I've only used it twice, but the first batch was in a cocoa-butter-forward batch where I wanted to bring out the delicious smell of cocoa butter with the sweetness of the benzoin (recipe: 35% olive oil, 25% cocoa butter, 25% coconut oil, 15% sunflower oil HO; soaped using 38% lye concentration). My notes specifically state that the batch did not accelerate. It was made 9/27/18 and the smell is still awesome, like hot chocolate. I used benzoin at 5% oil weight.
The second batch I used it in a blend that included orange 5-fold EO, cinnamon leaf EO, benzoin, nutmeg EO, clove bud EO, and a very small amount of cassia EO, and even with that EO blend my notes say it didn't accelerate. In fact, I was doing sculpted layers and had to put it into the freezer between layers to get the batter to thicken up enough to sculpt. The recipe for this one is more typical of what I normally use, and is 30% olive oil, 25% beef tallow, 25% coconut oil, 10% avocado oil, and 10% shea butter, all at at 38% lye concentration.
So based on limited experience, I would say that it didn't accelerate for me. One thing to note, however, is that I use a higher lye concentration than many, and typically find my batches take forever to trace. This is the
Benzoin Resinoid from New Directions Aromatics I use, and have to warm it up in a mug of hot water in order to make it pourable. Hope that helps!
I think I'll try it.
