Rainbow Soap Balls

Making soap balls for the use of embedding in a log of soap is commonly done.  I've done single color soap balls, complicated layered balls, tiny and large.  This creation is talking about rainbow color soap balls and how I made them.

I started with making a batch of fresh soap mixed with each individual rainbow color.  I usually unmold the soap and wait for 2 days, that's when my soap is still soft enough to knead but not sticky anymore.  Then I kneaded each soap dough into thin long rods.

Combined the rods, cut into sections then twisted them into balls.  It is time consuming but look how pretty those balls are!  Usually if I want to embed big balls into a fresh batch of soap I need to do it within a week, otherwise the balls will get dried and become too hard to cut against soft fresh soap.  Here's the final soap I used these balls in:

How Exact Can I Recreating a Soap Design?!

Have you ever gotten into a situation where you accidentally (or not) created a soap that's surprisingly great and would love to recreate it again and again but just can't?!

I made this soap inspired by a color palette from Design Seeds:

I really like this vibrant happy summer color combination in a white soap base.  Unfortunately the yellow color faded to almost nothing within 2 days.  Here's my previous post about color fading: Disappointing Color Fading  

It looked like this 2 days later:

Now, I really, really want to recreate this!  Give my yellow back!  Without the yellow, the soap just doesn't look the same!  Without knowing exactly why the yellow faded so fast, either the colorant or the fragrance, I decided to use a different scent AND a different yellow, I am NOT doing this the 3rd time!

Four weeks later, all colors settled a little, not as neon but didn't fade!  Thank goodness there's not 3rd time!  The faded 1st batch still smells great and good soap but too bad the look is not up to part, it'll go to the unsellable pile for personal use or donation. 

Soaping Design Revolution

You have read this before from me that I seldom repeat my design, even if it's the same fragrance.  But there are a couple I do every year that I consider worth keeping and repeat.  However, the big concept might have stayed the same, it's the small detail changes that make each batch unique.  This is a story about how Mojito Soap evolved over the years.

Original inspiration back in July 2012 is a photo of a beach resort I got online:

 This is the very first Mojito Soap combining 3 different techniques: soap embed with outline, pencil line, and M&P soap on top of CP:

This design was a big hit, even got some soapers copying through out the years.  The video of making is uploaded on my Youtube channel, just search for Shieh Design Studio if you are interested.  This design requires a lot of planning and preparation, definitely not a mess produce effective design.  Then the next 2 generation:

I feel like it is losing it's fame, time for a little reinventing!  I went back to my original Mojito and really feel like I need to bring back some of the elements.  I like the irregular rocks from the first generation rather than those later round balls.  But instead of remaking the exact duplicate of first generation I want something else to catch people's attention again.  Thanks to all that responded on my Facebook page and gave me some inspirations!  I'm rather excited about this new Mojito Soap, still made with coconut water and essential oil blend (instead of artificial fragrance), but a fresh look!

How can it call itself Mojito if there's no lime slices and mint leaves?!  That's obvious, isn't it?

With a simple and free modification to my log mold I created this glass shape soap, how do you like it?

Using Cookie Cutters for Soap Embeds

Simple soap embeds can be added inside the soap or on top of the soap, they can make an ordinary soap look interesting and instantly catch shoppers' attention.  There are a lot of embed molds in the market, molds that meant to be used for making chocolate, ice cube, even cake fondant can be used to make soap embeds.  However, some intricate silicone molds can be very pricey!  Here is a simple way to make fruit wedges without having to search for embed molds, like these tiny imitation of coconut wedges.

With the same technique, I made this tiny melon wedges for my Melon Spritzer Soap.

This is actually very simple but do require patience.  All you need is a round mold and circle cookie cutters.  You can get a set of 3 circles for a few dollars in a typical kitchenware store.  I only use the 2 larger ones.

 To demonstrate making melon wedges, step one, put the largest ring in a round mold.  Mix up some melt & pour soap with green colorant then pour in between the space while holding down the ring with your fingers.

Let is cool down and unmold it to take off the largest cookie cutter ring.  Put the green soap back into the mold, and place the medium size ring in the center.  Mix up some melt & pour soap with orange colorant then pour between the green soap ring and the cookie cutter.

Let it cool down, remove it from the mold and take off the cookie cutter.  Use a knife to cut it into 6 wedges.

 The proportion between green and orange is just too equal, which is not realistic.  To make it more like the real melon wedge, take the largest cookie cutter and cut off the outer green as much as you want.

 This is what you end up with, 6 cute melon wedges and left over green peel.

You can apply this to coconut wedges or watermelon wedges and probably some more I can't think of.  Have fun!