Getting Back in the Habit, Three Bars at a Time

Once upon a time I used to soap two to three times a week, sometimes more. I loved every second of it. Formulating, mixing scents, selecting colours and and what swirling technique I wanted to play with. Living situations changed, and I had to take over two years off from my beloved hobby. But recently, I just got back into soapmaking, these last few weeks. I've two small batches under my belt and I am thanking my lucky stars that my soap instincts have not disappeared. With the lessons I learned from my first two batches, I was raring to go for today's yummy peacock swirl.

I don't have a big stash of micas or fragrances that are soap stable but I do have a few old faithfuls. Today I made a delicious blend of coconut, melon, mango and pineapple, a little basil with a sweet vanilla base. Since I knew the coconut and vanilla will discolour, I planned accordingly.

I decided to use micas from TKB Trading. They're from the "Pearly" collection. Most of my micas are actually geared towards nail polish, my primary pass time since I took my soaping hiatus. For this tropical treat I chose the pearly yellow, blue and pink. Technically I used the blue and yellow to make a pale green and as well as just pink I also mixed the yellow and pink to make peach. I divided my fragrance into known discolouring and discolouring parts and added the discolouring fragrance to my black and TD coloured batters. I expect the creamy white to turn tan over time. But for the time being, it is already firm in the mold and I'll pop it out in a couple of hours. I use a heavy water discount and my soap unmolds hard and ready to go in no more than twelve hours.

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The peacock swirl is one of my favourites. The trick that's remained true for me all these years later is to not let the batter achieve trace, rather just get a watery emulsification and get your pour on. Not bad for my third batch in years, I think!