations, 30, 40 and 50 percent.  I'm hoping this will give me some visual contrast in the natural white and off white color palette.  The various "colors" come from the fact that with different water amounts, the soap gels at different rates.  And, each gelling rate should have a slight difference in hue.

I'm using this little mold for the first time.  It's a nice size for an experimental batch of soap, and it may be something that would work for a tall and skinny?  It's definitely narrow, which made it a bit problematic when I was pouring my batter.

With this challenge, the design and type of swirl is up to the maker.  I decided to try a teardrop swirl, as I haven't made one of these in quite a while.  Needed to research it again to know what I was doing :)  I will only have time for one attempt, so.....crossing my fingers I get something I can enter.

For this technique, I took three 1.5 oz. aliquots of oil out of the total of 25 oz.  I calculated out the amount of 50% lye needed for the entire batch, pulled out the proper amount for each of the smaller aliquots.  I then added the proper amount of water to the 30 and 40 percent portions to attain the correct dilutions and mixed the appropriate lyes with the oil aliquots.  The remaining lye was added to the remaining oils, and the subsequent large batch of batter was divided into three equal portions. 

One of these larger portions is poured into the bottom of the mold.  Then I took the three 1.5 oz. aliquots and poured them into a line in the center of the base batter, layering the different "colors" onto each other in one line.  My pictures aren't the best, but there was a noticeable difference in the color of the batters.  Since each portion had lye added separately, and each portion was coming to trace at their own pace, I'm not sure if the different "colors" were due to the various levels of trace, or the concentration of the lye.

Then when all the small portions of batter are used up, I took the remaining two containers of "background" batter and poured them simultaneously along the walls on either side. 

This is a bit tricky, and I do not have pictures, as I do not have three hands :)  However, you can see a video of how this is done here.

All Batter Poured - You Can See Variations in Color

Top Colors Swirled

Once I had the soap batter poured, I covered, insulated with towels, and let it sit overnight.  Normally, my batches are a little larger, and gel happens easier.  I was hoping this smaller mold would still retain some heat and gel properly.  I checked on it a couple times, was initially nervous, but after a couple hours it was toasty in there!

I woke up this morning anxious to cut the loaf!

The contrast was impressive, and I was hopeful that the soap may turn out - that's if I was able to obtain a teardrop shape...which has been problematic in the past, but YES!

Here are pictures of the final product.

The teardrop shape was not so impressive throughout the entire loaf, and I have some ideas why.  I really had a difficult time keeping both of the containers pouring along the wall at the same time. 

I'm going to try again today with an alkanet infused oil I have kicking around.  Should be fun to see how the ghost swirl behaves with that!