February 2014 Great Cakes Soap Challenge Club - Embeds

I'll start by sharing that I've never tried cold process embeds before. I have tried M&P once and liked the results, but making the embeds ahead of time and switching into "M&P mode" in my head requires planning - something I'm not the best at.   So I was excited to try this challenge with cold process embeds.  I didn't have a super hard bar recipe or small silicone mold that I trusted enough not to ruin my embeds by sticking, cracking or (more likely than not)  just never hardening. I've had that happen before! so I used two 4 lb loaves instead. One loaf was used as embeds and one was used as the base.

My recipe was the same for both, a moisturizing blend of olive, coconut, organic sustainable palm, avocado, cocoa butter and castor.  I added tussah silk to my lye water and a touch of cream to the soap base.

Here is the soap I used as the embed ~  The fragrance is Love Spell, a clean fragrance that blends with so many others. It was a bulk purchase a year or so ago and I wish I could remember who the company was because it's softer and more rounded than some I've smelled.  The colors are a blend of ultramarine violet, ultramarine blue and a touch of black mica.  The gold is heavy metal gold - all from Bramble Berry.

I cut this bar on the vertical into 1/4" slices. I then lined the left side of my loaf pan with these slices, but I alternated them blue/purple on top, gold on top.  I hoped this would give some interest and make it more geometric looking.

I held the stacked embeds in place with a sheet of plastic while I slowly poured the TD lightened base around and over the embeds.  After pouring, I let it set up a bit and then removed the plastic sheet. I was SO worried that the stacked embeds would all fall sideways and I'd end up having to line up slippery soap coated embeds again.  I got lucky - they held perfectly and my loaf went into a cold oven with the light on overnight. 

This is the final result - the base is scented with BB's Citron et Figue, a favorite of mine that sadly isn't available any longer on the website.  Maybe it's a seasonal Holiday fragrance?  If you know, please post in the comment section or I'll continue to hoard and ration my bottle. 

Once again, another great challenge learning experience.  Please check out all the other awesome entries at Great Cakes Soapworks    A big thank you to Amy Warden 
 for this month's challenge. We appreciate the time you put into these challenges and the knowledge we gain from them!   Until next month ~      Suzy/Spoonbridge Soaps