Volcano Kiss 🌋💋

Thanks for stopping by to read the long version and details of the February #soapchallengeclub challenge for the #kisspoursoap, as taught by Joanne Watkins of @naturespotionhandmadesoap . Inspiration for kiss pour soaping comes from fluid acrylic paint pouring. But a little different because you can't get soap on your skin 😬. This was my favorite challenge so far! OK, I have only done 2 but it WAS my favorite and very addicting. I went to bed thinking about what colors I was going to kiss the next day.

I would like to thank Lisa Cunningham @idreaminsoap for her example of pouring in layers. I loved that idea and was able to try different pours and color combinations without filling up my 100 ounce slab mold at one time. If you haven't seen her video you can view it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L-WOOZ61f0

I felt like working in a bigger mold gave me more room to get usable designs. The traveling kiss pour was my favorite out of all my trials and LOVED the way the wet soap looked with this technique. I used a level to try and keep my pours even - but my house must be tilted bc my layers were still somewhat uneven!

**Stop here if you don't want to be overwhelmed with way too many pictures of wet soap:) **

I did opt out of fragrance oil for a few layers because I felt like that was most likely the cause of soda ash and acceleration. One challenge for me was letting go of my regular soap recipe to use a more fluid one- but later I went back to mine and made a few adjustments to keep it more fluid. The trick for me was to soap at 90 degrees, premix mica in oils, hand stir in fragrances and micas and sit and wait, and wait and wait until it was ready to pour and once it reached the perfect trace work at ninja speed to get the soap in the pouring containers and ready to kiss. Patience is not strong in my genetics- but we worked through it. Using LONG SPOUTED measuring cups also worked best for me.

My entry soap "VOLCANO KISS" was comprised 3 different layers of my favorite color combo of red, white and blues inspired by the STRENGTH of AMERICA this past year 🇺🇸. Trial by Fire Red from @nurturessoap is vibrant and a true red. My color palette also consisted of Caribbean Blue, Siren's Song and Brilliant Blue, TD and AC.

The first layer of this soap did not contain fragrance. I used some oil/Brilliance Blue mica drizzle inside the pour cups to add some shimmer and interest and I really liked the way that worked out.

Here is LAYER 1 of some of my favorite images of that POUR:

The middle layer of this batch is where I added the fragrance VOLCANO from @azteccandleandsoapsupplies . It's Capri Blue duplication and did not accelerate the trace at all . To me it smells like Minute Maid Fruit Punch which brings me back to my happy days of childhood. I also added some pumice powder which is an exfoliate made appropriately from powdered volcanic ash.

This pour design was interesting and I'm glad it was on the inside 😅.

The final pour gave me some trouble because I did decide to add fragrance and FORGOT!!! my sodium lactate which is NO biggie but we really needed this FLUID recipe to cure faster and it was taking its sweet Soda ASH time! I LOVED this pour design and was really hoping the soda ash would not take over because I had read some stories in the group and this would be my luck for the last layer with no time to spare. With some dehumidifying and a fan blowing on my soap for 2 days we were able to work through it. Here's the wet soap of the final layer which I was mesmerized by.

Here's the entire batch cut...

And here is the photos and detailed version of my favorite bars from this batch backs and fronts mixed.

Some other color combos I worked on:

Plus my Bonus entry MOONBEAMS:

Thanks for reading this far! These Volcano Kiss soaps will be available in the studio April 2021. #LiveLoveandLatherITUP #moondropgardenssoapstudio