Hurry up and wait

I finally got my Brambleberry package that I ordered early last week. I previously ordered their pigment sample package that comes with like 12 colors, but I found myself running out of the titanium dioxide. So, I ordered a pound of TD--hopefully that lasts me a while. :) I also bought a clean up tool, since it's hard to clean off soap crumbs with my hands. Plus, I should really bevel the sides of my soaps. The soaps that I've tried that aren't beveled tend to feel sharp during the first few uses. I caved and ended up ordered a soap planer/beveler off of Etsy yesterday, since my soap cutter smears the sides of my soap. I also ordered like another $150 worth of fragrance oils and other miscellaneous supplies this week. >.< I wish it was easier/cheaper to buy soap making materials in stores so I wouldn't have to wait for my packages. Hopefully I'll have enough materials to last me a long while. And hopefully I can actually sell my soaps one day soon!

Anyway, I made a batch of lavender soap last weekend. I followed the recipe in this soap crafting book but made a smaller batch. I didn't realize having a higher percentage of olive oil would really impact how long it takes for the soap to harden up! I made the mistake of taking the soap out of the mold too soon (after two days). I tried cutting a bar off yesterday, but the inside was still way too soft. I'll wait an extra day before I cut up the rest. Here's how the loaf looks:

Fortunately, my in-the-pot swirl actually worked this time. I want to hurry up and cut the rest of the loaf so I can see what the other bars will look like. One annoying thing about the lavender buds on top is that they drag down through the soap sometimes as you are cutting the loaf. Hence the ugly side that I tried to smooth out with my fingers. But once I get my planer, I should be able to fix that up.

The last time I attempted the in-the-pot swirl was with my pumpkin spice soap. The trace was too thick, and the white part didn't swirl very well with the amber part. All of the white soap ended up glopping into the mold first, so there is no white on the top half of the bar. I tried swirling the soap with a chopstick after the soap was in the mold, but I over-swirled. Note to self: less is more. Notice the difference in pattern from the lavender soap above?

Last night I made a batch of oats, milk, and honey soap using goat milk (with ground oats and real honey!) and this fragrance oil from Brambleberry. To my dismay, there was a crack on the top of my soap! 

You can't see the crack as well in this picture, but it definitely looked worse last night. Hopefully it won't look too bad after I cut the soap. I have no idea why soap cracks (aside from overheating) and how to prevent it. I made a similar batch last week that was unscented. Perhaps it was the fragrance oil that made the soap crack? Maybe the different combination of oils that I used? I mixed the lye mixture and oils at 100 degrees, which I thought was plenty cool enough. I had another loaf crack a few weeks ago with a similar textured top--maybe it's because of that? Unfortunately it's hard to fix the crack when the top is textured, so there wasn't anything I could do about it. In the future, though, I'll be sure to make sure I soap at lower temperatures (definitely below 120 degrees). I'll post pictures of the cut loaves later. :) Happy hump day!