Shades of Green- Part Deux

Faux Funnel Swirl-Spearmint 3 shades of green + white

Well, here are the results of my first Faux Funnel swirl-my gradients aren't as pronounced as I had hoped,but still I think that for my first try I'm pretty happy with how things came out. I see some clumps of td that I need to work on-I ran it through a strainer + used the stick blender in my td  mixture before separating it out into the green and still  there are a few clumps. What do you find is the best way to eliminate td clumps?

Shades of Green

 Amy's Faux Funnel Swirl in white+3 shades of green scented with Spearmint

Amy's Faux Funnel Swirl Technique with a little bit of swirl on top-Spearmint

I've been eyeing Amy's Faux Funnel swirl technique for a while now, and was pondering a soap to try it on. I really liked the "Orange Bliss" soap she just posted about with the gradient-so I decided to give it a swirl err I mean a whirl. I used an oxide green and titanium and as Amy's video shows how to create a gradient look-I chose to use green (cause orange would have been an odd choice for Spearmint.) I wanted to use an essential oil I had plenty of and one that wasn't too expensive in case it just didn't work out-so I settled on Spearmint. I think the white and 3 shades of green will be nice. I'm not sure if the colors might have been too loose towards the bottom causing them to mingle a bit too much-but we'll see. I haven't worked with oxides or td for a while now, so this was a bit of an experiment in more ways than one. I wasn't very happy with the top of my faux swirl so I lightly swirled with a skewer to break the pattern up a bit.

The photos are perhaps not the best-I haven't found a nice angle for taking photos of soap in the mold,but I hope this gives you the idea. I didn't take the time to set up this photo properly-clearly(or not so clearly) I should have used a different aperture setting Oops!

Oh, and I also made a larger than usual mess in the kitchen-don't look dear...

Update (3-3-2012) I did finally get the kitchen clean. I used every measuring cup in the house for a different color-sooo, I had several measuring cups to deal with + the soap bowl and a couple of stick blenders-fun!! Amy, it's all your fault too!

I took the soap out of the mold last night and I'm just not sure if it is as pretty as Amy's (she has the faux funnel pour down folks) but we'll find out soon. I will be cutting it either this evening or tomorrow-it was a bit sweaty upon getting it out of the mold which means a bit soft. I like to let my log harden up a bit before cutting so that I don't damage the soap when I pick it up + I feel my cutter goes through a bit better. I'll keep you posted. I'd forgotten how lovely Spearmint as a single note smells-just so fresh and clean-a great scent for summer.