I seem to hit thick trace very quickly every time

[cherrybleach]

So the recipe I've been using is pretty simple: 18.75 oz olive oil, 5 oz coconut oil and 1.5 oz castor oil. Recently though I've been trying out: 12 oz olive oil, 12 oz coconut oil, 12 oz palm oil and 4 oz shea butter with a teaspoon or two of sodium lactate added; all batches with appropriate lye/water measurements as given with SoapCalc, no water discounting and 5% superfat

Thank you for the link DeeAnna! And I will definitely cut down on my blending time; I'm just worried about not incorporating everything fully

Castor oil is a major fast-trace culprit for me, although shea is occasionally temperamental for me as well. If I'm trying to make something fancy, I leave the castor oil out, or at the very least lower it to 1-2%.

 

[DeeAnna]

I think of stick blending as revving up a car with a manual stick shift. The more I SB, the more the engine revs up, and the faster the car is gonna screech out when I pop the clutch.

Hand stirring is more like driving along at a moderate, sane pace. Maybe I want a little bit of a rev-up when I drive away from a stop light, but otherwise I'd prefer to mosey along without drama.

 

[KiwiMoose]

I watched a YT video by I Dream In Soap recently, where she remarked that it is better to stop stick-blending BEFORE you reach the stage that you want. Her hypothesis is that stick-blending creates an ongoing trace reaction that keeps going even after you stop blending. In contrast, if you hand-stir to the stage you want, when you stop stirring, the trace reaction slows way down, or even stops for a bit.

That's exactly what i find too. Quit while you're ahead - once the 'trace train' is rolling, there's no stopping it!