A Soap Competition?

June 2025 Marble Soap Competition

FINAL ENTRY AT THE END OF THE POST

Hosted by Amy Warden, the Soap Challenge Club has been around for quite a while. I remember submitting an entry for the very first one, which was the peacock swirl challenge (I don’t remember the year, but possibly early 2010’s). After all the votes were tallied, mine came in 2nd after a bar that was lovely, but wasn’t nearly as ambitious as mine:

First ever entry into the peacock challenge

Back then, there was only one winner, and no consolation prizes or any other tiers. I remember being so upset that I lost by ONE vote… and I believe it was peer judged, so my thought was that all the first place winner’s friends came in to vote. Not sure if that’s true to be fair, but at the time social media was still getting its legs, and I had next to no presence there, but the winner did.

I thought it would have been nice to have a consolation prize for 2nd and 3rd place at least… maybe a free entry into the next competition or something…

Especially considering the difference was one. measly. vote.

I was mad enough to not enter the competition again until now. When I saw that the technique was going to be a marble one, I wanted to try again. The goal is to follow the technique tutorial to get a soap that looks like a block of marble. I’ve done this before, and really loved how my first ever marbled soap turned out. You may have seen my video on it here:

Some bars turned out better than others, but the process was fun, and I was surprised at the results. I say this because…

I’m the messiest soap maker you’ll ever meet.

Anyway, the challenge has changed a lot over the years, with recognition in several different categories, and a tiered award system. There are also a lot of entries, and it’s been neat to see all the amazing entries from previous challenges.

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Attempt #1:

I was inspired by slate blue and rose gold, so I crafted my color scheme as such. However, in typical Liz fashion, I went with a fragrance that I was not familiar with (a blend of Barbershop from Wholesale Supplies Plus and a Men’s fragrance from Essential Depot). While it didn’t create soap on a stick, it did accelerate trace a touch, leaving me to resort to the in the pot technique (as in the video above), rather than the ombre technique. It’s still lovely, and smells great, but it wasn’t competition worthy in my opinion:

I had already plastic wrapped the bars before taking pictures, so that’s what those shiny spots and “wrinkles” are.

Attempt #2

Opting for a fragrance that I was sure decelerated trace, I continued with an untraditional color scheme. One of my favorite color combinations is purple and gold. There’s a sort of “royalty” in it that just grabs me.

The fragrance I used here is called Capri Olivo from Nature’s Garden Candles.

Attempt #3

I wanted to try again just to see if I could push my limits a little. Here, I used another decelerating fragrance, Pink Grapefruit from Wholesale Supplies Plus, and did not just one, but TWO gradients in black and pink:

Attempt #4

For this one, I was going to try emulating my countertop, where it has some interesting shimmery inclusions of silver within. I used just one ombre (bronze), with black for more veining as well as gold and black mica lines. I used another slow fragrance in Lemongrass Green Tea from Wholesale Supplies Plus:

I love the look of this, but the bronze was warmer than my goal. I love how the black did what I wanted it to, but the gold also didn’t pop as much as I had hoped.

So which one did I ultimately submit for the challenge?

Attempt #2!

Each angle changes how dark the purple shows up. Scented with Capri Olivo, a bright herbal citrus scent.

Which one did you like best? Let me know in the comments!

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