troubled by fast trace

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soapfan2012

soapfan2012

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Hallo everyone,
I do see a lot of nice swirl tutorials but most use light trace, which I do not get, or do not know when it happens or in my case it exists very short time so I dont get really to pour the mixture into the mold. My question is how do I get light trace to be long enough so I can do some swirling:?: My usual base:
150g Palm kernel oil
450g sunflower/olive oil
150g 50% lay solution
100g water+50g salt
 
The salt makes the soap harden really fast. Best to leave it out if you want to do swirls. Also your lye solution seems heavy but I'm not sure.
 
Just checked your recipe. SoapCalc gives these numbers:

350 grams sunflower oil
150 grams palm kernel oil
190 grams water
69.9 grams lye

Maybe a more experienced soap maker can help you with the recipe. I'd use more different oils myself, I always have at least 4.
 
You lye is fine, your superfat is fine, and you have a high amount of soft/liquid oils, but you are taking a bit of a water discount. I would use full water (about 50g more than your recipe calls for), and if you are soaping hot, soap cooler. As soon as your mixture comes together (emulsifies) and if you stop blending or stirring it doesn't separate with oil floating on it, slow down or stop blending and just hand stir or whisk until you get to light trace.

A little salt will help harden your soap but it will also cut down on the lather. Usually 1 tsp ppo is enough to help harden a bar (5g) so you are using a LOT more than you need. Cut it back to maybe 1.5 tsp at most, that should help too.

HTH
 
Last edited:
Thank you everyone, I believe it was the water discount that made me so much trouble.
But now I am having another trouble, it is my essences now they disturb the trace I spend a lot of time for stick blending to get to trace. I usually use 5-6% oil amount of essence, and is it possible that because I put more water there is not enough lay to safonify the essences?
 
What do you mean by essences? Only oils and fats saponify as far as I know. Some EO's and PO's accelerate trace.
 
Are you saying you are using essential oils for fragrance? If you are, some EOs behave very badly in CP soap and will speed up trace pretty much no matter what you do. They do not get saponified, and the amount of water you use won't affect saponification in that sense anyway. More water usually means slowing down trace. I do not use EOs so hopefully someone can tell you how to make them behave better.

Depending on which EO's you are using, maximum recommendation for safe usage is usually 3%.
 
Thank you for the replies. I use perfume fragrances (not perfume) and it seems they dont like stick blending. So now I mix my fragrance manually, so everything is OK now. :)
 
if your fragrances has a alcohol base to them then they have the ability to speed trace . you may be able to add them at the end of your mixing once you reach emulsification . but working on doing swirls and some coloration you may not want fragrances that speed up your work , so you may have to find a way to anchor your scent and allow you to get your swirls in. i would recommend reduce your batch and try work on a technique that suits you . and i think that would be reaching low trace where your batch emulsify , then add your fragrance and stir it in not stick blend or hit it three or four very short burst to get it in . the only draw back is that some of your FO may sweat out when curing , just leave it let it absorb back into the soap as it cure.
there is a lot of techniques , you just got to find the one that works for you .
 
new12soap said:
Are you saying you are using essential oils for fragrance? If you are, some EOs behave very badly in CP soap and will speed up trace pretty much no matter what you do. They do not get saponified, and the amount of water you use won't affect saponification in that sense anyway. More water usually means slowing down trace. I do not use EOs so hopefully someone can tell you how to make them behave better.

Depending on which EO's you are using, maximum recommendation for safe usage is usually 3%.
Click to expand...

The only EOs that accelerate for me are Clove, Geranium, and Ylang Ylang. When I use them, I either soap cooler, use full water, and temper them with warm soap oils before adding them...or a combination of the three. The maximum 3% usage is advocated by this forum, but...different EOs have different properties and contraindications and should be thoroughly researched before adding them to your soap. I would never use Clove or Cinnamon or Peppermint at 3%...but I would use Orange or Lavender at 5%.
Certain FOs are also notorious for acceleration and have to be accommodated with different methods.
 

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