Soap will never cease to amaze me

Just when you think you got it all sussed, it bites you on the bum, lol.

I had a three layer soap planned, incorporating an experiment, to see whether I could get a decent sea green colour by mixing annatto seed infusion with ultramarine blue. The bottom layer was going to be blue, the middle layer hopefully a sea green and the top layer a nice egg yolk yellow. I also wanted to use up some FOs I had in the cupboard. I do love vanilla rose combos, so thats what I was going for. Rose FO, being a floral, was supposed to accelerate badly, so I was going to use that in the bottom layer to get it to set up real quick. Yeah right, sigh. Would you believe that this English Rose FO soaped absolutely beautifully? No sign of acceleration, however much I stickblended it, lol. Sod's law, of course, when you want it set up quick, it will give you the finger, lol, and stay liquid, lol.

So there I was, with the other two thirds of the soap, at very thin trace, sitting in two separate jugs, waiting to be dealt with. I had already coloured the two lots with annatto seed infusion. One was to stay that colour, the other one I was going to add UM blue to, to get a sea green colour. I didn't want to start stickblending the UM blue into the second layer, until the first had set up, and of course that was taking its time. Finally it seemed firm enough to pour the second layer on, so I quickly blended the UM into the yellow soap................ and blended............... and blended some more. Would that wretched soap thicken up? Nope, of course not, not at all, not after oodles of stickblending. Sigh. Ah well, nevermind, I thought, pour it onto the bottom layer, it will firm up nicely once its in the mould, and as the second FO, Vanilla Bean wasn't mean to accelerate at all, it seemed like a good plan. So on it went, and off I went to add the FO to the last third of soap. Stirred it in gently, and waited for the second layer to set............ and waited............ and waited some more. Would it ever set? Like heck it would, but of course the last third with the Vanilla Bean FO did, in the pot, lol. By now it was like a very thick custard, and I had to use it, or lose it.
I globbed it on, and the still thin middle layer squidged around and over it. So much for my lovely layers, lol. Ah well, it might still turn out ok-ish, fingers crossed. Topped it off with some plain cream soap shreds to hide the messy top, lol. Its happily gelling away now. I just wish I could see what it looks like inside, grrr, having to wait til tomorrow is soooooooooo hard.