Hi I'm new (from Ireland)

[Astridfitz]

I am as green as it gets as far as it comes to making soap, done my first batch today.
I am doing an online course on Udemy and got the recipe from that. I was surprised to find the trace happening within less than a minute, I am wondering if that had anything to do with the temperature here (I think it was about 6 degrees celsius, the window was open but the heating in the kitchen was on )
Or the fact there was a temp difference between the lye water 110F and the oil 129F
I put my EO and the colour in last so that didn't affect it.

Recipe I used
85g coconut oil
225g olive oil
47g lye
113g water (I used RO water)
20ml EO (orange/sweet orange)
and for the colour I mixed 1.5 tsp of Paprika powder in with 2 table spoons of Olive oil

Advice is very welcome, also looking for recommendations for soap supplies suppliers here in Ireland, or the UK

 

[Kcryss]

Welcome to the forums!
No idea why you would hit trace that quickly at those temps.

 

[IrishLass]

Welcome, Astrid!

I entered the formula that you made into SoapCalc (shown below) and I found a couple of problematic/potentially problematic things that stick out to me:

1) The superfat/lye discount is - 2.05%. The lack of the formula having a positive superfatting cushion or even having at least a 0% superfat puts your soap in danger of coming out lye-heavy. Also- although the coconut to olive ratio itself is perfectly fine and will make a nice soap after a good cure, even if your soap does not to end up to be lye heavy, having that much coconut oil in a formula combined with a negative superfat/lye discount %, may make your skin very unhappy, depending on your skin-type. I know mine wouldn't be happy with such a formula unless I had at least a 5% superfat cushion.

2) This one isn't a huge or dire problem, but the water amount is a little high in proportion to the amount of olive oil in the formula.....at least it is for me, anyway. I like to use a lower amount of water when working with a high % of olive oil, because, basically, the higher the olive oil amount in combination with a higher water amount, means the longer it will take to be able to un-mold your soap, and the longer it will also take for the soap to harden up to a good, firm consistency during cure.

3) In my opinion, this one here is what I believe to be the main culprit for why it traced so fast: A 10.93 oz/310 grams batch of soap is a very small batch of soap. When working with lye, the greater the batch is below 1 pound in total weight, the exponentially bigger the potential for small things of little consequence in bigger batches to be magnified if there's even the tiniest fraction of discrepancy when weighing things out....especially the lye, which makes the built-in negative superfat worrisome. Unless you are using a very sensitive digital scale that can weigh accurately in small fractions of grams, it is recommended to never go below a 1 pound batch if using a scale that can weigh only as low as 1 gram. For what it's worth, I've made similar high olive oil formulas to the one you used with that much water, but they were at least 1 pound in weight or or greater, and they all took their sweet time to come to trace.

IrishLass

 

[Relle]

Welcome Astrid . Plenty more soap now that you have your first one under your belt.

If you look in shopping recs there are threads there where you can source supplies or you can start a new thread in that section to get the answers you need or simply google soap making suppliers in your area - easy peasey.

 

[TheGecko]

I am as green as it gets as far as it comes to making soap, done my first batch today.
I am doing an online course on Udemy and got the recipe from that. I was surprised to find the trace happening within less than a minute, I am wondering if that had anything to do with the temperature here (I think it was about 6 degrees celsius, the window was open but the heating in the kitchen was on )
Or the fact there was a temp difference between the lye water 110F and the oil 129F
I put my EO and the colour in last so that didn't affect it.

Recipe I used
85g coconut oil
225g olive oil
47g lye
113g water (I used RO water)
20ml EO (orange/sweet orange)
and for the colour I mixed 1.5 tsp of Paprika powder in with 2 table spoons of Olive oil

Advice is very welcome, also looking for recommendations for soap supplies suppliers here in Ireland, or the UK

Check with Tiggy at Future Primitive Soap or Karen with Edens Secret 1; both are on YouTube and are in the UK and often provide links in their Descriptions where they get their items.

Your temps are fine...it’s a small batch and you most likely blended it too long. I make one and two pounds batches and barely use my stick blender...just a few quick bursts to reach emulsion and/or to mix in TD (titanium dioxide).

 

[lsg]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[SeaSuds]

UK suppliers: I use Aldis and Sainsburys for coconut oil, light coloured olive oil and rice bran oil. The Soap Kitchen has most things you will need and good price for lye but don't order in dribs and drabs as postage is expensive. Mystic Moments, The Soapery and Mother Natures Goodies are also good. Fresh Skin is good for essential oils. Gracefruit has some of the more unusual stuff once you get going

 

[Astridfitz]

Welcome, Astrid!

I entered the formula that you made into SoapCalc (shown below) and I found a couple of problematic/potentially problematic things that stick out to me:

View attachment 44401
I am liking this diagram, can you tell me how you came to these calculations?

(are you as your name suggests Irish?)

 

[Crazylady]

I buy coconut oil from fresh skin beauty. It’s in Nottingham and is the cheapest I’ve found with free uk delivery. There is also a company called soap supplies in Rotherham that sells cheap palm oil but there is a delivery charge