Busy Few Days

So, it has been a few days since I have written.  I meant to write yesterday, but I ended up being pretty busy and things were kind of insane for me.  I don't always multitask well, so I ended up not getting some things I wanted to done.  I made a soap Tuesday, and cut it yesterday morning.  I wanted to take pictures and post them, but it was not to be.  I did manage to get the pictures today and will post one here with this.

As for what has me so busy, I have started to organize an unofficial soap swap with a bunch of people from the Soap Making Forum.  As I have not been a member long enough, I can't be in a swap, much less host one.  It was suggested that I could host one through facebook unofficially, so I started getting things together and have been busy organizing people.  I really have to thank the others on the list that are helping me with organizing.  I am so happy with the group of people that we have involved in the swap.  I am really looking forward to see the creations that everyone comes up with! 

Okay, I will try to stop bouncing around about the soap swap for a little bit at least and talk about the soap I made on Tuesday.  I made an in the pot swirl using three colors to try and make the look of a cloudy night.  Not sure I succeeded, but that was the plan.  I used the scent Midsummer Night, which is likely my favorite Yankee Candle scent.  I was doing good with the soap until I added the fragrance oil (at partial emulsification, I forgot to add it before I started mixing again), once the fragrance oil began to mix in it immediately started to accelerate.

Even with the fast trace, I was still able to get the soap together without too much difficulty.  It was pretty thick when I poured it into the mold and was hard to get a nice look on the top, but it turned out fairly well.  I also tried a new method of insulating it and put the mold inside a refrigerator soda pack box and then insulating the box so I didn't damage the top of the soap with plastic wrap.  The things I noticed with this is that the top cracked a little bit and the white at the top turned sort of pinkish.  I am not sure if that was a sign of overheating or if it was some discoloration from the fragrance oil.