I haven’t posted in over a month, though I wanted you all to know that I am certainly still creating new (and exciting) products! In the past week, I’ve made three NEW soap/shampoo bar concoctions and plan on making a fourth one tonight. The reason for the lack of posts: experimentation leaves no time for picture-taking! Not for me, at least. I am testing new techniques, new molds, and new scents for my customers and I think they’re going to love what I have curing 🙂 I like to always add pictures of my steps and I simply had to concentrate too much on getting everything correct to worry about camera angle. The good news is I think I’m getting the hang of it and will be able to multitask during the process very soon.
On another, perhaps similar, note. I’ve been trying to perfect a new swirl technique– nothing too fancy, just a basic “in the mold” swirl with two colors. Haha, welllllll…. The end product is still very much usable, but did not turn out how I had intended IN THE LEAST. I attempted a cherry (red) mango (orange) swirl and played with the actual color formation too long that it reached a thick trace before getting to the combining/swirling. When I saw the thick trace, I poured the mango (orange) batter into the rectangle loaf mold and topped it with cherry (red). I assumed (hoped) a swirl would have naturally developed during my several plops of batter. When I cut the loaf into bars the next day, I saw 1) that the orange and red did not swirl AND 2) just so happened to look like a slab of salami (red) on top of cheddar cheese (orange). D’oh! My product looks more like a Lunchable than it does a beautiful bar of soap. Nevertheless, the bars smell wonderful and they are beginning to change in color as they cure. I’m not sure *everyone* will automatically think of a 3rd grader’s lunch when they see the bars, but I certainly will! Gah!
-Holly
Six Degrees of Soap 