Accelerated/curdled again

[Dahila]

Pepermint is famous for speeding up the trace

 

[Judiraz]

You don't add the ice to your lye, you make an ice bath and put your container of lye & water into the bath to cool. ****Never use a glass container*** The rapid heating when you mix water and lye can cause a glass container to shatter when you put it in an ice bath. I don't even trust Pyrex.

I use a heavy plastic cup to mix my lye solution. That cup then goes in the ice bath to cool.

 

[shunt2011]

Another questions is where are you getting your EO's are they from a reputable place? Maybe they are not 100% EO and have alcohol in them? Just a thought.

I too soap at room temp. It's made things so much more consistent for me.

 

[Jamison]

I tried again at room temperature. It happened again. It was slower to happen, but it happened. :-/

 

[Obsidian]

What FO/EO did you use and where is it from? I suggest trying a small unscented batch and see what happens.

 

[Jamison]

What FO/EO did you use and where is it from? I suggest trying a small unscented batch and see what happens.

I've been making soap for a number of years w/ out this issue. The only variable now is the essential oil blend. Before (in this thread) we concluded it was because I was mixing the oils/lye at too high of a temperature. But that turned out to not be the case because it still happened at room temperature. By "room temperature" I mean the oils were at 80 degrees and the lye was at 70 degrees. I added the essential oil blend to the oils before the lye was mixed in. I've previously read that was another way to prevent acceleration.

It's an Essential Wholesale blend of Patchouli, Tea Tree, Oregano, Sweet Basil, Geranium, and Cinnamon Leaf.

 

[aprice522]

I am a six month soaper, so grain of salt of anything that I say.

I have not yet used Cinn EO, but hear that it is an accelerator, and I have personally had the Geranium move fast on me before, florals are known to move things.

It really seems to be the cause from your information.

 

[Susie]

Cinnamon leaf is not too bad at accelerating trace. But floral EOs are notorious. Are you adding your EOs to your oils before the lye water? If not, that is a good way to not have sudden issues in the middle of trace. It will still move faster than you like for fancy swirls, but sometimes you have to choose between the appearance, and the scent of a soap. Maybe leave the germanium out of a batch to see if that helps.

 

[Dahila]

I use lavender FO and it is good , it had never accelerated the trace (CPRT) the only one that accelerated the trace, big time, was Lilac in Bloom, it is beautiful scent, real lilac, but one must rush to get it into mold and not to get air pockets) Still I got very thick trace in less than minute when I added it to oils before lye. Problematic FO works for me when I add them at the emulsion.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Sometimes a recipe is fine. Sometimes an eo blend is fine. Sometimes when the two 'fine' things are combined, something in the mix disagrees with another and what is usually a well behaved recipe and a well behaved eo mix go wrong.

What is the recipe? What is the eo mix?

If you want troubleshooting, people need details

 

[Obsidian]

Sounds like the EO blend is just problematic, regardless of temp. I've not had good luck with adding the EO to the oils first, I just get seized soap faster that way. You might have to settle for HP if its a scent you really want to use.

 

[bhelen]

What is your lye concentration? I had this same issue for a while and came onto the forum asking for help. Eventually I remembered I had quite a water discount and tried increasing the water, and everything sorted itself out.

Also a change in oil brand could make a difference. I found that with pomace I have to soap at full water, where with other olive oil I can get away with more of a discount.