Great Cakes Soapworks Challenge July 2016 – pipe divider soap

I didn’t have the time to take part in the June challenge (damn you accountancy exams!) but I’m back and ready to go for the July challenge. This month the challenge is to use a variety of pipes to have sections of soap that is a different colour all the way to the bottom of the mould and to then swirl the top however we please. We’re only allowed to use 4 colours this month – two for the base and two for in the pipes.

First task – find suitable pipes! A search online for couplers found my local B&Q had a variety of sizes from 20mm up to 40mm in diameter. I felt the 20mm looked a bit too small so for my first attempt I used 3x 36mm and 3x 43mm. I melted a little cocoa butter to hold the pipes in place and left it to harden back up – this took way longer than I expected it to so I ended up popping it into the freezer to speed things up!

I’m going to show you my 2nd attempt first as I prefer my first attempt for entering into the challenge. For my 2nd attempt I found a different hardware store that had some 50mm couplers as I felt that I needed more pipes. I used 2x 50mm, 3x 43mm and 2x 36mm for this attempt and this is how my mould looked with the pipes held in place with the cocoa butter before I started.

For this attempt I chose white & neon pink for my base and black & neon purple for in the pipes. I used a favourite recipe of mine which contains castor oil and also shea butter – I think the castor may have caused my soap to thicken up quicker than I would have liked. I used peppermint and lime essential oils in an attempt to create a mojito like smell in the finished soap.

I managed to pour my base colour no problem but the soap for inside the pipes was getting a little too thick and by the time I pulled the pipes out they pulled a fair bit of the soap out with them. As the soap had gotten really thick by this time I couldn’t get the movement I wanted to from my swirling – it had been my intention to try to create butterflies from the soap that was in the pipes. I think I got a couple of smaller butterflies but the bigger sections of soap just look kind of blobby to me now.

Here’s the bottom of the soap after I unmoulded it:

Because the soap had gotten so thick during the swirling I decided it needed a very thin layer planing off the top just to smooth it out a little, here’s a few cut pics.

So that was attempt #2, here is attempt #1 which will be my entry for the challenge this month.

I used a similar recipe as my other try but didn’t include the shea butter in this soap as I was waiting on a delivery. I chose neon pink & white for the base and petrol blue (created using blue oxide, turquoise green  mica and a little activated charcoal) & black for in the pipes. The scent used in this one is a blend of tea tree essential oil and a white jasmine & mint fragrance oil.

This soap stayed a bit more fluid so I was able to swirl the tops a bit more than in the 2nd attempt – but I forgot my goal was butterflies so I just ended up with a pretty swirl instead. Here it is just poured and the day after – check out the ash on there!!

I steamed the top but to me the colours still looked a bit muted, like there was still ash on top so I planed the top of this one a little too.

Some more finished soap pics – cos I know we all love to look!!!