Melt & Pour Soap Ribbon Embed Soaps & Loaf
 These stripey Soaps were made by us on wet, windy Sunday morning, a perfect way to spend our time inside in the warm! They are relatively easy to make as long as you take your time, measure carefully, and spritz between layers. The only colour we used was Aqua Pearl Mica, and I love the aqua sheen it gives the ribbons. You can use any non-bleeding Micas or Pigment Colours, but Dyes will bleed and ruin the look of these soaps. 
The Soap Loaf was our main project, and we used up some of the spare layered soap to make cut outs to embed in our new Contour Oval Mould.
Options for Layers:
190g Bottom Coloured Layer (poured first)
140g First Layer Pour
Make the Ribbons
Step One: Cut the soap into small cubes and weigh each portion, keeping the white and the clear separate. It is important to have a fairly accurate weight to ensure the stripes of the ribbons are even. Step Two: First, melt the 400g Clear Soap Base in a jug or Pyrex container (or whatever you have that is heat safe in the microwave). Melt on medium in short bursts to ensure a thorough melting without boiling. This amount is for 2 layers, the first and the third. Step Three: Add scent and colour to the melted soap base . If using Mica, moisten the powdered colour with a small amount of water or glycerine to form a paste and remove any lumps. We used just over 3ml Fragrance per portion of soap for the ribbons. Pour just under half of the liquid soap base into the Loaf Mould and spritz with a finishing touch of alcohol. Allow this to firm up. It just needs to be firm enough to support the next layer without the overpour breaking the through the skin. Step Four: Whilst this is starting to set up, gently melt the White Portion of the Base and scent. This amount is for 2 layers, the second and the fourth (final) layer. Step Five: Spritz the coloured bottom layer with alcohol, and then pour HALF of the White Liquid Soap carefully over the back of a spatula into the mould. Spritz with alcohol. Allow this to set up (approximately 7-10 min). Again, it just needs to be firm enough to support the next layer without the overpour breaking the through the skin. Step Six: Now repeat the last two steps using the remaining portions of soap to make a four layer loaf. You will need to gently re-melt this soap as it will have cooled down whilst waiting. Don’t forget to spritz the previous layers liberally with alcohol to get the layers to stick together whilst being cut. Allow this to set for ½ to 1 hour – depending on the temperature. You have now finished making the ribbons slab. Step Seven: Carefully unmould the slab of layers, and take the knife and slice approximately half the loaf lengthways into strips, approximately 2 – 4 mm thick. Carefully curl these into the empty loaf mould as shown in the picture.  Tips: The layers stick together well if the soap is not completely cold when you pour the next layer. They are also more pliable for cutting and bending if they are still slightly warm. As they are not complely cold when being unmoulded, just ease some air into the mould on all sides, and be patient, and the block of ribbon soap will slide out onto the work surface. 
Assemble the Loaf
Step Eight: Now heat approximately 1kg of Clear, Aloe Vera or Organic Base (our loaf uses Aloe Base). To this we added 6ml/g Lemon Verbena Fragrance, and 12ml Yuzu Fragrance. It is crucial that you check the temperature of this before pouring over the ribbons. It must not be more than 55 deg Celcius when pouring. If you like to pour at 60 deg Celcius, you will need to increase the thickness of the ribbons. We poured our loaf at 50 Deg Celcius.
 Step Nine: Begin arranging the Ribbons in the Loaf mould. We used 350g of Ribbons. Spritz the ribbons in the Loaf mould liberally with Alcohol, and then carefully pour the clear soap around and through the Soap Ribbons. Pour this portion quickly to avoid trapping air bubbles in the log of soap. Spritz with alcohol to remove surface bubbles. Step Ten: Leave the Loaf to cool and set up overnight. Slice and allow to dry a day or so before wrapping. 
Step Two: Use small cookie cutters to make shapes to embed into the mould cavities.  Step Three: Melt clear base and scent with non discolouring fragrance. Step Four: Spritz the cut out shapes with alcohol. Step Five: Pour some soap into one of the mould cavities, and carefully arrange two or three cut out soaps into the liquid soap – re-spritz if necessary.  Step Six: Quickly top up with more clear soap and spritz with alcohol. Step Seven: Allow to cool completely and then unmould. Don’t forget to wrap your soaps!
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