December's challenge was to create a top for our soap from an Impression Mat. We could buy one or we could make one. I opted to buy one as I didn't really have any thing on hand that I thought would work well for the type of design I wanted. I also wanted to make sure that I actually DID this challenge as I had signed up for November's and then ran out of time. I figured if I bought a mat that would sort of force me to continue! For those who don't know what an impression mat is, here is a picture of mine. It was much longer but I cut it down to fit my 2 pound mold. My mat came from Hobby Lobby and was in the cake decorating section.
Since my mat had sort of an old fashioned vintage look to it I decided to make a soap that had softer colors. I also decided to try my hand at layering. I used the scent Black Raspberry Vanilla since I knew it would probably behave and also not discolor. That led me to the purple "lace" and since I wanted a contrast with the lace, to a soft pink underneath. I darkened the purple that would be the lace, just a bit. I also had recently received a sample of some red raspberry seeds so I thought it would be fun to do a middle layer of white with the raspberry seeds. Then I would end it with a purple layer that would eventually become the bottom of the soap.
l applied the slightly thick soap to the mat and although it seemed to go in well, I really wasn't sure about it. The hardest part for me was cleaning the edges so I could get the mat into the mold without making a mess. I thought for sure I was going to have some globs of purple where I didn't want it on my finished soap. After I did the white layer I realized my soap was going to look like Neopolitan ice cream if you can imagine that with grape ice cream instead of chocolate. (Well, really my husband pointed that out to me.) Anyway, once he said that I thought it would be nice to mound (or plop) the last layer. I wanted it to be a bit more organic since the lace had some curve in it. I was so excited to see that it came out just like I hoped! So, here is the final product. Triple butter Black Raspberry Vanilla soap with a bit of Red Raspberry seeds for exfoliation!
