This was a small batch of soap that I made to try out a simple technique. I’m sure you’ve heard of a funnel swirl, right? Funnel swirls can be done in a loaf mold, slab mold or even a cylinder mold.
Here is a funnel pour into a cylinder mold using Mad Mica’s for color.
A faux funnel swirl is the same concept, but you nix the funnel. There really isn’t a need to use an actual funnel. You can just pour in the same manner.
Here is a faux funnel swirl, Aloe Vera Faux Funnel Swirl Soap Design.
So I wondered what it would look like to use the faux funnel technique, but instead of focusing the pour in just one position – focus the pour in four positions.
Here is the result! Ignore my ash from cutting too soon and stearic spots from soaping too cool. 🙂
So here is how I did it.
You’ll need a slow-moving recipe perfect for swirling. Check out our freebies page and grab the Swirling Tips Guide.
You could also use this recipe – In The Pot Funnel with Wiggle Pour Soap Design (Clyde Slide Soap Design Tutorial) – which will fill a 10″ silicone mold from Bramble Berry.
I used Tahitian Teal Mica, Grape Nehi Mica and Charcoal from Mad Micas.
Bring your soap to light trace. Divide out and color as shown.
Using a faux funnel pour technique, start to pour in two corners. Rotate through the colors once.
Now pour into the other two corners. Rotate through the colors once.
Repeat until you fill up the mold!
Swirl the top!
After 24 hours you can cut your soap. Let it cure for 4 weeks.
I really like the design! I think it came out great.
Happy Soaping!
-Amanda Gail
I have a question about recipes for making swirled soap. Generally, I use the tried-and-true olive(sometimes halved with canola)/coconut/palm base and then usually add castor oil. Sometimes I mix it up with small percentages of coconut/shea/sweet almond, etc. I add sodium lactate, superfat at 5-7%, and my water/lye ratio is 2:1. Depending on the fragrance oil, I get pretty consistent results; a creamy, bubbly nice bar that hardens up nicely after four to six weeks. So, my question is, when formulating for swirls, do you lose some of those nice qualities? I see with swirl recipes, a soap batter must be more liquidy, hence, 60% or more liquid oils and 40% or less hard oils. Also, the water/lye ratio is increased, i.e., 2.5:1. I am about to embark on trying some of the swirly techniques but am wondering if you sacrifice a quality end product for a pretty design? What do you think? Also, how long before one can unmold these more liquidy recipes?
Thank you!
In my opinion (I’ve been soaping for about 4 years) you don’t have to change your recipe at all – except for the water amount. If you increase your water ratio to 2.5:1 – you will gain more time to do interesting swirls… I tend to go by percents, so I soap with 33%-34% water… you may have to let it cure for 6 weeks instead of closer to 4 weeks but the recipe you love should be fine…
Unmolding, it depends on whether you are using wood or silicone molds (or Pringles cans!) I generally leave my soaps for 2-3 days because I have a higher percent of liquid oils (64% Liquid) (36% ‘hard’ – cocoa butter, shea butter and coconut oil).and I use either silicone molds or Pringles cans for my round soaps. Hope this helps.
That looks great. I love the color choices, they work great together! Thanks for sharing your experiment. 😀
I love simple techniques, Thank you for sharing Amanda !
With cold proces you can make wonders on the soap