Citric acid

[meena.shah]

Hi I would like to know if we add citric acid in the soap with soy wax does it speed up the trace.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Do you want to speed up trace, or avoid early tracing?

Citric acid is usually dissolved in the lye water. I do not know about accelerating effects of citrate, but maybe someone else has.
Soy wax is a very broad substance class. Reports diverge from accelerating to decelerating, depending on product/manufacturer, other oils, and processing protocol. Some (usually harder) qualities are notorious for false trace – make sure that you can tell apart real acceleration from false trace.

Also, a frequent cause of acceleration is EOs/FOs, and some colourants (titanium dioxide). Be sure that, for debugging purposes, you don't use them, or only those of which you positively know that they don't alter trace speed.


Please tell us more where you are standing, and what you are aiming for. Otherwise we can't advise you. Expecting answers of the form “X causes Y” is too simplistic in pretty much anything in soapmaking, when context is missing.

 

[TennisGirl]

I’ve never used soy wax but can say that citric acid has never accelerated any of my soaps. Been using it for over a decade. If overused, it can make the bars a bit rubbery or have some crystal formation on the outside.

 

[meena.shah]

Thank you for your replies. As I have high humidity my soaps sweats and than I get rancid smell in my soaps even if I used validated oil.I had read in some blog if you get rancid smell or dos you can use citric acid to prevent from rancidity. I tried my recipe using citric acid 2% in lye water 10% soy wax. I have coconut oil 20% ,kokum butter 15 %castor oil 5% ,canola oil, 20% ,olive oil 20,%and palm oil 15%. l added my lye to my oil mix but in few seconds it was thick.

 

[TennisGirl]

What temperature were the oils and lye solution? Too low and you get false trace within seconds. Too high can also make it trace fast (especially with high butters and solid oils like you have) - but not usually within seconds.

So unless you used an EO or FO that accelerated trace, my best guess would be false trace.

 

[meena.shah]

What temperature were the oils and lye solution? Too low and you get false trace within seconds. Too high can also make it trace fast (especially with high butters and solid oils like you have) - but not usually within seconds.

So unless you used an EO or FO that accelerated trace, my best guess would be false trace.

 

[meena.shah]

I think I mixed lye and oils little high temperature thinking if I let it cool the wax will solidify.

 

[TennisGirl]

If you need high temps try hand stirring instead of stick blending, if you haven’t already tried that. Don’t want to assume.

 

[earlene]

It was likely the high heat plus the stick blending that accelerated trace, not the CA. BTW, your oils add up to 105%, so I think there is a typo there. Anyway 10% soy wax is not a very high percentage when it comes to the overall formula.

Heat and stick blending both facilitate a faster trace than hand stirring. It's one reason we use heat and stick blenders. But although hand stirring is one way to slow trace, I'd also look at the actual temperatures you use.

You don't need extremely high heat to work with soy wax. Of course the amount of heat necessary may also depend on the specific soy wax you use. I use GW415, which has a melting point of 121-125° F (49-52°C). But even with that melting point, the other oils in the formula play a part in determining how hot my batter needs to be in order to trace more slowly or more quickly.

Even at 30% it is not necessary to keep the batter as high as the melting point for my soy wax, because the other oils have a much lower melting point (or are already liquid at room temperature. @KiwiMoose also soaps with GW415 soy wax and repeatedly says that she soaps at a fairly cool 35°C (100°F) and does not have problems with false trace, so my guess is you were just soaping too hot, AND possibly over stick blending.

It's really easy to over stick blend. Try very VERY SHORT bursts with the SBer with only hand stirring in between; and try lower temperatures.

 

[KiwiMoose]

I agree with @earlene . If your room temperature is high and you have high humidity right now, you need to be soaping as cool as you can - and don't stick blend too much.

 

[LynetteO]

I’ve never used soy wax but can say that citric acid has never accelerated any of my soaps. Been using it for over a decade. If overused, it can make the bars a bit rubbery or have some crystal formation on the outside.

May I ask @ what % you use CA @? As % of oils or batch? I just started using & was having crumbling issues, but pretty sure the issue is NOT CA but something else I’m doing wrong.

 

[meena.shah]

thank you for your replies sorry to be late for being grateful