The lollipop swirl is a technique that was created by Mater Sam this past June.  It’s such a fun one that creates beautiful round soaps with lollipop designs!

Our three categories this month include beginner, experienced and the non-competitive bonus category.  Our sponsor this month is Majestic Mountain Sage, supplying soap and cosmetic making materials since 1996.  They are a family-owned and operated, full-service supplier of raw materials to the handcrafted soap and cosmetics industry. You can count on their quality ingredients, technical support, and rapid order processing!  They have also been a very generous Challenge Club sponsor over the past seven years, and this year is no different.   They are providing gift certificate prizes to the top three voted winners in the beginner and experienced categories, plus THREE Sponsor’s Choice winners in all three categories!

Just like last month, anyone who has been making soap for more than a year and has made more than 50 batches had to add their submission to the experienced category.  (Beginners could choose to enter the experienced category instead if they wished.)  For this category, participants were challenged not only to create a beautiful lollipop swirl, but also an additional design element made of soap around the outside of the lollipop.  There are some really creative soaps that I know you’ll enjoy seeing!

Huge congratulations to Lisa Cunningham of I Dream in Soap in the UK for her first grand prize finish!!  What a stupendous rimmed lollipop swirl!  The pours are quite consistent and the flower rims have been meticulously centered on each soap:

Flowerim Lollipop by I Dream in Soap

Amazing work!  Lisa wins a $50 gift certificate from Majestic Mountain Sage.  The photo is linked to her Instagram post where you can see more photos of her process.

In second place by just one vote we have another outstanding rimmed lollipop swirl by Sayani Biswas in Texas!  Sayani has made huge progress in her soapmaking journey since she first started a few months ago, and still qualifies for the beginner category, but chose to challenge herself with the experienced technique. 

Sayani’s lollipop swirl is made with very small, controlled pours, and she used a cake decorating technique to meticulously pipe and fill her rim.  She wins a $35 gift certificate from The Sage – fantastic!  Check out her Instagram post with more information about her soap by clicking on the photo.

In third place we have Wan-Ting Gonzalez in California with yet another spectacular rimmed lollipop swirl soap!  I was very impressed by her consistent, perfectly rounded lollipop swirls and felt she also earned the Best Technique Award!

Geometric Pattern Wrapped Lollipop by Wan-Ting Gonzalez

I love how the rim enhances the lollipop swirl inside with the same color scheme in a complementary pattern.  Wan-Ting wins a $25 gift certificate from The Sage.  Be sure to click on the photo to see more photos of her process on her Instagram post!

Magestic Mountain Sage has chosen “Snail-ed It” by Sara Golding of Sunny Girl Sundries in Oklahoma for their Sponsor’s Choice award in the experienced category. Andee says, “This soap gave us giggles galore! These adorable soaps had a few of us channeling our inner child and wanting bath time!”

Snail-ed It by Sunny Girl Sundries

As Sara says, it’s stupid cute!!  She wins a $20 gift certificate from The Sage – woo hoo!  Curious about how she made it?  Click on the photo for more information on her Instagram post!

The second Sponsor’s Choice winner is actually Santa’s Choice!  This prize goes to Lauren Pulz of Single Barrel Soaps in Maryland for her Rainbow Swirl Soap.  Andee says, “Rainbow lollipops are the best, and this soap channels the fun with an extra bit of sparkly fun! The video was fun to hear your excitement with the process and especially the finished soaps!”  Don’t worry, you can watch the video too by clicking on the photo:

Rainbow Swirl Soap by Single Barrel Soaps

Lauren also wins a $20 gift certificate from Majestic Mountain Sage – hooray!!

Finally, the third Sponsor’s Choice award is the Reindeer’s Choice and it goes to Maude Aubry in France for her Lollipop Stick soap!  Andee was very excited about this entry.  “This challenge had me hoping someone would put it in a soap on a stick! Gorgeous colors and taking this round swirl into a rectangular shape!”

Lollipop Stick by Maude Aubry

Maude’s technique is definitely impressive!  She wins a $20 gift certificate as well.  Definitely click on the photo of her soap to see how she made it on her Instagram post!

Next up are the rest of the Recognition Awards for the Experienced Category.  Best Use of Color goes to Amy Amado of Light Bearer Soap Co in Idaho for her Ghostly Pinwheel soap!  I love how she outlined the bold colors with black, and once you see her inspiration photo for this color palette, you’ll appreciate the beauty even more!  One of the other requirements for this award is well-mixed colors, and this soap has them!

Ghostly Pinwheel by Light Bearer Soap Co

You’ll find that inspiration photo and more information about Amy’s soap by clicking on the photo to check out her blog post.

The Best Presentation Award goes to Amy Bautista of Elysian Acres Soap in Colorado.  Amy’s photo is amazing not only because she has presented the most realistic raw bacon-looking soap I’ve ever seen, but the focus is super sharp in the front with a nice fade toward the back.  The soaps are stacked in an interesting way that shows off the fronts as well as the sides, and the wood texture grounds the photo very well:

Wakey, Wakey, Eggs & Bakie by Elysian Acres Soap

Be sure to click on the photo to see Amy’s process for that bacon soap rim on her Instagram post!

Now you get to see the winners from the beginner category!  Only those who have been making soap for less than a year or less than 50 batches could enter this one.  They only had to make the lollipop swirl for their entry.

Congratulations goes to Sabina Allegretti in Italy for her grand prize winning Sunset Lollipop soap!  Sabina’s soap was so impressive, I knew it qualified for the Best Technique award as well.  The outlines and pours are extremely consistent and beautifully fluid.

Sunset Lollipop by Sabina Allegretti

Sabina’s prize is a $50 gift certificate from Majestic Mountain Sage – so awesome!  Click on the photo to see more photos of her soap, her inspiration, and all the other lollipop swirls she made for the challenge!

Second place in the beginner category goes to Danielle Demyen in California for her bright and fancy Groovy, Baby! soap.  She did such a great job on her colors and lollipop swirls!

Groovy, Baby! by Danielle Demyen

Danielle’s prize is a $35 gift certificate from The Sage!  This is her second try at the technique, and she has posted her first and third soaps that didn’t quite work out on her Instagram post – just click on the photo!

In third place we have Antonio C in Italy who created this gorgeous Colorful Rainbow for his entry!  His colors are such wonderful pastel shades with excellent white outlines:

Colorful Rainbow by Antonio C

Excellent work by a first time Challenge Club participant!  Antonio wins a $25 gift certificate from The Sage for his efforts.  (Photo not linked.)

The first Sponsor’s Choice award in the beginner category goes to Kim Jensen in California for her Frozen Swirls soap.  Andee says, “I remember visiting a candy factory specializing in lollipops when I was a young girl. Kim’s soap perfectly captured the swirls of my favorite blue raspberry lollipop and gave the technique an excellent representation!”  I also chose Kim’s entry to receive the Best Presentation award, as it is beautifully presented and photographed!  The black background is the perfect way to show off the blue and white swirled soap, with excellent lighting and focus.  The soaps are nicely centered in the photo as well:

Frozen Swirls by Kim Jensen

Kim wins a $20 gift certificate from The Sage – great job!! Click on the photo if you’d like to check out her Instagram post with more information about her soap.

The second Sponsor’s Choice award (aka Santa’s Choice!) goes to Irina Lisovska in the Ukraine for her Chocolate Christmas soap. Andee says, “Not sure if this is chocolate or latte art. Either way, I’m drooling! Excellent flow and great distinction of the lines.”

Chocolate Christmas by Irina Lisovska

Irina also wins a $20 gift certificate from The Sage, and a special welcome to the Club!!  Be sure to click on the photo to see her Instagram post about her soap.

The Reindeer’s Choice Sponsor award goes to Rachel Brinkerhoff in California for her amazing Fire in the Hole soap!  Andee comments, “This soap is fun! The bright colors have me thinking about roasted marshmallows. The colors almost flow together, but keep separate in that fire-like swirl of color.”

Fire in the Hole by Rachel Brinkerhoff

Lovely soap with a fun name, Rachel!  Congratulations on your $20 gift certificate from The Sage!  Rachel’s photo is linked to her Facebook post about her soap.

Ok, one last Recognition Award for the beginner category, and that’s the Best Use of Color!  I’ve chosen Sara Grajewski in Wisconsin to receive this award for her amazing Swirl Pop soap colors.  She’s done an excellent job creating a very smooth batter with well-mixed colorants that truly pop!  Maybe it’s the primary color palette that just really works together, but this one definitely caught my eye.

Swirl Pop by Sara Grajewski

What’s even more impressive is that this was Sara’s first try at this technique!  Click on the photo to see her post on Instagram.

Now we can move on to the Bonus Category Sponsor’s Choice awards!  The first one goes to Whitney Schneider of Cheeky Goat Soapery in Florida for her fabulous and fun Nautilus soap!  Andee was quite impressed.  She says, “Wowza! I know this soap wasn’t eligible for the regular challenge. Still, you put a lot of time and effort into getting these soaps looking as accurate as possible, and I love how it encourages education about sea creatures.”

Nautilus by Cheeky Goat Soapery

Definitely an awesome soap!!  Whitney wins a $20 gift certificate from The Sage – woo hoo!  Click on the photo to read more about this fun design on Whitney’s Facebook post.

The Santa’s Choice Sponsor Award in the Bonus Category goes to Christina Erickson of LeBluet in California for her Love Spell soap with intricate dotted rim.  Andee says, “This soap is a gorgeous blend of soap rims, and lollipop swirls with the glamour of sophisticated elegance! Can we say ‘Oh Lala?’ “

Love Spell by LeBluet

Great work, Christina!  She also receives a $20 gift certificate from The Sage!  (Photo not linked.)

One last award, and it’s the Reindeer’s Choice!  This one goes to Lucy Mulhern in Ireland for her super creative Galactica soap!  This one also holds a special place in Andee’s heart: “Having grown up with family engineering ties to the rockets that propelled humans to space and the moon, this soap was a great stylized vision of space. It’s a soapy version of the Hubble!”

Galactica by Lucy Mulhern

Congrats to Lucy for winning a $20 gift certificate from The Sage!!  Click on the photo to see her post on Instagram that includes ALL the fun lollipop swirls she attempted for the challenge.

The rest of the entries for the Experienced and Beginner categories are at the bottom of this post!

Wow!  What a year we’ve had!!  There are some exciting new things coming for the Soap Challenge Club in 2021!  In fact, I took the time to make a video about them and I’d love it if you watched it!

We are taking some time off for the holidays, and then we’ll be back for the January challenge!  Registration will open for the January through April challenges on Monday, January 4th.  I know you’re excited to see what the techniques will be, so here you go!

For January, we are doing two different, yet similar techniques for the two categories: Salt Crystal soaps and Geode Crystal soaps.  You get to choose which one you’d like to enter!  If you want to do both, you can add a second entry to the bonus category.  This challenge will be sponsored by Marina Baranov of Creamy Obsession.  She makes incredibly intricate soap stencils!  Although not officially a guest teacher next month, she also made this example soap inspired by Mee Hue for the Salt Crystal category, and the video of her making it will be included with the tutorial.  If you wish to make this technique, you’ll need some coarse sea salt or coarse pink Himalayan salt:

Salt Crystal Soap by Creamy Obsession

This is the Geode Crystal soap I made for the video tutorial.  If you wish to make this technique, you’ll need some transparent melt and pour soap:

Geode Crystal Soap by Amy Warden

For February, guest teacher Joanne Watkins of Nature’s Potions Handmade Soaps will be showing us her Kiss Pour technique!  Joanne created a photo tutorial for the 2019 Design Mania contest with Making Soap and Cosmetics Magazine, and she’s agreed to do a video for us for the challenge.  Here’s the soap she made for Design Mania:

Kiss Pour by Joanne Watkins

We have another new sponsor for this challenge: Stardust Micas!!  They specialize in all types of micas and pigments.  “The Pigments of Your Imagination” is their catchy tagline! Joanne will be demonstrating their micas in her tutorial.

For March, we are doing a super fun themed challenge!!  The two categories will be based on these timeless Disney movies: Alice in Wonderland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  Pull out all the creative stops for this one!  I’ve made a Cheshire Cat soap as an example for the Alice theme, and Eva Gomez graciously put together an example for the Charlie theme:

Cheshire Cat by Amy Warden/Chocolate River by Eva Gomez

We have two sponsors for this challenge: Brand new sponsor LiluSoap Tools is giving away her 6-Second Beveler ($75 value) to each of the grand prize winners!!  LiChing says, “Ever since I founded LiluSoap Tools, my mission has been providing the most durable, efficient and friendly tools as well as the most enjoyable soapmaking experience to all soap makers.”  The rest of the prizes will be sponsored by Lovin Soap!  They have a vast collection of e-books and courses for soap and cosmetic recipes as well as business information.  I’m so glad they agreed to come back as a sponsor!

Last, and certainly not least, Tatiana Serko of Creative Soap by Steso will be back to guest teach her Polka Dot technique for the April challenge!!

Polka Dot soap by Creative Soap by Steso

We have another brand new sponsor for the April challenge: Babassu for You in Germany.  They sell babassu oil in its most natural form and of the best quality: unrefined, organic and fairly traded for the past 14 years.  Martin believes in his product so much that he is willing send it anywhere in the world and will cover all shipping costs for the winners.  Check out the Current Challenge page for more info about the upcoming challenges and to sign up for notifications!

Check out the Experienced and Beginner Category submissions below:

Experienced Category

Beginner Category