Hi folks! How do I speed up trace in olive oil soap?

I don't remember how many parts was extra virgin or virgin and how much was pomace. I have thrown the bottle already. First of all, I am not sure if it actually is pomace at all, or if pomace is something that is sold here. Nothing has that description on the bottles. Usually the low grades are extracted by heat.

Aha! I found out. Pomace is a grade we do have in Norway, but it's not legal to mark that as olive oil. It has to be called something else, cooking oil or something. And pomace is not normally sold in supermarket. Most sold to restaurants and other customers with special needs.

The oil I bought was marked as an olive oil, so it was for sure not any pomace in the blend. It must have been refined olive oil mixed with some cold pressed oil. It was very cheap, so it was for sure more than 70% refined, or more.

Yes, it's a sort of blender like that I have, but not so fancy. It's some old plastic crap. But I ordered a stick blender yesterday. A very powerful one, 800 watt. And it had a separate container to chop up stuff. I will definetely need that for the next soap I will make, an oatmeal and apricot soap.

I ordered some essential oils from England. I got a letter yesterday, and thought it had arrived. But no, the bloody customs have STOPPED the parcel, and demanded documentation. Grr! It's almost not possible to order anything from abroad anymore. So now, my precious oils (that I found for cheap, except the true sandalwood), are going to take forever to arrive. And I am sure they will send me a hefty bill, charging VAT and everything. The sandalwood is the one I am waiting hardest for. I will use it as a perfume, and not put a single drop of it in any soap. It was not cheap.

The next time I find something to order, I must ask the companies to wrap it in gift paper and write "Happy birthday" all over the parcel. That should work. I got a parcel from the Chech Republic that was a fake birthday gift, and it went straight thru customs. We are not full members of the EU, that's why everything has to go thru customs in the first place.

Okey, then our toll road system is not as bad after all. At least we don't have different systems from town to town (we have almost no big cities) and they bill you only once. But I think it would be a lot better with a little extra tax on every single person, and free roads everywhere.

I have seen on TV that you have roads with lighting in the middle! Like in the asphalt. These roads here are very narrow, almost no lights nowhere, and very, very much bends. In fact, there is very few straight roads. In the south of the country, maybe, but definately not here in the north. These roads are actually dangerous, but we are so used to them, so we manage and drive like normal. But the tourists, they are really scared and drive really slow. When we drive in 90 km/h in the summer, the tourists drive in 50 km/h. But other tourists again, they are cycling! And that is really, really dangerous. I don't dare to cycle along this narrow roads with heavy traffic and corners everywhere, absolutely not. It's actually a miracle that all this tourists survive the holiday.

Rune said:

Yes, maybe the bottle of oil was more than a liter. I am starting to suspect that. My soap will not set! It's still quite soft. But it's gone about 20 hours since i poured it. Maybe that's too short time? I will check on them tomorrow, and see if there is any improvement.

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Is your soap soft like play doh or putty? Or is your soap still liquid?

It easily takes me 72 hours or longer to unmold my soaps and most of my soaps have coconut in them. Can you post a picture of what it looks like now?

I found some really cheap stick blenders in Norwegian webshops, the same price as the one from Amazon in England, but I thought it would be better with a more powerful one. So I bought one for 47 dollars. Too expensive actually. But it's stainless steel and I hope it's more silent than the cheap plastic ones. But the most important feature, it had several speed settings. I guess that is handy. And the bowl with chopper blades, that is somethin I really need. I had a magic bullet, and liked it very much, even if it's some noisy crap that does not work as seen on TV, for sure not. But it has disappeared. I know my uncle borrowed it, and I am sure I never got it back. But he can't find it. So this little bowl to the stick blender to chop onions and everything, that was a feature I need to have, since I have been missing my magic bullet for a loooong time.

Rune said:

I have seen on TV that you have roads with lighting in the middle! Like in the asphalt. These roads here are very narrow, almost no lights nowhere, and very, very much bends. In fact, there is very few straight roads. In the south of the country, maybe, but definately not here in the north.

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I think those are reflectors, not actual lights. They are placed so that, ideally, the headlights of the car will catch them and they will reflect dramatically, looking like they have their own light source.

You may want to start a thread, something like "Norwegian soaper looking for supplies" and maybe some folks from Norway will chime in.

Are you determined to make 100% olive oil soap? Because if you are not, using some lard, some tallow, some palm will make this a lot easier AND a lot cheaper.

Another option may be hot process. Do you have a slow cooker?

I have had soaps take up to 5 days before I could unmold them - they were full water and did not gel. So just leave it for a while and check later.

BattleGnome said:

Is your soap soft like play doh or putty? Or is your soap still liquid?

It easily takes me 72 hours or longer to unmold my soaps and most of my soaps have coconut in them. Can you post a picture of what it looks like now?

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Yes, it's like play doh, exactly. Not liquid at all. 72 hours, aha, okey. Then I'll just have to wait some more. I used olive oil only, and 4% superfatting. So I guess the extra fat makes it softer for a longer time. It's not separating or anything, so I guess the soap is fine. I am just glad I can't see some obvious disasters, like in the first batch of soap I made. That was a mess from beginning to end.

I can think out a way to take a picture AND get it loaded in my computer. To transfer from my phone is impossible for whatever reason I don't know. I can hardly charge this old Iphone. Sometimes it takes hours only to get it to start charging. Maybe the phone is too old for the cables, or anything. So I have given up that a long time ago. I have a DSLR camera, but need to buy batteries first. It eats batteries like cookies. So I can take a picture when I have new batteries.

Rune said:

I can think out a way to take a picture AND get it loaded in my computer.

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Do you have the SMF app? It's pretty easy to post a photo with that.

dixiedragon said:

I think those are reflectors, not actual lights. They are placed so that, ideally, the headlights of the car will catch them and they will reflect dramatically, looking like they have their own light source.

You may want to start a thread, something like "Norwegian soaper looking for supplies" and maybe some folks from Norway will chime in.

Are you determined to make 100% olive oil soap? Because if you are not, using some lard, some tallow, some palm will make this a lot easier AND a lot cheaper.

Another option may be hot process. Do you have a slow cooker?

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I thought it was like LED lights or something. A very clever solution. Something we should get here as well.

I just used olive because I read that canola/rapeseed is not a good oil to use. Olive oil is cheap ($1.30 per liter), and so is rapeseed. Palm oil is not available at all, as far as I know. Lard, I have seen that, but can't remember where. Tallow is not cheap here. Maybe directly from the butchers or something, but not in shops. Coconut oil is relatively expensive as well. We have a limited supply in supermarkets. But maybe in Sweden. I wiil look for oils the next time I drive there to buy cigarettes.

BUT, I can order oils from where I work, oils meant for the professional market. I will check the catalogues and see what I can find, and the prices. I am sure they have a little bit of everything available.

In supermarkets, we have a type of deep frying fat, that consists of shea butter, coconut oil and canola oil. It is a solid fat. I want to try that because of the shea butter, but I don't know the proportions between the fats used in the mixture, so it will be impossible to calculate lye.

Supplies is available, especially from the UK. Shipping from the UK to Norway is really cheap. If I order not too much at a time, it will go straight thru customs. I think the limit is 41 dollars. If we don't order for more than that each time, it's no problem. But where to find oils and butters at bargain prices, that is something other soapers in Norway may know about. So thank you for the tips, I will start a thread and ask for that.

I like natural colorants and fragrances. Not that I have anything special against synthetic materials, but I think it is an extra something with the natural ones. When summer comes, I will see if I can make some of my own.

SMF app, hmm, I didn't manage to find out what that is. But I'm sure I don't have it, since I don't even know what it is. The problem is not to post anything, as long as I can find it on the computer, but to get it from the phone and into the computer. When I plug in the cable, I can't find the telephone symbol. Nothing happens. So I can't find the pictures so that I can transfer them over from the telephone and then post them. I have tried bluetooth and another thing I can't remember the name of. Airdrop, I remembered now. But my phone is totally hidden. Like it's a spy phone or something. So I can't use the phone for anything else than calling. Pictures are stucked inside there, forever. I have an Iphone 3-something. Very, very old. That is maybe the whole problem. Too old for todays technology.

you don't need the app to upload photos from your iPhone to SMF. Just do it through your browser. No cables required!

You could always just email them to yourself from the phone, then download them on the computer.

mx6inpenn said:

You could always just email them to yourself from the phone, then download them on the computer.

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That's how I do it.

I add beeswax to my olive oil soap, about 1-2%. That might speed up your trace. At least it will give you a nice hard bar of soap when you do reach trace. Best of luck.

www.articles.sun-sentinel.com/1992-05-09/news/9202070323_1_waste-authority-glass-macleod
Glittering asphalt. It's recycled glass. Taiwan uses same thing, too. Actually kinda cool. Like diamonds in the asphalt.


https://www.payetteforward.com/my-iphone-wont-charge-heres-the-real-reason-why/

You can use wifi option and email photo from phone. It's in the " SETTING" and click open. Then connect your phone and computer. And email to yourself from phone.
https://www.howtogeek.com/214080/how-to-turn-your-windows-pc-into-a-wi-fi-hotspot/

I have iPhone 5 and there's no phone symbol when I plug in. If I recall correctly. Maybe it's your cable or that hole you put cable in is not so clean. See website 2 above, a toothbrush can help.
And if I recall correctly, you plug in the computer and phone, theirs options you can choose from. Like " just upload photos" and " sync" etc.
Or ask others for iPhone cable, maybe it's just old cable and bad connection. This is why I miss NOKIA so much! Idiot proof and a phone with lasting battery and just won't fell off the ground and become crap. Only if northern Europe production line are still available to the market...

I took photos and tried to send them to myself with e-mail. A great, great idea I never have thought of. Well, I did, and everything went fine. But suddenly, a question about passwords popped ut. I found the password, but then an error message came popping up. And my e-mail server had blocked the attempt to send because it was insecure and bla-bla. Well, I changed the settings so this insecure thing could be sent, and changed the password to an easy to type one. But no, still error, error and error. Grrr! So I gave up. I will now try the cable one more time, miracles may happen. I have managed to upload pictures from my phone to the computer before, but that suddenly stopped. Maybe it's working again.

Anyway, I unmoulded the soaps yesterday. Still relatively soft, like hardened play doh. They had sweat a bit. Something came out of the, and I suspect it is the fragrance oil. I did use what I had, and that was a cinnamon fragrance meant for oil burners, and a vanilla essence (artificial), meant for baking. Plus that I added cinnamon spice, the powder, you know. But, I just wiped the soaps down, so not a big problem at all.

Today, the soaps have hardened really well. It's even an ash layer formin on one of them. That is normal, I have heard, and I am very glad if things go like normal, since it's almost my first attempt ever. It is my second, but the first was a huge disaster. This second try looks great, and even smell great too. I do see something that looks like gel phase, or is it discoloration by the vanilla or the cinnamon powder? Who knows without you seeing the pictures.

The first attempt smelled horrible! Really horrible. I thought it was the smell of lye. Maybe it was, since I was not dissolving the lye properly either and used far too much of it. But the second attempt is so far seeming to be a success! So I am very happy, and want to make more soaps. But I will definately wait for my stick blender to arrive. I will not use my stand mixer for soap making, for sure not. 3 hours of whipping the batter at relatively high speed, that is a pain for the ears, and will never whip up to a thick trace.

Rune, just sitting out to open air helps the soap to dry out faster, as I am sure you are discovering now.

The fragrances you used might be a concern, though. I'm not sure the one for oil burners is actually skin safe. Do you still have the bottle so you can read if there are any warnings on the label? I have purchased some in the past that are fine for the intended purpose, but have a warning that they are not skin safe. I wouldn't put them in soap. Just a suggestion that you double check for skin safe usage rates when adding anything, Essential Oils, Fragrance Oils, even Spices to your soaps.

I found an easy way to upload to computer from phone, without cables. I have not tried cleaning the cable and so on, and the other tricks Cherrycoke says can work. But I just sent them to myself on Facebook, and downloaded them to the computer from there. And that worked like magic.

My phone is ancient, and the camera is really horrible. So I excuse for the lousy quality.

But here are the second try soaps, that I hope will come out okey in the end.

I know I'm not supposed to dry them like this, touching one another. But they won't stand up on themselves, because of the sides are not flat. But I dry them under a thing I don't know the english name for. Like an air conditioner, only that it blows hot air instead of cold, but it can be adjusted to blow cold air as well. We use that thing in the cold Norway to keep our indoors warm.

The fragrance you used is likely not skin safe. I wouldn't use them personally. You MUST use fragrances made specifically for skin use. Also, Vanilla has alcohol in it and will cause issues in the soapmaking process like seizing.

The sweat could be a lot of things. Fragrance oil ooze out / weep out, lye water weep out, or just humidity is too high, or temperature change too much and make the soap sweat ( like you gel it intentionally or not, and the snow outside make it cool down so fast)
Fragrance oil for oil burner... You should double check the bottle, to see if it's skin safe. Like Earlene above said. Things in spice cabinet like cinnamon and ginger can be used in soap, but you have to watch the usage rate. Because they can be irritant to someone if used too much or in mucus membrane area ( genital and butt, eye, nose ) Try search X ingredient + usage rate ( usually people write it in Y teaspoon or tablespoon in per pound of oil ). And I've seen folk who are selling said on the forum he use vanilla essence in soap. ( * note that he uses it with oat flour or clay to make the vanilla essence "stick to the soap" ) it's ingredients often contains alcohol or propylene glycol, which will accelerate the soap to trace faster. And cinnamon is an accelerator, too. So in your case, you're lucky not end up with a soap in a bucket.
But you will pay more attention to it if your saturated fatty acid is higher ( means you use more solid fat like coconut, Palm, tallow, lard or expensive vegetable butters like Shea, mango, cocoa)
The thing you're describing... Blows hot/ cold air/ wind out, is it air conditioner? Yes, it can act as a dehumidifier or fan to get the air flowing faster.

And iPhone photo hasn't improved much, don't worry about it. your soap looks like red bean ( azuki bean in Japanese) soup, very cute. I like the cinnamon line. And also like your vase ( or tea pot ) drawing. Very delicate! You can dry your soap flat. Just lay they down, and flip after a few days if you like.

Yes, it's maybe not skin safe at all. But I thought if it was safe enough to inhale, it would be somewhat not too bad for a soap you will wash off. And it was an emergency solution, since I had no fragrances or essential oils. Yes, it must be the propylene glycol that is coming out, most likely. I did use plastic moulds, with a lid. So humidity was trapped inside.

I am not so sure if cinnamon, vanilla and that sort of stuff excelerates trace. Because it for sure did not. Maybe I used too little. I used maybe 50 drops in total.

The speckeled look, I think that is most because I used food coloring paste, and since I had no stick blender, it was not incorporated properly. So it is sort of drops of all colors, growing in size, plus the color of the cinnamon powder making brown dots. I like the look too

Air condition, aha, so that is the name of the thing. If I should translate the norwegian word to english, just as it is, it would translate to "heat pump". So I had no clue it was the same as an air conditioner, which I thought were the opposite, only blowing cold air. We use the word air conditioner here as well, but not for the heat blowing ones. So in cars, we use two words, air conditioner and "heat apparatus" (directly translated). But it is just one unit, the one that heats or cools your car.

I must order some colorants and fragrances from the UK, but can't until after 8th March, since I must wait for the salary to arrive. Now I'm broke :-( But, there must be a lot of natural colorants and fragrances that can be used. Do you know of anything, for example from supermarkets, that can be used to color or scent a soap, or do both? I can pick moss outside to make green color, or spruce branches. Cocoa powder can make brown color. But what about blue, yellow and red?