Does aloe juice speed trace?

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Jul 24, 2014
Messages
3,419
Reaction score
2,853
Location
Encinitas, CA
Hey all,

Have been having a milk soap making orgy (cm/gm/cream/yogurt/buttermilk) and using aloe juice, from Trader Joes if that makes any difference, as half of the liquid with all of them. My basic recipe - heavy on lard, tallow, OO or avocado - the only "unqualified" hard oil is coconut at b/w 15-20% - is generally pretty slow moving. I guess lard and tallow are theoretically hard oils, but they don't seem to act like it for me, and generally allow lots of time to swirl, add stuff, etc.

It seems, though, like adding the aloe water in a concentrated lye mix to the oils (I add the second half of the water amount as whatever milk I'm using at trace) is making the batter trace a lot faster, even before I add the milks at trace.

Can't figure out if it is the aloe or just the higher lye concentration (which I realize will speed trace by itself, all things considered). As noted, this is happening *before* I add the milks at trace, which of course speeds it up even more. Any thoughts on how to slow things down?
 
Last edited:
I use aloe water pretty often and haven't noticed it speeding things up compared to plain water or all milk solutions. I soap pretty cool, don't take a big water discount (30% lye concentration), and incorporate my milk into my lye solution (don't separate it out to add at trace) so that might have something to do with it.
 
You are going to speed trace if you are waiting to add in the milks at trace since you are soaping with a higher lye concentration at that point, and tallow will trace faster than lard. So if you are aiming to slow trace nix the tallow and up the OO and Lard. High lard and olive oil will definitely slow trace and nope never had even fresh aloe gel which is thick accelerate trace. I would add in the milks after mixing in the lye well, it is going to heat up whether adding it in the before or after trace.
 
Thanks you guys, especially you Carolyn. That makes sense. I'll drop the tallow, adjust the others and add the milks earlier/post-lye mix in. Is there a benefit to doing that, or just an organization thing?
 
Thanks you guys, especially you Carolyn. That makes sense. I'll drop the tallow, adjust the others and add the milks earlier/post-lye mix in. Is there a benefit to doing that, or just an organization thing?
I find if I add in the milks before adding in the lye water it tends to turn the batter a little darker, which I am sure is from the quicker heating of the lye, if I mix it after mixing in the lye it seems to not change as much and easier to mix in before trace. I also add in my milks cold but not frozen and use room temp lye.
 
Carolyn, your suggestion worked like a charm. I made a batch omitting tallow, using aloe juice for the first part of the liquid/lye mix and used a cream/avocado/cuke puree mix for the rest, which I added at emulsification rather than trace (did SB a bit after adding to get everything mixed/reach thin trace). I know that you said you mostly do it to maintain color, but it totally slowed trace for me as well. I was prepared to do an ITP swirl or just skip swirling, but had time to mix another color and do a hanger swirl! Thanks again.
 
Carolyn, your suggestion worked like a charm. I made a batch omitting tallow, using aloe juice for the first part of the liquid/lye mix and used a cream/avocado/cuke puree mix for the rest, which I added at emulsification rather than trace (did SB a bit after adding to get everything mixed/reach thin trace). I know that you said you mostly do it to maintain color, but it totally slowed trace for me as well. I was prepared to do an ITP swirl or just skip swirling, but had time to mix another color and do a hanger swirl! Thanks again.
Very good I am glad it worked out well for you. I made an aloe avocado soap this morning with coconut fo
 
Back
Top