Fast thick trace

[Sanguine]

Hii everyone!
Every time I make soap, ever since I started soapmaking, I have never had a thin trace batch like the one you see in the videos. The close-to water kind of trace. The moment I add my lye to my oils and pulse stickblend for just a second, the mixed part is already thick. Once I was using a whisk just after adding my lye because I also added some goatsmilk and after a minute whisking by hand I already had trace :Kitten Love:.
I have tried all kinds of recipes, even my 100% olive oil is never thin.
This is what my latest recipe looked like:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/76053405@N08/9898771493/
(The picture link doesnt seem to work so I hope this works)
I've switched to rice bran recently since the store wasn't currently selling my brand of olive oil. Didn't have enough rice bran so had to use some olive oil on this one.

I wanted to try that dandelion zebra swirl out yesterday but again my soap batter got thick fast, like medium trace after 30sec of stickblending. This is before I added my FO. It's the same with whatever additive I add, clay, goatsmilkpowder, beeswax,... With of without, no difference.
I've soaped at a warm temperature 60°c and at a low temperature. Yesterday's was oil 33°c and lye 30°c. There where I learned the beginnings of soapmaking they said that they had to less then 5°c apart. Same place suggested tap water and that there was no reason not to use tap water. (Source was a forum in my own language) Never heard anyone on that forum complain on the tap water.

I asked another soapmaker yesterday if she has the thin trace shown in the video and she told me that she has. This really made me think that I'm doing something wrong, what that is, I do not know. That's why I'm asking if you guys have an idea of what it can be because I really, really (!!) want to atleast once make a soap with those pretty swirls that would actually go as planned.

Hoping for some ideas for which I'd be forever gratefull!
Thank you for reading!

 

[osso]

Perhaps the high amount of castor in your recipe is speeding your trace? I recently used a different recipe to do a swirl design, since what I normally use traces a little faster. What I used was 25% each olive, rice bran, coconut and palm oils. It worked really well.

 

[toyojiro]

rice bran oil causes quick trace.

i made 65%rice bran, 20%avocado butter, 10%coconut oil, 5%caster. did not use blender but it took 10 minutes to get trace.


Sent from my Nexus 4 using Soap Making mobile app

 

[pamielynn]

I would try making your recipe with out any additives at all. This way you can see if it's your base oils causing the fast trace or your additives.

 

[shunt2011]

Or post your recipe and perhaps someone can spot the possible problem. I know it can be frustrating when troubleshooting your recipes.

 

[lsg]

I would try the recipe without the tallow and coco butter. Don't go above 5% for the Castor oil. See if that slows down trace.

 

[hypnotoad]

It seems strange that even a 100% olive oil recipe would be quick to trace - that should take awhile! I've had some very quick to trace recipes but dialing down the hard oils/butters to 45% or below does the trick for me. But I use full water. What's your lye concentration? More water should slow some things down as well, they say, but personally I haven't had a need to tinker with the water:lye ratio.

re: tap water, it depends where you live. My area has "hard" water meaning lots of minerals dissolved in there, and I don't want them in my soap so I used distilled water. Mostly I'm worried about DOS though, not trace.

 

[Eve]

I don't think the tap water should matter much, since you live in Belgium. Tap water quality is about the same as in the Netherlands, right? It's actually better quality (in terms of testing for bacteria and stuff, not sure about elements like calcium) than lots of bottled waters. The calcium and other trace elements content would be what's important for soap making, but I think most people saying not to use tap water are from the US, where they put chlorine in their tap water.

 

[soap_rat]

I wish I could help with the main recipe's tracing issues, but I don't use tallow or RBO.

The fact that you get this even with 100% OO--when I use 100% pomace grade I get stiff pudding with just one minute of stick-blending (at maybe 115F). But not with other grades of OO. So my only guess for the OO part is that you're using pomace grade and should find Grade A or Extra Virgin?

Also the older my pomace OO got the faster it traced, I have no idea if that could apply to any of the other oils though.

 

[green soap]

We watch those videos and DH always says, their soap batter is so much thinner than yours ever is! how do they do that? so you are not the only one. I use pomace in most recipes, I attribute my fast trace to the pomace.

I only swirl with non accelerating EOs, I reduce the temperature (30C is nice) and slightly increase the water or other liquid. This way I can swirl some with non accelerating EOs. If I have any additive that cause acceleration, then I blend with a spoon or a wisk, not a stick blender.

This might not be a lot of help, I just wanted to say you are not the only one, you are not doing anything 'wrong', and good luck slowing it down!

 

[neeners]

is your lye solution too cold? I did that once (my lye solution felt cold....didn't remember to check the temp), and my RT oils started to thicken really quickly.

 

[dixiedragon]

60 C = 140 F. That's pretty hot! I have never soaped that hot.

I can't watch the video, so my question is, what proportion of water are you using? Can you use more? I like to use the calculator at www.thesage.com, b/c it gives you a range for water. I prefer to use close to the maximum amount of water.

Also, is it possible your Olive Oil is not 100% olive oil? I have heard of that happening.

 

[OliveOil2]

Almost all of the things that I can think of have been mentioned, are you using the full 38% water in the recipe that you posted. Also 33c is just over 91f and you can try room temp which would be approximately 20f lower, that may make a difference, that with lowering the amount of castor. From personal experience water % and temp have made a difference in how quickly my soap thickens up. Also the goat's milk will warm up your soap and create a quicker trace, not sure when you are adding the milk, or how much. but the sugar in the milk will speed things up quickly in some cases.

 

[Sanguine]

Thanks for all the great responses!
Some were asking for my recipe, is it possible that the link doesn't work?
I've heard of some that letting both lye and oils go below 30°C, you can have a false trace. That's why I have not dared to go below 30°C yet.
I like the idea of lowering/go without the coco and tallow since that can make the oil thicker to at a low temp. But then what do you use to make a harder soap without those?

 

[djk17]

I also almost always have very fast thick trace, and I love playing with new oils and creating new recipes and I soap at pretty much any temperature, at anything from 33-38% water. Swirling is a fantasy full water does slow it down a bit.
I think I just have a kick-a$$ stick blender...
I've never figured it out, even after making a lot of soap over a long time.

 

[soap_rat]

Sanguine, olive oil eventually gets hard, and unless it's pomace trace takes a long time--so you could replace a bunch with that.

Have you been using pomace, or another grade?

 

[Sanguine]

Pomace is not available here unless I buy it from soaping suppliers.
But everytime I've used a recipe high in olive oil, it really messes up my colors. Many turn an ugly brown or green.

 

[porumi]

I have a major issue with fast trace when using shea butter. One batch went straight to the bin today!


Thanks,
Porumi