Soap Challenge: Butterfly Swirl

I knew from the outset I would not make more than one attempt to get this one. I've not done a lot of hanger swirls, although I like the look.  Zahida of Handmade in Florida has done some amazing soaps using the hanger.

I also wanted to try something different for me- using a color for a background rather than white.  I decided to go with a gold background, and white, black, and deep red for the swirls.

I don't have a lot of process pictures, since I was both soap maker and photographer this time.  No way I was going to risk stopping the process and having the batter go thick on me!  I used one of my recipes that has proven to be a slow mover in the past- coconut oil, olive oil, shea butter, avocado oil, sunflower oil, and castor oil.  I scented it with Brambleberry's Champagne fragrance oil- love how that smells!

Here's my batter, divided out.  I used a bit of yellow oxide and a lot of Shimmer Gold mica (from Nurture Soap Supplies) for the main batter.  I used activated charcoal, TD, and Brambleberry's Merlot Sparkle mica for the accent colors.

I poured about half the gold batter in my mold, then drop swirled the colors, trying to stay on one side.  After all the batter was in the mold, I did some swirls on the top.

So far, the colors look good, just what I was hoping for. We'll see how they look in 24 hours. . . 

I realized the next day that I'd forgotten my sodium lactate, so the loaf was soft.  This one will need a nice long cure.  However, after 36 hours, I couldn't wait any longer, so I VERY carefully unmolded the soap.

So far, so good- but I want to see the inside!  So I made one cut- it looks good, I think I may get some butterflies!!

I waited another twelve hours before cutting the entire loaf.  I played around with different combinations, and decided this is the one that was most successful.  (The differences in the colors are because I used two different cameras- the top pics are from my iPhone, the last is with my Pentax DSLR.  The last photo is the most accurate color representation.)

To say I am thrilled would be an understatement!  Thanks to Amy Warden of Great Cakes Soapworks for hosting the challenge!