This summer, I was lucky enough to meet Patti, one of our long time Bramble Berry customers and a very talented cold process soapmaker. She recently soaped up with some of our micas (including two new ones – the Matte Yellow and Super Green) and graciously agreed to share her results and thoughts with all of us. Thanks Patti!
Patti swirled some of the micas into the soap directly and then mixed a teensy bit of oil in with some of the micas and swirled on top so that the colors would stay true on top of the soap, no matter what happened.
It took two days to unmold the soap to make sure that all that extra oil up on top would absorb back into the soap. But in the meantime, Patti peeked at the mixing bowl and noticed a few things that gave a preview of what the final bars might look like.
In the bowl, the Super Green turned to a light gold color – sparkly and pretty but not green. But, the Matte Yellow stayed the same nice yellow color. Even though the oil hadn’t fully absorbed into the top, Patti just blotted at the top of the soap (leaving a lovely pattern), unmolded and cut.
The slices turned out wonderfully fall-like and beautiful on top.
It’s pretty clear which colors are which. The Red Mica turned orangey peach, the Matte Yellow stayed totally stable yellow and the Super Green went a lovely yellow and definitely did not stay a pretty green when reacted with the lye. Patti used a fragrance that discolors a bit which is why the soap looks a little darker than you might expect.
Thanks for letting us all in on your experiments, Patti!
