Anyone ideas what this is? Look closely and guess before you continue reading….
… right, that’s exactly what I thought, too: What a funky pizza. Or extravagant cake? Well, it’s neither of both. It is the result of me underestimating Behawe’s ‘brilliant orange’, and this is a tray of freshly made soap getting into the gel phase, but let’s start at the beginning. I have a hobby most of you will have been exposed to already: Soap making. In principle, relatively simple, however, it involves a strong base in order to turn oils and fats into soap. So not exactly something to do at home while peeling potatoes, but having worked in a lab for a while and with hands on some equipment and goggles, I am sometimes making use of this. So I tried something new tonight, using cosmetics pigments for the first time. What I did not know was that usually you dissolve them first in oil or water, then add them. I simply added the powder to the soap mix. The result was anything but orange. I simply proceeded to add a lot more …. and the result was still rather pale and unconvincing. I gave up thinking it would possibly come out during the gel phase and added the perfume oil (Frangipani for Jodi) which did not only instantly bind the soap but also made the orange come out rather prominently. And now this gel phase … a necessary step where the chemical reaction of sodium hydroxide makes soap out of the oils and generates a lot of heat … the only thing left for me to hope for is that the foam of this soap is not going to be orange. That would be rather embarassing. Anyway, for next time I know. Orders of this rather interesting creation are being accepted, but it will be at least another 4-6 weeks before the soap has matured enough to be used. I will try and take some more pics when I cut it tomorrow … 
