Teach Soap

Hi there. I'm new on this board...this is my first post. I've now made about 25 batches since I started with my first cp batch last November using lots of different recipes. Curious if you have any tips on keeping the soap "batter" soft enough to do the drop swirl technique. I tried to do it last night w/ a 2 lb. batch. Used 8 oz. olive oil, 6 oz. palm, 6 oz. coconut & 1 oz. cocoa butter. FO I used was hot apple cider and oatmeal milk & honey. I used oxides and micas to get 4 different colors but even though I worked quickly, adding fragrance & color...(it wasn't supper gloppy thick) I wasn't able to pour a steady stream from a distance to allow me to do a drop swirl. I ended up just kind of layering and by the time I got it all in the mold, when I put the skinny handle of my plastic spoon in to swirl a little it didn't even fill in where I put the spoon so I had to bag that too! Pounded down my mold again...hoping there's no air pockets inside from that. It seems like no matter what recipe I use by the time I color/scent the soap and pour it's too thick to do much with it. Oh and I soaped at between 105 & 110 degrees I believe... I see all these gals on you tube do all kinds of things with their batches and their batter seems to stay so conisistant each time...nice and soft trace.

Would love any helpful tips or suggestions. Thanks in advance.

~Karla

At what temp do you combine your oils and lye? Are you using a full water amount? Are you using a stick blender instead of a stainless steel whisk?

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I combined oils and lye at between 105 & 110 degrees and I did use a stick blender. Had a really thin trace when I went to add colors & fragrance but that seemed to speed things up. I believe I used just 1 oz. under the max water recommended...so about 7 oz.

Karla

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Aside from what Irena said, changing up your recipe can help too. Yours has 13 oz of hard oils to 8 oz of oo. If you bump the oo and decrease the hard oils (you could even add in some rice bran oil if you didnt want mostly oo) that would also help to slow trace down. Sometimes it is a matter of working a shade faster too, the more times you try, the faster you will get. Throw all the tips together and you will get there, just hang in there!

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

My fav lye calculator is the one at Majestic Mountain Sage, because it gives a range of water. https://www.thesage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php

With such a small batch, the difference between 7 oz and 8 ounces is significant. That's 12.5% difference. I would do 7.5 oz.

I feel your pain with not being able to work the swirls! I had this same problem. Time and time again, no matter how fast I worked, the soap would always seize before I could do a fluid swirl, despite using high percentages of olive oil. Recently I tried a recipe that included almond oil and avocado oil in addition to the oo. Lo and behold, that was the trick. The oils moved much more slowly and I had a lot more time to work. I think another person mentioned using rice bran oil and that would probably work too. I have also begun just getting the oils to emulsify in the big pot but NOT bringing them to a light trace until after I have separated the batch into each of the different colors that I'm using. I add the color and fragrance and use a spoon to mix it in as good as I can. Then I take the stick blender and blend to trace. I finally just ordered a mini-mixer to disperse my colorants and I'm going to try to use that to bring the oils to trace rather than the stick blender because I have a hunch it will buy me a little more time. I hope this helps!

I know that spicy scents can really accelerate things, and have heard that many times about the OMH scent made by some suppliers as well. Not sure how else to slow them down other than what others have already suggested here -- to sum up: use full water, soap cooler, more soft oils vs hard oils, divide up the batter and color it just after emulsified before it really is at light trace, wait till the last minute to scent it, and hand-mix it instead of SB.

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"The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity." ~ Dorothy Parker