Basic Marbling Creations

You may recall I don't care for the standard blue or red liquid colorants . . .this might be considered overkill . . . hence, the "OOPS!". This is, however, a good example of what happens with excessive coloring. In the first measuring spoon, I mixed 6 drops of blue with 3 drops of purple. This effectively mutes any "greenish" tint to the standard blue. In the second measuring spoon, I mixed 6 drops of red with 6 drops of orange to get the truer red I prefer. The reason they were mixed in the measuring spoons is because I wanted to marble with the resulting color, not the components thereof. I used the toothpicks to blend the colors in the measuring spoons and then used an eyedropper to deliver color to the melted and scented soap base.

To 4 ounces of shea butter glycerin, I added 5 drops of the new blue mixture and 4 drops of the new red mixture along with Apple Jack and Peel, Pie Crust and French Vanilla fragrance oils. The overall scent was similar to a slightly tart apple pie. The resulting marbling . . . well . . . I'm having tie-dye flashbacks. However, just to prove how different perspective may be, my son (19 at the time) and my niece, Anna (10 at the time) loved the soap. My son said it looked celestial, like something you would see in deep space. As I was aiming for a patriotic red, white and blue marbling, I feel this soap missed the mark and falls into the "less is more" rule of marbling.

Since my son and niece like the soap, I may gift it to one of the two of them . . . on the other hand, when you have this kind of miscalculation, you can always melt it back down. Of course, in this case, that would have produced a deep purple soap that smelled, confusingly, like apple pie.

The first picture (above) you've seen before: this is the melted shea butter glycerin with 3 drops of blue liquid colorant before marbling (shown on the previous page). The blue colorant used was the same mixture created in a measuring spoon: 6 drops of blue liquid colorant mixed with 3 drops of purple liquid colorant. as with the "celestial" soap at the top of this page, I used an eyedropper to deliver the colorant mixture to the soap. I mention this, again, because I suspect the drops from the eyedropper are quite a bit larger than would normally come from the bottle. This soap was scented with Hyacinth fragrance oil.

The center picture (above) is the soap after marbling, pouring into the mold and misting liberally with alcohol; the last picture is, of course, the completed soap. Obviously when compared to the "celestial" soap, the marbling here is infinitely more subtle . . . only 3 eyedropper drops of colorant compared to nine.

It may not look like it, but the picture on the left (above) is of gratings from the following colors of crayons: Sepia, Tumbleweed, Copper, Brown, Gold, Antique Brass and Desert Sand. What you see is roughly equivalent to 10 passes across the grater for each crayon.

After scenting the melted shea butter glycerin with Bergamot fragrance oil, I added one pinch of the gratings mixture. If you look closely at the picture on the right (above), you can see the gratings have already begun to melt.

This lovely, crayon-marbled soap creation combines the marbling and layering techniques. Combinations of techniques is something you will see and use often, particularly in the advanced collections available in the online store.

To execute the marbling technique in this soap, you will need to slowly and gently drag the stirring stick through the melting crayon gratings. In this case, I found, once I began stirring, that the color was insufficient, so I added another pinch of the gratings mixture (as seen in the picture on the left, above). The soap was then poured into LIFE OF THE PARTY soap mold #N58, filling the mold only to the top of the shell, as shown in the middle picture. After pouring, I spritzed the shell liberally with alcohol to remove any air bubbles.

With some soap still in the measuring cup (I did not pour out the leftovers), I funneled in the remaining crayon gratings and added another 2 ounces of shea butter glycerin. I melted this combination for 20 seconds, stirred, and microwaved for another 20 seconds. I stirred the mixture to completely blend the color. Then, I added a little more Bergamot fragrance (which is very similar to a sweet orange scent) and a few drops of Chocolate fragrance.

This combination was stir-cooled before pouring into the mold. By this time, the marbled shell portion of the soap had formed a fairly thick film and was, in fact, partially set. Once the mold was filled, the soap was, again, liberally sprayed with alcohol to remove air bubbles. After allowing the last pouring to form a healthy film, the soap was freezer set and unmolded.

When marbling a layered soap, utilization of any marbled layer leftovers in the solid or subsequent layers, is not only time and cost effective, it also insures that the marbled layer and solid layer will color-compliment one another. I also encourage the use of a carefully chosen, contrasting solid layer color. As with most of the techniques illustrated, the combinations and possibilities are limitless.

All three soaps above are examples of remnant marbling, but there are differences that should be noted: the first soap (left) is composed of miscellaneous remnants ( as described on the previous page) that were leftovers from other soaps. These leftovers were not labeled for color or fragrance, so the soap is truly random remnant marbling.

The second, middle soap was made from color cubes pictured on page 2 (click here to see the color cube tray again): cubes B, D, L and P were used (1 drop yellow, 2 drops seafoam, 2 drops lilac and 2 drops purple liquid colorant respectively). As they were color cubes, no fragrance had been added. When remnant marbling from color cubes, keep in mind that you can't blend fragrance without over-blending the color cubes. Therefore, I melted only the yellow cube and added the full amount of Mulberry fragrance oil. i then cut the remaining cubes into smaller pieces and microwaved to melt. With virtually no additional stirring, the soap was poured into the mold, sprayed with alcohol and freezer set before unmolding.

The third remnant marbled soap (on the right, above) was made from leftovers from the layered Cherry, Lime and Blueberry bars. I melted the Lime (green) soap first and added a little soap glitter, blending it into the green before adding in the Cherry and Blueberry leftovers. There are a couple of things to note from the remnant soaps:

If you are remnant marbling, ANY thing you want added to the soap can only be added to one color to avoid over-blending all of the colors. Once the fragrance, glitter, etc. has been added to the first color, you can add the remaining remnants and microwave together.

If you look at the center, Mulberry, soap, you will clearly see the circular pattern of the marbling. As was previously mentioned, you can sometimes control or affect the directionality of the marbling with the pattern of your pour.

This ink stain marbled soap, in truth, had a little toothpick help. The Tulip scented, clear glycerin had already cooled to the point that "blooming" was limited. However, the toothpick stirring assist was quite limited. Most of the movement that you see in the colorants (2 drops red, 2 drops purple, 2 drops purple liquid colorant) was actually achieved when the soap was sprayed with alcohol. you can also see the same "hot spot" effect clearly in the in-mold marbled soap above. This phenomenon is something that will obviously be a factor when attempting either of these techniques. You can, naturally, avoid the "alcohol effect" by not spraying the soap. This, of course, means you'll have a more naturally marbled effect and air bubbles.

The last basic marbling creation to be illustrated in this section is the multi-hand marbling soap. From the view of the soap poured in the mold (above, left), you can clearly see where I drizzled the last of the green marbled soap all around. However, as you can see from the picture of the completed and unmolded soap (above, right), without pouring in a back and forth motion, the two colors stay almost completely separate.

The left side of the soap is 2 ounces of shea butter glycerin, 3 drops of purple liquid colorant and Hyacinth fragrance. The right side of the soap is 2 ounces of shea butter glycerin, 3 drops of green liquid colorant and Aloe Vera fragrance. Many that use this soap blend the individual soaps completely before two-hand pouring them into the mold; I chose to leave them marbled.

Regardless of the technique you choose to use, marbling, by itself or combined with other techniques will always result in a completely unique soap. The marbling process will never yield exactly the same pattern, so each soap will always be "one of a kind" . . . regardless of how many times you repeat the recipe.

(1) The fun of in-mold marbling is in the more direct input you have on the marbling. Though the colors will do some moving of their own, there is great satisfaction in being to more directly affect the effect. (2) I really liked the look of this soap right up until I misted it with the alcohol (3). You'll note, in the unmolded soap (4), the colorant has oddly vacated areas that were previously marbled. This is something to keep in mind when utilizing this method.

(Left) This is the same soap, from the back as in the picture on the left, above. You'll notice that the marbling is not as distinctive or as clearly defined. Additionally, you'll notice that the green circling shown above has essentially disappeared. This picture was taken 23 days after the soap was created. It illustrates color bleeding and the liquid colorants sold for use in soap and candle making are notorious for it.

Top of Page

Basic Techniques

Home