This past weekend I got around to finally trying out my oval soap mold once more. I tried a goats milk soap again, with two cc scoops of a yellow oxide, and a lemongrass/patchouli essential oil mix. It's mostly a lemongrass scent but the patchouli cuts it a bit and holds it better in the soap I think.
My mold has been cleaned many times and scrubbed. The mica I placed into the mold before pouring the soap has stayed in some areas. Never again will I try to add the mica into a mold first, I'll only mix it in the soap or oils.
I was worried the darker essential oil would make my yellow invisible so I added the two scoops instead of my original idea of one. We'll soon see the result.
The goats milk was frozen in cubes and then lye slowly mixed into the slush. I placed the container in a sink of ice water to assist in keeping the temperatures low. Lower temperatures mean that the soap will stay cool and will most likely reveal the colors I intend.
My oils contained the yellow oxide since I wasn't planning on a trying a swirl this time. Since they were above 80 degrees F, I placed the pot int he sink as well to cool it down. I try to get my goats milk soap to 80 degrees, meaning the lye mixture is 80 and so are the oils.
After combining the lye and oils I stick blended until there was a very light trace. I can't tell you how awesome stick blenders are! When the soap was ready I poured it into each little cavity. Only the last three started getting thicker but still very pourable. I have to adjust my recipe size for this mold since I had extra soap that I quickly poured into a leftover container.
Since my pot is rather large for pouring I tried out
this silicone pour spout. At a thin trace it worked wonderfully and aimed the soap perfectly into each little cavity. I was very pleased!
