Don't think it traced

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luvmy3cats

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Well I made a 1 lb batch and I don't think it ever traced. It got thicker but I never did see that line on top. I hand stirred for at least 15 minutes then used the SB for at least 3 or 4. I finally just poured it in the mold and I guess we will see in a couple of days.

All the other containers I used the soap hardened when it hit water.
 
Hi luvmy3cats and welcome to the forum! :)

It would help if you post what your recipe is.

It is not unusual for soap to take longer to trace than the 15+4 minutes you stirred, and I suggest that next time you should hold off molding until you get trace. You may still be okay but you're taking a chance doing that. For example, some report that pure olive oil soap can take 30, 40 minutes, even an hour, although most who take that long do not have stick blenders.

BTW, while on the subject of SBs, let me caution you to use it in bursts of only 30-45 seconds each, then let it rest for 2-3 minutes. If your SB feels like it is getting hot, don't use it again until it cools off. Ignore this advice and you risk burning it out. Many have done just that. However you sound like you may already know this, but I just wanted to be sure, maybe save another soaper's SB. :) I'm saving the world one SB at a time! ;)

Also, my experience (30 batches now) is that most soap can be unmolded the morning of the next day. I had only one batch that took two days. You can test your soap and see if it's hard to the touch. If so you can begin unmolding it, but stop if you see any indication that it's too soft to get it out of the mold without damaging the soap. If so let it rest another day.

Well I hope this helps. Good luck!
 
Trace

Hi Greg:

I used Suzanne Buckles's Favorite 1-LB Recipe pg 108 in The Everything Soapmaking Book.

5 oz. water (distilled)
1.9 oz. lye
4.5 oz palm kernel oil
4.5 oz coconut oil
4 oz olive oil
.5 oz fragrance oil.

It's so tempting not to keep unwrapping it every hour or so and checking it but I'll just wait until tomorrow. Hopefully it turns out.

I did read about people burning out the SB so I was careful there!

Thanks for the tips though. I"ll let you know how it comes out.[/img]
 
Good. I've read a lot of complaints lately about burnt out SBs so I've been adding my SB advice whenever the subject comes up just in case.

Your recipe is a modified Castile (olive oil) with fairly high CO and PKO (high for a Castile). Castiles traditionally take a fair amount of time to trace but the CO and PKO would help reduce that.

That 1-LB seems to be a few ounces short. There's only 13 ounces in your recipe.

I'm a bit surprised at the combination of CO and PKO which are very similar oils, in fact one is often substituted for the other. I would have expected PO instead of PKO (palm instead of palm kernel).

It's unclear from your post whether you made your batch yesterday or this morning. If yesterday then it might be ready to unmold. If this morning you're best off just forgetting about it until tomorrow morning. You can do like I do, unmold your new batch while you're sipping your first cup of coffee. :)
 
I made it at 10:15 this AM. So I'll take your advice and wait till morning!

I don't know why it was short. I took it exactly out of the book.

Do you have a recipe I could try as a first timer?

Thanks again!
 
Yeah, sure, there's plenty of recipes. It depends on what oils you have. Tell us what you've got and I can recommend something, and I'm sure a few others will also offer suggestions. I'm sure you'll find out that the people on SMF are very supportive. :)

I did a modified Castile for my first batch, 80% olive with 10% each palm and coconut. You could also do a 70-15-15 or 60-20-20 version, or even add 5-10% castor oil for nice lather.

Or you could make the traditional pure Castile which has only 100% olive oil. I think everybody should make this at least once, and it's surprising how mild this turns out. I think Castile comes out of Spain and was made this way for hundreds of years, and I presume it's because olive groves and olive oil are plentiful there. I understand they have a pretty good climate for growing olives and grapes and stuff. What more could you ask for than some OO soap, some wine and maybe some nice shrimp cooked in garlic? :) Totally Mediterranean! :)

Anyway tell the gang what oils you have and I'm sure you'll get some good suggestions. Once you've picked one we can help you size the recipe to your mold using SoapCalc, and we'll even help you figure out SoapCalc if you haven't done it already. In fact there's another thread here today on that subject that you should read.
 
OK. I bought a gallone each of palm and coconut oil. 1/2 gallon of PKO and I also bought some shea butter and cocoa butter. I have the standard vegetable oil liquid, vegetable oil shortening and OO.

I can't wait to see if my soap turned out tomorrow.
 
I had to get something out of my chest freezer in the garage and since that is where the soap is I HAD TO CHECK one more time! LOL. It does feel like it is firming up. It's still very warm! I promise I'll leave it alone until tomorrow!

Off to the grocery store! :D
 
If your soap feels warm that's good, and you should probably have the mold covered with towels or a blanket to help keep the heat in. You do not want to disturb the heat because this is the lye and oil turning into soap. If you keep peeking you might let out enough heat to ruin it. :)

Okay you've got a good supply of oils, and also don't forget lard which you can get at the supermarket, is very inexpensive, and makes good soap.

Since you seem to be a beginner let me give you some advice. Save your shea butter and cocoa butter until you've made a few more batches. You probably won't notice the differences and it will save you money particularly if you have a mistake. Later when you're more experienced you'll know better when to use the SB and CB. I've made about 30 batches now and I've used my SB once, and haven't used the CB or jojoba yet... although that CB sure smells good!!! :)

Okay remember that CO and PKO are very similar. CO (and PKO) can add some very good qualities to soap and many of the recipes have some. Along with babassu these three oils are the only ones I know with lauric and myristic acid with give your soap both bubbly lather and cleansing. Note that cleansing is good to a degree but can become a liability if it's too high because it removes natural skin oils and is drying unless you have other more conditioning oils, and don't use too much CO/PKO/babassu unless you have some important objective.

You can make very good soaps with practically any light oil plus CO and PO. In fact you may like to make a modified Castile using that OO plus your CO (or PKO) and PO. By the way I didn't say but PO helps make harder soap and works well with lighter oils which may make your soap too soft. So you might like the idea of making a Castile using perhaps 60-80% OO and divide the rest between PO and CO. In fact you should read the following website which is where I got my Castile ideas:

http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/soapr ... recipe.htm

Also check out Karen Miller's soap website including the following page. See "Blended Soap Using Beef Shortening (or Lard)/With Coconut" and consider making that recipe using lard. I made it and it's a very pleasant soap.

http://www.millersoap.com/soapanimal.html#BlendedCoc

Decide what you want and ask if you need any help sizing your recipe or using SoapCalc. By the way, I've become very enthusiastic about castor oil in my recipes, like about 10 percent, which gives amazingly strong creamy and bubbly lather. You should look into getting some castor oil. I'm paying $22/gallon for castor which may be just a so-so price but it's a local supplier and no shipping for me. For some reason I can't understand they don't charge me tax either. :)

Well I should quit typing and go make a batch of soap.
 
Wow... Thanks for all of the information and taking the time to type it all!

Before I read the last post from you I "PEEKED" one more time. It looks like it is getting clear and I think I read somewhere that it will do that and then change color again. It still feels very warm so now I wrapped the whole box with towels into a big beach totwel so it's really covered well. Plus I live in Florida and it's also out in our very hot garage!

I can get castor oil at Walgreens right? I only need a pint or so to start with. I'll check into that tomorrow and hopefully make another 1 LB batch of some kind of soap.

I can't wait to make some swirl soap someday. I have to read more on coloring.

Thanks so much again. This board is very helpful!
 
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