The Great Cakes Soap Challenge this month was to create a feather swirl in cold process soap. We could make either a reverse feather swirl or a secret feather swirl or both. I decided to do both and intended to enter the natural category. Intended is the key word here. I actually made the soap in time but still managed to miss the challenge deadline. Where does the time go?  Oh well, it was still a lot of fun and gave me an excuse to make a video.  :)

I previously used the reverse feather swirl in two soaps last year. One was to create a tree in my Winter Wonderland Soap, and the other was to create a diagonal stem with leaves in my Lavender Mint Soap. So with this challenge, I really wanted to do both the secret and reverse feather swirls in the same soap.

In my first two attempts, I tried to use both feather swirl techniques to create a wreath inside the soap. I got close but not close enough. They sure do smell good though. I used Lavender and Bergamot essential oils (recipe below). I think it’s my new favorite blend.

In my 3rd attempt, I decided to do a blue diagonal secret feather swirl on one side and a green reverse feather swirl on the other side. This would have been my entry for the soap challenge this month in the natural category. I used blue and green indigo powders to color the soap. I tried the technique in the Great Cakes Soapworks blog post (How to Use Indigo to Color Cold Process Soap) where Amy dissolves Botanical Colors Organic Indigo Powder in a little oil. Well, that worked perfectly! And it only took a very small amount to get a dark blue. After going through gel phase, the blue was even darker. I tried the same technique with the green indigo powder, but it was stubborn and left specks in my first attempt. For my entry soap below, I used green indigo powder infused sunflower oil.

RECIPE
Olive Oil – 40%
Coconut Oil – 25%
Organic Sustainable Palm Oil – 20%
Avocado Oil – 6%
Sunflower Oil – High Oleic – 5%
Castor Oil – 4%

For a palm free version, I replace the palm oil with 15% shea butter and 5% cocoa butter. Last year, I made a reverse feather swirl soap using the palm free recipe, and it worked perfectly.

Superfat – 6%

Lye solution – 33% (water = 2 x lye)

Blue Indigo Powder – mixed 1/2 teaspoon into about 1.5 teaspoons sunflower oil and let sit for 8 hours. I used 1/4 teaspoon indigo oil per 1/2 cup of soap, but I could have used even less.

Green Indigo Powder – infused sunflower oil with green indigo powder.  I used 1.5 teaspoons of the infused oil per 1/2 cup of soap.

Essential Oil Blend:
Lavender – 2 parts
Bergamot – 1 part
Patchouli – 0.5 parts

Kaolin Clay – 2 teaspoons per 500g oils

VIDEO

I made one last attempt at a secret feather swirl using dividers. It was the first time I had tried this method with dividers, and I was really pleased at how the soap turned out. I’ll be posting a video of this soap in the next few weeks.

Good luck to all the entries in this month’s soap challenge!

Thank you for reading my post!