I love mantra swirls!! They’re so beautiful and classic looking. It bums me out that when you make a traditional mantra swirl in a loaf mold, the very best part is on the top of the soap rather than throughout the entire bar.
With my Black Raspberry Vanilla soap, I decided to try a slab mold mantra swirl. I use Nature’s Garden BRV and it is wonderful! Easy to work with, nice light fruity scent. It appeals to those who don’t particularly like vanilla or raspberry so it’s pretty perfect.
Let’s get into the making of… I brought my five pound batch to a light trace and whisked in my fragrance. I divided my soap between my four colors: Starlight Cabernet Mica, Violet Mica, Titanium Dioxide and Black Mica. The black mica will only be used as an accent color, hence the small amount in the squirt bottle.
I added my red, white and purple colors in an alternating ‘S’ pattern and left about an inch worth of soap in the bottom of each of my pouring containers. I use four cup plastic pouring containers for reference. Here’s what the soap looks like before the design:
Now it’s time to tackle the design. Using the left over soap, I alternate lines of color running vertically through the shortest part of my mold. I alternate the red/ white/ purple throughout the mold. The black soap is then squeezed on either side of the white stripe. When I started pouring this design, my trace was very light. I started by spooning on the stripes until my soap soap thickened up a bit. Then I was able to free pour the rest of the soap.
Mantra Swirling time! I start in the corner and drag my skewer through the first purple-black-white-black-red block of soap using this swirl:
This would be an example of the ‘block’ of soap that I’m swirling through (please excuse my messy lines):
Once all of the soap has been swirled, the end result is this:
As usual, I hold my breath while inserting my dividers because it would truly suck if I screwed up this design…
The cut bars:
bubbles & ducks 