Dots, dots, and more dots! At first glance I thought this challenge would be a breeze. But, after watching the tutorials, I quickly realized how much of a challenge this would be. Normally, I try to go above and beyond the scope of a challenge, because I always like pushing myself, but this time I wanted to complete the task exactly as presented to see how close I could get to the finished product taught to us. The only change I made was the colors. Since we live so close to the "Happiest Place on Earth" I figured red and white dots would be fitting.
Tatiana's Recipe (From the Challenge Directions)
Lard 30% Coconut oil 25% Shea butter 15% Safflower high oleic oil 30%
Superfat 8%
Water as 20% of oils (This is a high water discount so that if the soap does not go through the gel phase, the soap will still be hard and the straws can still be pulled out.)
The Mold
I used the mold template from the tutorial. The only revisions I had to make was to the dimensions of the base because my clay base was 1mm larger.
The Pour
I used Nature's Garden's Black Raspberry Vanilla Fragrance, and it performed like a dream. And, I used Nurture Soap's Trial By Fire for the red, which is so vibrant and exactly what I envisioned. I found this adorable little pancake batter pourer on Wish.com, and it worked perfectly to pour my soap batter in the mold.
The Dots
My straws are reusable plastic party straws which are super durable, and were easy to remove. I did not scent the dots as I wanted the batter as fluid as possible and I actually used a poultry injector to get the white soap batter into the holes. I did have to double the dot portion of the recipe as I did not have enough batter.
The Cut
I cut this bar a couple of days after I poured the dots and I probably should have cut earlier because it was really hard already. I wish I had a single wire cutter to cut the slab in half, and then slice. My hand cutting is not the business. ;-) It's impossible for me to get a straight cut.
Finish Touches
I did cut a lot off the bar to expose the dots on the edge and I even beveled and planed it a bit to clean it up.
