Painting Ideas, Tips & Information

• The best brushes for use with soap paints are artists' paintbrushes, found in any art or hobby store. The "five and dime" brushes (sold with children's paint sets) can create an uneven, streaked appearance in the applied paint.
• Most of the potted paints appear pastel, but they'll dry to a deeper, richer hue.
• Diluting the paints with water to produce delicate watercolor "washes" can create beautiful effects.
• Try adding glitter to the paint. Stir glittered paint before each use because glitter tends to sink to the bottom of the paint pot.
• To dress up plain, unmolded soap bars, design stencils out of rigid watercolor paper. This is a quick and beautiful way to adorn the soap.
• Create a broader spectrum of colors by blending Milky Way soap paints together. A plastic plate can be used as a palette for mixing small amounts of color; 1/2-ounce plastic paint pots with snap-on lids are ideal for larger quantities, which can then be stored for later use. Aside from very basic color mixing (such as yellow with red to make orange, blue and yellow to make green, etc) you can lighten the colors with white, darken with black, or create subtle and interesting earth tones by adding brown. Experiment too with blending basic colors with metallic colors.

Technical Tips

• To view the finished colors before beginning your project, dab small swatches of paint onto a sheet of white paper and allow to dry.
• Before painting your soap bars, practice on scrap soap to get a feel for the paints (you only need a bar or two, since the paint can be wiped off after each test). Painting on soap is not like painting on porous paper. Soap, particularly melt and pour, has a surface similar to oily glass.
• If you experience difficulty getting the colors to adhere to melt and pour soaps, try dusting them with cornstarch. In other words, lightly sprinkle the starch onto the bar and then use a 3-4 inch household paintbrush to evenly dust the soap making sure you brush off any excess. The cornstarch will dry onto the surface of the soap allowing the paint something to hold onto.
• Apply the paints in smooth even strokes. Take care not to "overwork" an area that's already been painted. The base layer of paint will start drying immediately; too much over brushing with additional color will pull the drying paint away from the soap surface. Cold-process soap has more porosity and texture than melt and pour; therefore the paints adhere more easily to its surface.
• If you wish to over paint with further layers of color, wait for 10 minutes or so until the base layer dries. You can hasten this process with a hair dryer, but take care to not melt the soap!
• Milky Way soap paints dry to the touch in 10-15 minutes, but please allow the paints to thoroughly cure for 24 hours before using or wrapping the soap. Uncured paints will pull away from the soap surface.
• If you have difficulty getting the paint to adhere by brushing, try dabbing it on. "Dry brushing" also works well. To dry brush, dip the brush lightly into the paint then wipe off any excess onto the rim of the paint pot. Apply with light, even strokes onto the soap; this will create a fine, feathery look to the paint.
• Before tightening the lids on the paint pots, take a moment to wipe any extra paint off the threads of the lid or container; otherwise the paint dries and lightly glues the lid to the container.