June 2017 Soap Challenge - Ombre

Ombre soaps are one of my favorite types of soaps to make, and I've made quite a few in the past. I normally prefer straight layers, but the wall pour technique turns out beautifully as well. Here's a sample of some of my previous work:

I was really impressed by Amy's tall & skinny shimmy ombre soap, so I originally signed up this month to see how she made it. Although I haven't had a chance to try it myself, I definitely plan to give it a shot in the future. Instead, there's been an ombre soap that I've been wanting to make, so I thought that entering it into the challenge would be perfect.

For my project, I wanted to use Veronica Foale's diagonal ombre/wall pour technique in a tall & skinny mold. I've used her technique in a log mold before, but not a tall mold. Using teal, blue, and purple mica, I planned to make a mermaid-themed soap with an aquatic fragrance. The issue with acquatic/ozone fragrances, though, is that they tend to accelerate very quickly. I had WSP's Abalone & Sea FO on hand - although I've used this FO in the past and the online reviews say that it behaves well, I was wary about how it'd behave with this technique...and I was right, it moved much more quickly than I would've liked, despite the slow-moving recipe. I somehow still managed to mix my colorant into the soap and pour the many layers into the mold, it just involved a lot of banging the mold on the counter. :)

Because time was precious, I didn't get any pictures while pouring. :( I basically started with fragranced, uncolored soap batter and gradually added colorant to it. I'd pour a layer down the side of the mold, mix a little mica into the soap batter, and repeat. I added teal mica for the first third, then added blue for the second, and added purple for the final third. Fortunately, the soap batter didn't get too muddled by the time I got to the purple. Here are some photos of the soap poured and decorated, before heading into the oven.

Then two days later, unmolded. I was very relieved with how it turned out and was excited to cut it!

Finally, here are the cleaned up bars! I'm calling these "Siren's Song"

While the layers could be more seamless, I'm still happy with the result. You wouldn't be able to tell that there are like 30+ layers to this soap!

This has been one of my favorite challenges thus far! Thank you Amy for continuing to put these challenges together!