Playing

I had an idea for the M81 soap....I just had to act on it. Really, why should I mess with success? But, I just couldn't help it. ;) I was looking to get more 'blobs' of camo color into a dark green base, instead of it's current swirled camo colors.

This technique went against every soaping instinct I have, because I had to combine the oils and lye much longer then I am comfortable with! The longer you agitate the mixture, the more you cause a collision between the lye and the oil molecules and the sooner it starts to saponify (become soap!). There's a very fine line between being pourable and being 'soap on a stick' (where it becomes a block of soap stuck to your stick blender) and I was looking for that line as my mark to divide the soap and color it. This way, it was more of a thick pudding texture (instead of a soup-y texture).

I kept a larger portion for my base (an oliveish green) and colored 4 other portions with dark brown, light brown, black, and light green. I alternated 'plopping' it all into my mold (much more fun that I had anticipated!) and had to wait very impatiently for it to firm up enough to cut.