Keep reading to find out how we achieved this amazing look! Click here to contact us about your custom order today!
We used our cold process soap for these dragon eye soaps because we think our cold process formula is more luxurious than melt and pour. We have perfected our cold process recipes and were excited to try one of them with this new technique!
Most molded soaps use melt and pour soap bases (also known as glycerin soap) because cold process soap requires more time in the mold. But, in addition to the luxurious recipe we preferred, we had a pragmatic reason to attempt this. This project was for a subscription book box and would be shipped to the recipients in September. Melt and pour soaps typically melt around 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Those big brown trucks get hot, and we didn’t want our fancy soaps to turn into puddles!
But these soaps were a challenging endeavor!
First, we made our soap and poured it into the molds. We selected a green base and a blue base.
When we unmolded the bars, we were not surprised to find some small imperfections. The molds were handmade and had some variations that we did not want to preserve in the final product. So we detailed each bar by hand with a clay carving tool, adding detail and refining texture.
Now the bars were ready for color! We painted each bar individually with multiple layers of mica. The green bars were painted first with a sparkly base layer of green mica, then accented with gold mica on the highlights and blue in the cracks and crevices between the dragon scales. The blue bars were painted with a base layer of sparkly blue mica, then accented with silver mica on the highlights and green mica in the cracks and crevices. The eyes on both color bars were painted first with white mica to make the subsequent layers of gold mica really shine.
We created a unique, proprietary technique for adhering the mica to the surface of the soap. As far as we know, we’re the only ones who hand paint cold process soap after it has cooled.
We’re thrilled with the results! We’re developing a new line of dragon soaps, as well as other fantastic creatures. Subscribe to our mailing list to find out when we have new products available!