Making a Taiwan Swirl Soap

This is another soap made by hubby, a famous swirl that I had never tried either but similar to the circling taiwan swirl. This time I only added more olive oil to the recipe to make it more fluid, so that it would work better with this technique. I had learned my lesson from our previous soap, so I err on the the side of blending less, but it still worked out in the end.

He was inspired by this video, and that was what we tried to do except in different colors.

The fragrance, which coincidentally matches with the colors, was Grapefruit Lemongrass from Nature’s Garden. I wish the lemongrass notes were stronger in it, but I will say the grapefruit notes seem on point.

I was also determined to get a strong orange, something that Orange Vibrance Mica had failed to achieve. Later I learned this from their website:

“Working with any orange can be tricky with soaps. For best result with this and any orange mica, soap cool and don’t let your soaps get too hot. Heat seems to have a negative effect on orange making fade or peach in color. Orange micas also need a slightly higher usage rate than other colors. For best results use 2 teaspoons per pound of oils, or even more to achieve the depth of color you like.”

So I followed the instructions and used 2 tsp, and for double insurance, also added orange pigments.

Recipe Oils, Fats and Waxes

Oil	%	Ounces	Grams
Olive Oil	39	13.6	385.67
Tallow Beef	26	9.07	257.12
Coconut Oil, 76 deg	22	7.67	217.56
Castor Oil	7	2.44	69.22
Shea Butter	6	2.09	59.33
Total	100	34.88	988.91

Recipe Totals

Liquid Required	9.73 oz	275.89 g
NaOH Weight	4.87 oz	137.93 g
Oil Weight	34.88 oz	988.91 g
Fragrance Oil Weight	2.18 oz	61.81 g
Superfat		5%
Total Batch Weight	51.66 oz	1464.54 g
Lye Concentration		33.33%
Liquid : Lye Ratio		2 :1
Saturated : Unsaturated		42:58

Equipment and Supplies:

In addition to the standard equipment I normally use, we used a soap divider; the same one as for the Taiwan Circling Swirl. Made with plastic cutting boards from Dollar Tree. However, if you have a hot glue gun and some plastic corrugated board (like this), you could use that instead to make one. Just remember to hold pieces together until the glue hardens. (It helps if you put it inside the mold as you are making it to ensure it fits.

Mold:

10″ Silicone loaf mold from BrambleBerry

Colorants:

2 tsp Orange Vibrance Mica (Nurture Soap aff link) + 1/8 tsp of Orange Oxide + 1/8 tsp of Fluorescent Neon Deep orange

1/2 tsp of Synergy Mica (Nurture Soap aff link)

1/2 tsp Lily pad green mica

Fragrance:

2.17 oz of Grapefruit Lemongrass fragrance