Today is my second attempt at the kiss pour for the Feb soap challenge. This one is using lavender eo and sensuous sandalwood fo.
28.5 oz distilled water
30 oz olive oil
27.55 oz coconut oil
12.25 oz rice bran oil
11.60 oz lye
4.05 oz shea butter
4.85 oz avocado oil
2.55 oz castor oil
2.4 oz sodium lactate
2 oz lavender eo
2 oz sensuous sandalwood (bramble berry)
1 oz blue tide
.5 oz mint julip
.5 oz crazy eyes
.5 oz iris purple
.5 of grape nehi
.01 oz tussah silk

For this soap I used a 9x17 slab mold which I feel worked a lot better than the 9x9 I used for the first attempt. Also, no black for this one, I used blue tide instead. My only big issue with this one is that there wasn’t enough difference between the crazy eyes and mint julip as I thought there would have been. I should have either used a darker green instead of the crazy eyes or added TD to the mint julip to get it lighter. I had to change my pour for the greens using the blue tide in between each of the greens instead of pouring them one after the other. Still, I really love the look of this one and this technique is a keeper! I am surprised however, these were regular micas not my enviro glitters but the soap looks like it is full of glitter! It will be interesting to see if that sparkle stays. 

Sooooo, today I am doing double duty 😊. I am making sandalwood soap, a highly requested soap, for Sherwood Forest Faire, but I am also doing it for the Feb soap challenge. The challenge is called a kiss pour, an acrylic painting technique that translates well to soap. For this technique, you need a slow tracing recipe with a slow tracing fragrance oil. The trick is to be able to pour multiple colors into 2 separate jugs and then pour them together into the mold so they “kiss” or create a waterfall of all the colors together.
I am using the recipe provided in the challenge:
27 oz distilled water
30 oz olive oil
27.55 oz coconut oil
12.15 oz rice bran oil
11.60 oz lye
4.05 oz shea butter
4.85 oz avocado oil
2.45 oz castor oil
2.4 oz sodium lactate
2 oz sandalwood fo (bescented)
2 oz senuous sandalwood (bramble berry)
1 oz nocturnal black
.5 oz silver mist
.5 oz harolds purple crayon
.5 oz peacock
.5 of shimmer gold
.01 oz tussah silk

So, I need to do a few things differently. Use a larger slab mold or less batter. This was a 9x9 but should have been a 12x12, I need to pour slower next time to see if I get a better pattern, I may need to use a white or grey base instead of black. This would be an awesome galaxy soap if I used the enviro glitters! It will be interesting to see what happens once this one is cut and cleaned. Once shaved the swirl should be more visible. At least I hope it is.

So this is a lesson in why you don't wait until the last minute to do soap for a soap challenge! Back in Dec Amy messaged me to ask if she could add a link to my original geode soap in IG and let me know that this was going to be part of the Jan soap challenge. Now a little back story..... when I made my 3 geode soaps it took me 3 days to complete 1 and I swore I would never make them again! Fast forward to this Jan soap challenge and I debated whether or not I was going to do it. I decided on Jan 22,2021 that I was going to do it, end of the challenge is Jan 26,2021 haha! I had in mind that I would create a full geode and embed it inside the soap. It did not go well! 

Today I finished Sea Salt the last of the fragrances from the Bramble Berry seaside collection. It has notes of black seaweed accord, cucumber water, Galia melon, green lily blossoms, dewy rose, and white tea leaves. This soap also contains 2 new ingredients for us, black Icelandic sand and a colorant called Jagua. The sand is a volcanic sand and really fine, and it makes a great exfoliate. The Jagua colorant is a natural extract from Genipa americana trees, which are native to tropical forests in North and South America. I hope you enjoy these new bars!
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