Hot Air Balloon Soap

This is my second attempt to create a soap using the Circling Taiwan Swirl Technique. I’ve been practicing for the Soap Club Challenge for April 2023. (CLICK HERE to read about other batches of soap I’ve made for this competition.) The challenge is to use the Circling Taiwan Swirl, which I’ve never done before this week.

For this batch of soap, I decided to use a fragrance called Sun-Dried Cotton. It is a fresh scent with notes of lemon, mandarin and cotton blossom, combined with ylang-ylang and rose. I wanted it to have some very vibrant colors to make it seem summery and fun, so I used some neon powder colorants.

I used a heat transfer method to mix my oils and lye. I dispersed my colorants in the fragrance oil ahead of time. This fragrance was very easy to work with and I had no problem getting the batter to stay fluid enough to pour into the dividers in my mold. I used a chopstick to make the swirls.

The Circling Taiwan Technique is to use a chopstick, wooden spoon handle, skewer, or a similar rod to make the swirls. The rod is run completely through the batter in up and down lines all the way across the mold. Then, without lifting the rod out of the batter, it is run firmly around the outer edges of the batter. This time, I ran the chopstick around the edge three times.

I wrapped the soap in a blanket for 24 hours so it would gel. After 24 hours, I unmolded and cut the bars of soap. This was not the normal type of cutting. In order to get the desired design, I had to cut the loaf of soap into chunks, turn it sideways, then slice it into bars. There is quite a bit of excess soap cut away with this method, and I’m not too fond of that aspect. However, it will not go to waste. I will use it as samples to my customers or I’ll incorporate the pieces into another batch of soap in the future.

Once cut, I took some quick photos of the bars, then decided to photograph outside in the natural sunlight. I should have known better, because it was breezy outside, but I stacked the bars on the rail of my deck and prepared to take the shot. Just then, the wind blew a couple of them off the rail and into the dirt! Even mangling some! I was so glad to get the inside shots, but they do not do this soap justice. I may not enter this soap into the competition, anyway, so I’ll just use the two dirty soaps for personal use. After all, it should wash off, right? The rest will be available in my shop after they’ve cured.

Stay tuned for my third attempt! CLICK HERE for my other batches.