Swirled soap is eye catching and gives a professional touch to an ordinary looking bar. It's also really great because it makes every bar unique - letting everyone know that your soap was handcrafted with care.
A few simple rules will make all the difference in your results.
Soap Swirling Instructions
1. Prepare your work area
Organize your work area including all of the utensils, molds, and soap ingredients before you start. Have your ingredients including colourants and scents (essential oils or oil soluble fragrances) all pre-measured and at hand beside your mixing bowl.
2. Prepare your colours
Measure out your colourants into separate containers and add a tablespoon of hot water to form a slurry that is liquid enough to easily mix with the soap.
3. Make your soap base
Bring your soap mixture to a light trace only - that way, you should have time to divide it, add a different colour to each portion, and any other ingredients before the project gets to a medium trace.
4. Divide the base & mix your colours
Pour the desired amount of soap into each cup of pre-measured colour, and whisk or blend for a few seconds to mix the colourant throughout the soap.
5. Add scent to your soap
Fragrance should be the last thing you add to your soap before swirling. If you need to add any other ingredients to each divided soap colour, do it before adding your scent.
6. Pour each colour back into the main bowl
After mixing each colour and fragrance, you should still be at a light to medium trace. You can now pour the colours back into the base in your main mixing bowl, raising and lowering your pours to achieve the best penetration of coloured soap into the batch. If the trace is advanced, you can use a spatula to gently swirl the soap in the bowl just before you pour into the mold. Be careful to mix gently, as overmixing will cause your colours to turn muddy.
7. Pour the soap into your mold
Gently pour your soap from one end of the mold to the other. Experiment with how you choose to pour - in a zig zag pattern, how many passes you make, and whether your pour additional small amounts of the leftover colours on the top.
8. Swirl your soap
Use a knife or small wooden stick and drag through the top of your soap to create the swirl effect you want. Experiment and be creative with your swirl design.
9. Be confident!
Practice makes perfect, and remember you can't hurt the soap. Each batch will just get better!
