Soap Challenge: Smaug's Heart Taiwan Swirl!

It's soap challenge time again!  This month, the challenge (put on by Great Cakes Soapworks!) was the Taiwan Swirl.  It's a deceptively simple looking swirl that produces absolutely gorgeous results.

I decided to make my soap this month with my normal recipe (plus some shea butter to make it feel luxurious!), and Dragon's Blood fragrance oil.  The fragrance is an earthy combination of cedarwood, orange and patchouli essential oils and smells a little like the inside of a health food store to me.  LOL!

Dragons make me think of The Hobbit and the glorious dragon Smaug.  I wanted to create a soap that would evoke some of that awesome imagery from Tolkien's book (and the latest movie, I'll be honest).

I used three colors in my swirl: Sunshine, Orange and Cherry (all Celestial Colors).   I decided to attempt to create flames, since the way that the swirl curled across the top of the soap it would appear like the flames would be shooting out from Smaug's mouth as he breathed fire.  

The swirl is done through the top of the soap, so since I made mine in a loaf mold I needed to cut the soap vertically into large pieces, and then cut those chunks in half horizontally.

This is my finished soap.  I'm really pleased with the results.  I think I was able to create the flame look exactly as I had hoped in the top of the soap, and I'm equally pleased with how the center cuts created totally different but still beautifully swirled bars.

I'm calling this batch Smaug's Heart.

xoxo