With this month’s Soap Challenge, I decided to stick to a simple idea using opposite colors on the color wheel. I even kept my batch attempts down to 4 this month. I think that’s a new record for me.  : )

Color Choice
I decided to do opposite sides of the color wheel – orange versus green and red versus blue. I wanted to keep the warm colors on one side and the cool colors on the other side. So I made the orange and green my base colors, then drop swirled red (into the orange) and blue (into the green). After removing the divider, I dropped black and white soap into the entire mold (mostly down the middle). Then I hanger swirled it all and decorated the top. I also used 2 different essential oil blends on each side (see recipe below).

I achieved the colors using the following:
Orange – Paprika in paprika infused Olive Oil
Blue – Indigo Root Powder in Sunflower Oil
Red – Rose Clay in distilled water
Green – French Green Clay in distilled water
Black – Activated Charcoal in Sunflower Oil
White – Kaolin Clay in distilled water

*If you’re interested, I described the colorants in more detail at the very bottom of this post.

Recipe
Olive Oil – 48%
Coconut Oil – 27%
Organic Sustainable Palm Oil – 15%
Avocado Oil – 7%
Castor Oil – 3%

Superfat – 6%

Essential Oil Blend
This is an essential oil blend I recently discovered by accident (EO Blend Post). For this soap challenge, I decided to split the blend into 2 parts – a warm, spicy side and a cool, flowery side. The Star Anise is something I normally would never use (I despise it, actually). However, in small amounts with Sweet Orange, it seems to help create an orange zest type scent. Or I think so, anyway.  : )

Orange/Red Side:
Sweet Orange 5X – 6 parts
Peppermint – 1.5 parts
Star Anise – 0.5 parts

Green/Blue Side:
Lavender – 3 parts
Lavandin – 1 part
Peppermint – 0.5 parts

Here’s the YouTube video I made of me making and cutting the soap for the Embracing Opposites soap challenge:

Here’s a pic of my other attempts – simple black & white, Auburn & Alabama, and my first attempt at what became my soap submission.

Thank you for reading my post!

*Colorant information, in case you’re interested:

For the paprika, indigo root powder, and activated charcoal, I used a rate of 1 Tsp powdered colorant dispersed in 1 Tbsp of oil. Then I used about 1 teaspoon of that dispersed colorant per cup of soap.  (In order to get a darker orange, I actually dispersed the paprika in paprika infused olive oil that I had made earlier this year.)

For the rose and french green clays, I used a rate of 1 to 2 Tbsp dispersed in distilled water (until very fluid). Then I used about 2 to 3 Tbsp of the dispersed clay per cup of soap.

For the kaolin clay, I used a rate of 3 teaspoons dispersed in distilled water until very fluid. Then I used 3 teaspoons of dispersed kaolin clay per cup of soap.

The clays will cause the soap to thicken quickly, as you could probably see in the video. : )