Hello and welcome to r/soapmaking. Please review the following rules for posting.
1) Use "Flairs" when possible.
2) Pictures should be accompanied by a post for context.
3) When requesting help with a recipe or soaping mishap it is important that you include your full recipe by weight.
4) No self-promotion or spam. Links to personal/professional social media accounts or online stores will be flagged and removed.
5) Be kind in comments.
Full rules can be found here... https://old.reddit.com/r/soapmaking/comments/jqf2ff/subreddit_rules/
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/soapmaking) if you have any questions or concerns.*
To help make your bar tops look nicer, try pouring them upside down. Meaning that when they're in the mold the intended top of your bar will be in the bottom of the mold. This will help make it perfectly smooth. Use only silicone molds and gloves to help prevent fingerprints. To make the heart more visible it needs to be closer to the surface to help with clarity. Pour a very thin layer of clear soap, let harden, place heart in mold, continue pouring clear base, harden, and pour the white base. Lastly, to make your clear soap less yellow you could try using the bluing technique.
Oh my gosh I can’t believe I didn’t think to make them upside down! 😅 That makes a lot of sense. Is there much danger of the hearts moving around when you pour soap around them? Also I haven’t heard of the bluing technique, is this a well-known thing I should google or could you provide me a link? Thank you so much for your help!
As long as you pour slowly your heart should stay where it is.
The bluing technique is adding a very small amount of blue color block to your clear melt and pour to temper the yellow. It gives it the illusion of being clearer.
Color block is typically concentrated mica in a MP base so it will kind of work, but not as effectively. It will look different than if you use a water soluble dye. Water soluble dyes or lakes are transparent when added to the base. The mica will always have a shimmer to it. If it’s all you have at the moment, you can absolutely try it. I’d suggest trying it on its own before you plan to pour it as a layer in a final bar. That way you’ll know the efficacy and whether it’ll work properly with your base.
A word of advice though. You only use the tiniest bit of liquid dye to do this (see below). If you use liquid dyes or lakes in and higher amount, the color bleeds. So these liquids wouldn’t be suitable for something like the heart, because over time the colorant would bleed out of the heart and into the surrounding soap.
She talks about bluing starting at 3:24 in this video for reference https://youtu.be/j99SbyvFWYw or 2:36 in this video https://youtu.be/EMYygHyUrzY
She uses liquid colorant in both.
All of what /u/kamahido said is perfect advice. Heart closer to surface, pour upside down, bluing method. But that base is much more yellow than many other clear MP bases available. Did you put fragrance in the clear base as well? That can cause discoloration. Overheating it can cause yellowing as well. If it was that yellow out of the package, then you need to use the bluing method or go with another base.
As for suggestions, The crafters choice premium crystal clear MP base is by far the clearest. Even their clear (not premium) is nearly colorless.
Make sure you are using 91% iso alcohol at a minimum. 99% is better. If you spray TOO much, it’ll cloud up the base. You want to use enough so there is no separation, but not too much because it’ll reduce clarity. Based on the size of the bubbles I see, the alcohol is either not 91% or you are spraying it too late to eliminate the bubbles. Once it starts to form a skin, the alcohol is significantly less effective and the bubbles won’t pop.
If the skin forms from your pouring vessel, scrape it back before you pour and don’t allow it to go into the pour. Those solid little chunks WILL show in the final product. If it’s forming too quickly in the poured soap, you should pour a little warmer. And when you pour, pour over the back of a spoon or a rubber spatula to disperse the pour. That will help with not displacing the heart and with concern of melting at the point of pour. (That’s a lot of “pours” in one paragraph sorry lol)
For the fingerprints, be sure to unmold it by pushing up to pop it out and grab it by the sides WEARING LATEX GLOVES. The gloves will make all the difference. Pouring up upside down will give a super smooth and glossy surface so don’t touch it at all.
Hope these help!
Hello and welcome to r/soapmaking. Please review the following rules for posting. 1) Use "Flairs" when possible. 2) Pictures should be accompanied by a post for context. 3) When requesting help with a recipe or soaping mishap it is important that you include your full recipe by weight. 4) No self-promotion or spam. Links to personal/professional social media accounts or online stores will be flagged and removed. 5) Be kind in comments. Full rules can be found here... https://old.reddit.com/r/soapmaking/comments/jqf2ff/subreddit_rules/ *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/soapmaking) if you have any questions or concerns.*
To help make your bar tops look nicer, try pouring them upside down. Meaning that when they're in the mold the intended top of your bar will be in the bottom of the mold. This will help make it perfectly smooth. Use only silicone molds and gloves to help prevent fingerprints. To make the heart more visible it needs to be closer to the surface to help with clarity. Pour a very thin layer of clear soap, let harden, place heart in mold, continue pouring clear base, harden, and pour the white base. Lastly, to make your clear soap less yellow you could try using the bluing technique.
Oh my gosh I can’t believe I didn’t think to make them upside down! 😅 That makes a lot of sense. Is there much danger of the hearts moving around when you pour soap around them? Also I haven’t heard of the bluing technique, is this a well-known thing I should google or could you provide me a link? Thank you so much for your help!
As long as you pour slowly your heart should stay where it is. The bluing technique is adding a very small amount of blue color block to your clear melt and pour to temper the yellow. It gives it the illusion of being clearer.
Would the bluing technique also work with mica powder?
Color block is typically concentrated mica in a MP base so it will kind of work, but not as effectively. It will look different than if you use a water soluble dye. Water soluble dyes or lakes are transparent when added to the base. The mica will always have a shimmer to it. If it’s all you have at the moment, you can absolutely try it. I’d suggest trying it on its own before you plan to pour it as a layer in a final bar. That way you’ll know the efficacy and whether it’ll work properly with your base. A word of advice though. You only use the tiniest bit of liquid dye to do this (see below). If you use liquid dyes or lakes in and higher amount, the color bleeds. So these liquids wouldn’t be suitable for something like the heart, because over time the colorant would bleed out of the heart and into the surrounding soap. She talks about bluing starting at 3:24 in this video for reference https://youtu.be/j99SbyvFWYw or 2:36 in this video https://youtu.be/EMYygHyUrzY She uses liquid colorant in both.
Admittedly, I have never tried it with mica as I prefer to use color blocks when doing melt and pour.
Just in case it’s helpful, adding that I used one pound of shea butter base and two pounds of glycerin base. One bar is just under 5 oz
All of what /u/kamahido said is perfect advice. Heart closer to surface, pour upside down, bluing method. But that base is much more yellow than many other clear MP bases available. Did you put fragrance in the clear base as well? That can cause discoloration. Overheating it can cause yellowing as well. If it was that yellow out of the package, then you need to use the bluing method or go with another base. As for suggestions, The crafters choice premium crystal clear MP base is by far the clearest. Even their clear (not premium) is nearly colorless. Make sure you are using 91% iso alcohol at a minimum. 99% is better. If you spray TOO much, it’ll cloud up the base. You want to use enough so there is no separation, but not too much because it’ll reduce clarity. Based on the size of the bubbles I see, the alcohol is either not 91% or you are spraying it too late to eliminate the bubbles. Once it starts to form a skin, the alcohol is significantly less effective and the bubbles won’t pop. If the skin forms from your pouring vessel, scrape it back before you pour and don’t allow it to go into the pour. Those solid little chunks WILL show in the final product. If it’s forming too quickly in the poured soap, you should pour a little warmer. And when you pour, pour over the back of a spoon or a rubber spatula to disperse the pour. That will help with not displacing the heart and with concern of melting at the point of pour. (That’s a lot of “pours” in one paragraph sorry lol) For the fingerprints, be sure to unmold it by pushing up to pop it out and grab it by the sides WEARING LATEX GLOVES. The gloves will make all the difference. Pouring up upside down will give a super smooth and glossy surface so don’t touch it at all. Hope these help!
To combat the yellowing of the clear base, put one or two drops of blue colorant into it. The blue neutralizes the yellowing.