This month’s soaping challenge over at Amy Warden’s Soap Challenge Club is a multi-coloured gradient soap. Now I’ve made gradient soaps before, but all of my previous gradient soaps have been one colour plus white, where the base is the main colour and subsequent layers gradually get lighter by adding increasing amounts of white soap batter.
For the challenge, Amy stipulated that we should use three colours (and no white, gulp!), so this was definitely stepping outside my comfort zone. I decided to go with the primary colours, blue, red and yellow (though my red turned out decidedly salmon pink, but never mind….)
First I prepared my three colours – ultramarine blue oxide, lemon drop mica, and deep red mica (hmmm!), and tragedy struck! OK, so that’s a bit of an overreaction, but my coffee frother, which I use to disperse the powdered colours, fell apart on me:
Fortunately I’d already done the yellow and red, so I finished off the blue with a spoon and hoped for the best.
I then mixed the oils and butters with the lye, added the fragrance (a zesty lemon fragrance oil) and brought the mix up to a light trace. The main difficulty for me with this one was knowing how much of each base colour to start with. I watched Amy’s video a few times, and realised that I had no idea how much a ‘cup’ was 😀 I decided just to eyeball it:
Then I started the pour. A layer of just blue went in first – about a third of the ‘blue’ jug. I then added about a third of the red into the ‘blue’ jug, gave it a good mix and poured another layer. I added another third of red into the ‘blue’ jug and poured the lot into the mould to form the third layer. The aim each time was to have straight layers which didn’t break into the layer below – I was partially successful I think…
I then poured a layer of just red from the ‘red’ jug. This was the fourth, or middle, layer:
I added about a third of the yellow soap in with the red, mixed and poured a layer. Then another third of yellow into the ‘red’ jug and poured again. The seventh and final layer was pure yellow – no wastage – yey:
After 24 hours I unmoulded and cut. I’m really happy with the result:
I did find this one pretty challenging – I was working against a fast thickening batter towards the end, and wasn’t certain that I’d get all the layers done before the soap seized on me. It was a great experience, but I’m not sure I’ll be making a multi-coloured gradient soap again any time soon :0D
As always, thanks go to Amy Warden of Great Cakes Soapworks for planning and organising the whole shebang!
So perfectly done! Congratulations!
Thank you so much!
Well done! My gradient used similar colors but was washed out – feh!
Victoria
http://maitribathbody.com
Thanks Victoria!
It looks fabulous!! I love the way it changes so drastically. 🙂
Lol – thanks Amy! Not exactly what I was aiming for but I’m happy with the result.
It’s very pretty, nicely done!
Thanks Donna. Just had a peek at yours too – it’s lovely!
Wow….really pretty soap. Love it 🙂
Thanks Dianne :0)
Wow, it’s so beautiful and the colors are so rich…great job!!!
Thanks Cee!
Very pretty! I love the colors!
Thanks Katy!
I love those colors, kudos to you!
Thanks Shannon!
Lovely soap! It looks nice and calm like a sunset over the mountains.
Thanks Barbora… I looks like you and I used very similar colours!
It’s pretty demanding techinque,but what I hate the most about it is the number of containers one has to wash up afterwards, lol! But sometimes, it’s just worthwhile! Now it was, because you made beautiful soap! All colours are gorgeous and so fit to each other!
Maja!
Oh yes – all those container to wash up 😀 Thanks for your lovely comments Maja!
It’s beautiful Vicki! Like Barbora, I think it’s very reminiscent of the sun peeking over the mountains. It’s a very fall-like sunset look which is appropriate for this time of year.
Thanks so much Monica!
Your three-color gradient soap turned out beautifully, Vicki! I like the colors you chose, and the effect is fantastic. The blue and white gradient soap looks fabulous, too! It is very similar to a soap I made last year for the holidays using BB’s Fresh Snow FO. I love how the gradient technique looks!
Thanks Jenny! I love the gradient look as well, though anything more than 1 colour + white makes me quite tense lol – a lot to think about to get it just right, and I like my soaping to be a relaxing pastime 😀
It turned out so beautiful! Wow, I love it!
Thanks 😀