Tie Dye For

July's Soap Challenge Club 2017 challenge is the Fluid Acrylic Pour with Straw. The technique, taught by Joanne Watkins, uses a very fluid soap batter of varying colors and a straw to move the batter in a slab mold. Returning from a much needed vacation in June, I was invited to a TieDye party in early July. My nautilus tie dye apron was my inspiration for this soap. We had run out of red dye, so I had orange, yellow, green, blue and the white of the apron left. I liked the color combination, and I had those neon colorants from Mad Micas...

Wanting to try a new formula, I chose Amy's recommendation of tallow, olive oil, coconut oil, and castor oil. I bought tallow at my local butcher. I also decided to use confectionary sugar and sodium lactate in this formula with no water discount. I used 65 oz of oils with a 5% superfat and soaped at 92F oil and 100F lye. I stick blended really well this time, then divided the batter between the 5 colors with 1/2 the batter in white (TD). The fragrance was a strong Cucumber Melon by Bramble Berry. My plan was to soap 2 nautilus patterns intersecting with each other. This batter was very creamy and fluid, and remained fluid for 1.5 hours. I was able to pour many layers, probably 25 or a few more; the soap slab was a generous 1 3/8 in (3.5cm) tall. Time to gently tap the mold to get rid of any air bubbles. The soap was then sprayed with 95% isopropyl alcohol and CPOP'd ( is that a word?) at 170F for 4 hours. I believe the key to keeping some separation of color was to pour a white circle in between orange and green for example. I was hoping that it wouldn't turn to mud and was really happy as I cut into the slab. No soda ash!!!  Each bar is very unique and very smooth, hard and clear. This soap formula is a keeper Amy! I am also pleased to report that there were no lye burns on my watch :) The key to this is a very long straw!🍹