The challenge for October was probably one of the most difficult we’ve done to date. The goal for both categories was to get perfectly straight slanted layers. Our guest teacher, Hélène Glémet of ChezHélène, created a wonderful tutorial with all the technical details – especially for her beautiful chevron design! This is a specialized slanted layer design for our advanced category. The regular category “just” had to create slanted layers with one pour, using the fragrance to set each layer, and turning the mold at least once to pour on the opposite side.
Our sponsor for this challenge is Muddy Soap Co! They offer high quality fragrances, essential oils and colorants for bath & body products, as well as the ElectraPress Bath Bomb Machine that they invented! Shipping available worldwide.
The clear winner in the advanced category is Yasmine of Zofaya in France. She created a stunning 37-layer chevron soap with 10 different shades of green and blue, plus purple!
I also chose Yasmine’s entry to receive the Best Presentation award. Her soap is beautifully presented, showing off the beautiful colors without shadowing, and utilizing depth of field to highlight the soap in front in perfect focus while the rest slowly fade into the background. The grand prize is a $50 gift certificate from Muddy Soap Co – congratulations! If you’d like to see more photos and read more about this soap on Yasmine’s Instagram post, just click on the photo.
Second place goes to Juanita Serrano of Juanderous Handcrafted Skincare in Australia. Her soap is a gorgeous display of neon colors with black and white accents, creating an assymetrical chevron design:
Juanita also receives the Best Use of Color – not only because she has used bright and highly contrasting colors, but they are all very well mixed and completely smooth! Her prize is a $35 gift certificate from Muddy Soap Co. Be sure to click on the photo to read more about her process on her Facebook post.
In third place we have Lisa Cunningham in the UK! Lisa created an incredible double chevron with animal print embeds and colors to represent an entire African safari, including the tiger, elephant, leopard, zebra and giraffe.
Talk about a labor of love! Not only is the chevron design created twice with straight layers, but all those animal patterns go all the way through the soap – which is why I chose this entry to receive the Best Technique award. Lisa wins a $25 gift certificate from Muddy Soap Co for this beauty. You’ll definitely want to check out Lisa’s blog post showing all the work and planning that went into this amazing soap! (Click on the photo.)
The Sponsor’s Choice winner is Christina Biehl in Germany! Jamie Pyles of Muddy Soap Co says, “The Comic Art Fishbone won me over. The beautiful soft monochromatic color palette is spot on, and the technique beautifully executed.”
Christina wins a $20 gift certificate from Muddy Soap Co – woo hoo!! Photo not linked.
Finally, the Best Soap Newbie award goes to someone who has been making soap for less than a year and has made fewer than 50 batches. Congratulations to Liz Strand in Wisconsin for braving the advanced category to create this lovely Ocean Ombre soap:
Aren’t those colors just mesmerizing? I love the subtle color change from turquoise to purple – great job, Liz! (Photo not linked.)
For the regular category, we had another clear winner! Grand prize goes to Leila Hazou of The Mad Soaper in Pennsylvania for her gorgeous ombre soap titled “A Little Grace”:
Leila did such an excellent job controlling trace through the entire pour and getting nice straight slanted lines! Congratulations!! The prize for this amazing soap is a $50 gift certificate from Muddy Soap Co! Read more about Leila’s adventures making soap for the challenge this month and how this soap got its name on her Instagram post by clicking on the photo.
In second place we have Tania Villalba of Sunset Lane Soaps in Michigan. Tania created a multi-layered watermelon soap, also with an ombre design, aptly named Mt. Melon:
Excellent design elements, including in-the-pot swirls and poppy seeds – and that small white layer between the rind and flesh of the fruit. Tania wins a $35 gift certificate from Muddy Soap Co – hooray! She’s written a post about her soap on Instagram as well – just click the photo to read more about it.
Third place goes to Marty Johnson in Minnesota for her Serenity soap with multiple slanted layers and mica lines:
This tone-on-tone soap is simply beautiful with the gold accent lines! Marty’s prize is a $25 gift certificate from Muddy Soap Co. Click on the photo to read more about this soap on Marty’s Instagram post.
The Sponsor’s Choice award goes to Lisa Gillespie of Courageous Soap in Colorado. Jamie says, “The Four Houses is my pick for the regular category. I love the color choices, fun top, and nod to Hogwarts.”
Great job, Lisa!! Her prize is a $20 gift certificate to Muddy Soap Co. The Instagram post about her soap is also linked to the photo if you’d like to read more about this Harry Potter inspired design.
The rest of the recognition awards for the regular category are as follows:
Best Presentation goes to Leah Stinman of Delta Tule in California. Leah did an excellent job capturing the beauty of her Driftwood soap.
The soap itself is squared off and slightly beveled. I like how you can see the face of the soap as well as the swirled tops. The front soap is perfectly focused and lit, with the second soap just out of focus in the back. The rich brown wood background sets off the natural soap colors beautifully. See more photos and read about Leah’s process on her Instagram post which is linked to this photo.
Best Use of Color goes to Christina Nantz in Iowa! When choosing who should receive this award, I am looking for an excellent color palette as well as well-mixed colors.
Many of you know that it’s not easy to get a true red in cold process soap – especially one that doesn’t bleed. The red and blue are equally rich and deep in hue. I love that Christina chose white for her mica lines – not a typical choice, but really makes her soap stand out! (Photo not linked.)
Finally, the Best Soap Newbie award for the regular category goes to Kathy Smart. She created a beautiful soap called Boho Love based on color inspiration from a photo of boho style bedding:
Kathy has made fewer than 50 batches of soap and has been making soap for less than a year. I’m impressed by her beautiful colors, straight slanted layers and elegant soap tops. This photo is linked to Kathy’s Facebook post where you can see her inspiration photo, more photos of her process, and one other soap she made for the challenge.
The rest of the entries are posted in the order they were voted at the bottom of this post.
Next month we are exploring all types of Soap Curl Designs! I’ve created a more traditional soap curl design for the regular category:
For the advanced category, the soap curls will be used to create the entire design in the face of the soap. Here’s the soap I created for the advanced category:
Our sponsor for the November challenge is Custom Craft Tools. They are providing very generous gift certificate prizes for our winners! You won’t want to miss this one!
Registration will open Monday, October 28. You will have the option to sign up for the November and December challenges or November only. There is more information about the November and December challenges, our sponsors, prizes, and any special equipment you might need on the Current Challenge page. Be sure to sign up for notifications if you haven’t already!
And now, here are the rest of the entries for October: