Peacock Swirl-How not to do it

Welcome to Cypress Scents! You can find my shop on Etsy at Cypress Scents and you can join my facebook page here.

Amy challenged us to do a peacock swirl. I have done this technique with success...well, mostly with success.  I thought it would be a no brainer for me.

Hmph. Not so.  I will show you how NOT to do a peacock swirl. First step is to join the challenge earlier so that you are not rushing to do anything at the last minute. The rest of the stops on how NOT to do the swirl follows:

Choose your colors. These are from The Conservatorie and soaped beautifully. Colors are: Titanium Dioxide, Activated Charcoal,  Shimmer Green Mica, Sky Blue Mica,  and Magic Blue Mica.  The scent is Nautica Type.

Get your soap all nice and emulsified. 

THEN remember that you need to make your comb still. Choose floppy cardboard..cut a crooked line (while your soap is setting up nicely while it waits for you)

Make the ugliest, most funky comb ever. Soap is good and well over trace at this point.   It needs to be beat  back into submission..which actually happens better than you had hoped.

Pour your soap out where it needs to go. Color and fragrance the bottom layer.  Make sure you choose a fragrance that accelerates trace (remember that this is how NOT to do it) to the point where you nearly get soap on a stick.  Plop it in the slab as quickly as you can.  Do some more shaking on squirt tubes. Start the layering process.  Make sure you don't check the squirt tubes because if not, you won't have the joy of saying really bad words really loudly with no shame when the cap of one comes off in the very beginning of the process.

You also  need to make sure you do exactly what Amy warned against. Air bubbles.  This reminds me of the 90's for some reason. Maybe even 80's.

Take your floppy comb and do your thing. Poorly I might add.

Then search and search for the bamboo skewer that you know is here somewhere and do your swirl..again, poorly.

It's a really good thing that customers don't buy soap based on contests won right?  I think despite all of the problems, this soap came out beautiful.

Even the green blob looks good in it.

Some came out ashy but I think it may even add to it.

I love how every bar is different.

In size and shape even. Who needs conformity right?

What's even more important is that my customers don't care that this technique didn't work out right for me....it smells fantastic and that's all that matters!

Happy Soaping!!