Feather Swirl Finally!

Very rarely can I perform a whispery feather swirl as delicate as this one!

My recipes trace at average speed, perfect for someone impatient like me.  To make feathering swirl requires very thin and slow trace soap recipe.  Rule of thumb  is to use high contain of olive oil in the recipe, but I dislike the slimy feel and the long cure time.  I like hard bars of soap, decreasing saturated fat is not an option for me either.  The only way I can achieve this is by using beef tallow in the recipe.  I know quit a lot of people find soap made with animal fat to be considered not environmentally friendly.  On the contrary, as a meat eater, I feel it is actually greener to use animal fat for soap.  If you would like to know more about using beef tallow for soap, here's my old blog post: myth about Beef Tallow Soap

This is Ume Blossom Soap, Ume means plum in Japanese, it's the first bloom of the spring followed by Cherry blossom.

 

I used a small cookie cutter to make these tiny flower using melt and pour soap base ahead of time then "glued" some sugar pearls with cold process soap in the center of each blossom.  It is time consuming and detail oriented but it's worth the effort, don't you think?