My First Mantra Swirl

This is a photo depiction of me making my very first Mantra Swirl for Amy Warden's July Soap Challenge! I tried practicing with my webcam on my laptop, but my kitty heard me talking and kept getting in the way to see what was going on. I ended up chickening out video taping the entire thing, but I will post all the pictures I took along the way.

                   
This is half of my counter top space, all filled with soap-making materials.

And, here is the other side! Now, the excitement sets in! I'm am really going to tackle the "Mantra Swirl" today!

The water has been measured and is 'lying' in wait at the bottom of my lye jug. I've weighed the amount of lye I'll be using with this recipe and am adding it to the water. I have a favorite recipe that I use and if I change any of the oils, I re-calculate it with a Lye Calculator.

Stirring the lye and water together, causes such heating during the reaction that you can see the fumes/steam rising. As you can see, I have proper protective gear on, to avoid contact with the lye. After combining this mixture, it will be set aside in a safe place away from my kitties and me.

Now, on to measuring my fats and oils. I first, measure out the more solidified fats such as coconut oil, shea butter, and palm oil so they can begin melting slowly on the stove.

                                 Slowly melting the solid oils.

Next, I measure out the more liquid oils such as olive oil and sweet almond oil and set them aside until the others have melted.

Patiently awaiting her turn to be incorporated in with the other oils....

Adding the cooler oils to the hot, melted oils helps them cool more quickly to the 90 - 100 degree level I'm looking for.

Here, a snoop suddenly appeared to inspect my work. she is my "quality control inspector". I am carefully measuring the parchment paper to line my mold with and cutting it to size.

               
                   Half of the mold has been lined. This is a fourteen inch mold and I only need one side.

I cut cardboard to fit lengthwise in the mold. I got the brilliant idea of affixing two 'spacers' atop my dividers to keep them the proper distance apart. Only time will tell just *how* brilliant this idea is ....

The temperature of the lye is right at 105 and the oils are at 95. We are ready to roll! Don't need a drum roll, my heart beat will suffice!

 Yup! Oils are at the exact temperature I was waiting for! All the preparation for the "Mantra Swirl" technique took just enough time for the mixtures to cool.

I used 1 1/2 t of mica coloring for each container, mixed with a tablespoon of Sweet Almond Oil. The colors I'm using for the swirl are: Matte Teal Green Pigment Powder, Red Orange Locking Mica Shimmer, and Yellow oil Locking Mica Shimmer. I really like the vibrant colors for the type of swirl I'm planning to do today!

Not to delay any longer, I am adding the lye/water mixture to my blended oils.

                             I pulse-blend-stir the mixture a bit.

Now, I'm using my stick blender to fully incorporate all lye/water and oils. I'm blending it until light trace.

Now, I'm adding my fragrance oils. I've chosen to add 1 oz each of Yuzu Cybilla and Island Coconut. The blend of these two fragrance oils creates a remarkably new fragrance that transports you, mind and soul, to the heart of the balmy tropics, sipping on something sweet, relaxing on a hammock, listening to the waves lap gently onto the beach, a Toucan sitting in a tree overhead ... awwwww........... OH! back to soap-making! I shall call this soap "Tropical Paradise"!

Carefully, I'm dividing the soap batter into three containers with mixed colorant in the bottom of each.

Now, they have been blended with my stick blender and are at a medium trace. I believe it would be a good time to pour, but, this is the scary part! I've never done this before!! I've watched the YouTube videos and they all made it look incredibly easy. Well.... here goes......

Wow! You definitely need to be some sort of octopus or something to do the "Mantra Swirl"! I could've used another set of hands for sure! I first poured a bit of green in the middle and promptly saw it squeezing naughtily underneath into 'yellows' side! So, armed with pink and yellow pitchers, I poured them on either side of green to keep him where he needed to be. Lo and behold, my neat little cardboard things started floating! Panic! I pushed them down with one hand and finished pouring with the other. That's why there were no photos of this 'in-between' part. Phew! ...........

All of the cardboard has been carefully removed, leaving rather straight lines of colored soap which I was very pleased with and tell-tale evidences of naughty green escaping over to yellow's side. This shall be interesting soap indeed!

Now, I place my bent hanger down to the bottom side of the soap and move it along the bottom and gradually up, moving back and forth to create an inside swirl.

Next, for the swirl on the top, I am using a bamboo skewer and making a figure 8 pattern down the entire length of the soap.

Here it is! I've made my very first Mantra Swirl and I really like how it has turned out, so far! It smells awesome!

Not wanting to waste any of the soap batter, I scraped it off the cardboard dividers and bowls into one bowl. I guess this will be an example of an "in-the-pot-swirl" as well!

Here's the extra soap, making a cute little bar for me to bathe with some day!

Soap-makers, when done with their soaps, need to be removed from the kitchen and made to go do something else right away. We always try to improve our creation somehow. Well, I sprinkled some silver body glitter over the top of my soap. We shall see, later, if that actually enhanced it or not.

Nighty nite! They are both covered and resting ... waiting for the gel to happen. It would probably happen sooner, but I keep lifting the lid, sniffing my soap, and checking on it!

I hope you've enjoyed making soap with me today in my kitchen! Tomorrow, we'll un-mold my creation and see how the inside swirls came out! This is the hardest part ... trying to be patient until it sets up!