M&P Swirling

by Anonymous

I haven't been able to get really nice swirls with melt and pour soaps.


I've tried a few different methods but I find one of two things usually happen: bleeding of the colors OR the soap forms a skin and it gets dragged when i'm trying to swirl..... the bleeding seems to happen if i pour the second color too quickly (the soap is too hot), and the skin forms if i wait too long (and the soap is too cool).... now it would seem logical to say "then pour between the bleeding stage and skin stage", but the problem is they are seem to be milliseconds apart!

I also tried pouring in layers so I don't have to swirl a little bit at a time but the same problems still occur. Any suggestions?

Answer:

This is a problem that most soap makers face when trying to marble melt and pour soap....it just doesn't marble the same way that cold process does.

With cold process, you can get sharp contrasting lines but with the melt and pour, it's a softer marble with the colours blending into each other a bit.

Try using mica and oxides as colourants since they do not dissolve in the soap...they stay suspended. This should help to minimize bleeding.

Here are a couple of links that give melt and pour marbling instructions....Aussie Soap Supplies and The Soap Queen.

Good luck,
Cathy

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by: Barbara

Many of Anne-Marie's M&P projects use liquid dyes. In M&P the liquid seems to disperse better. Micas are pretty good too, but you have to make sure you're mixing them in thoroughly. I'm sorry you're having such a time with this..it kind of takes the fun out of soaping, doesn't it? Don't dispair, keep a watch on Soap Queen - she's really excellent and from what I've witnessed, she makes some beautiful designs in swirling. I don't know if you have viewed this one, but here's a link to her "Swirling Melt and Pour soap"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jcf9l5Wc44

Hope this helps!
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by: Anonymous

I was using mics and oxides. :(
I've seen the soap queen videos but still, no such luck.
Perhaps I'm trying something that just since possible.
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by: Barbara

Anne Marie (a.k.a. The Soap Queen) has a video on how to swirl melt and pour. It's done in layers and from what I gathered from the video, the way to tell if the layer is ready for the next pour is to blow on it. If it doesn't move, then you can pour your next layer. However, I totally agree with you, it seems like milliseconds. Maybe it's just a practice thing, but the two links are your best bet for the technique.

Good Luck!

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