CP recipe gone awry

[K Rex]

OK, long-time soaper... long-used recipe. Here's my problem:

My recipe is 12 lbs shortening, 4 lbs 4 oz olive, 2 lbs palm oil, 2 lbs canola, 8 oz coconut, 4 oz shea, 4 oz cocoa butter.

temps are 125 for the oil and 80 for lye (using 12 lbs goat milk and coconut milk).

Batches are seizing consistently. Are my temps too high? Too low? Any advice out there?

Kev

 

[chrisofcups]

I personally don't make batches that large, but are you using any scents?

 

[judymoody]

What kind of shortening? Maybe the formulation has changed?

And yes, what fragrance, if any?

Superfat? Water discount?

Question - why the small quantities of shea and cocoa butters? Each is maybe 1.5% of your recipe - is this small amount going to meaningfully add something special to your soap? Or is this just for label appeal (given the quantities involved, I assume you sell).

 

[K Rex]

Yes, I use essential oils but the batches are seizing before I even begin to pour them in. I suspect temps. Any advice?

 

[K Rex]

Yes, for label appeal. However, even a small amount of cocoa butter makes a HUGE difference in the hardness of my bars. I superfat at 5% with shea and almond. No water discount, I use 12 lbs.

kev

 

[Soaplady22]

Which shortening - there are many kinds out there with many formulations. Crisco? Pre-creamed?? Discount brand??

That's a huge batch to be playing with when your recipe is seizing up on you. Drop down to 1-3# with your formulation and work from there.

 

[Fragola]

If you can't figure it out, split the recipe and do tiny test batches.

For example, you could do a palmolive soap and a shortening coconut one. I read that shea/cocoa can cause this problem, but you are using very little.

 

[Soaplady22]

My other thought is that there is too big a difference between your oil temperature (a little high) and your lye temperature (a bit low). You might want to aim for both of them to be between 100 - 110.

 

[busymakinsoap!]

What soaplady said.

I use a lot of butters and keep my lye slightly hotter than my oils, otherwise the cool lye will begin to solidify your butters and shortning

 

[K Rex]

Made a beautiful batch of Rosemary & Tea Tree soap this evening. Temps were 100 for both, took a long time to trace. I think if I keep the lye at 90 and oil at 110, it will trace more quickly without seizing. Thanks for the help, fellas!

Kev