Soap Challenge Week 3 - Piping Soap - Cherry Blossom

I am participating in the Soap Challenge on Great Cakes Soapworks blog (see previous post). 

Soap Challenge Week 3 - Piping Soap

It's back to week 3's challenge, which I previously skipped.  We were to use a decorative piping technique with soap.  I took cake decorating classes years ago, probably 6 years, so I have a lot of tips and supplies, but since I have never done this with soap and had no idea what to expect, and I was out of practice with decorating, I decided to go with simple and planned to use my simplest decorating tip.  To my surprise, I was out of decorating bags, so the fast back up plan was to use a squirt bottle.

I created my soap and used Cherry Blossom fragrance which accelerated the trace.  Luckily I wanted my soap to be as thick as frosting so this was no cause for alarm.  I separated the batch into 3 containers.  One stayed uncolored, one was colored pink with an ultramarine, and the 3rd was colored brown with an oxide.  Since the soap was becoming thick quickly, I layered the soap in a slab mold...pink on bottom, white on top, and set my dividers.  I stuffed the brown and pink soap into squirt bottles and piped a cherry blossom branch and flowers onto the surface of each soap. 

And here is the end result.  It's not a complete disaster.  I would like the branch to be a darker brown next time for more contrast.  And if the soap was a little thinner, I may be able to get a nicer piping, too.  All in all, for a first time attempt, I feel it went OK.  Since I now know what to expect, I already have ideas for using my fancier tips, and to revise this soap to be what I really want.

You can see the other challenge participants' Piped Soaps by clicking here.

I'll post the next challenge soon... Faux Funnel soap.

Bath Alchemy by The Bonnie Bath Co.