I think my temps were too hot....

[DJHollyJ]

I'm fairly certain I jumped the gun on mixing, but someone can tell me who has longer experience...

Recipe snapshot is attached. I expected a shorter trace because of the fats chosen, but... I combined when oil was at 110 and Lye was at 119.... zero to trace in barely 60 seconds with the stick blender...

I wasn't planning on scenting or anything so I cut my losses and poured it into the molds.

Too hot? Should have dropped to maybe 90 on the temp?

 

[lpstephy85]

From what I have read is that palm and coconut oil and cocoa butter speed trace. My understanding is that hard oils do that while soft oils (especially olive) will slow trace. So, to have a batch that is slow to trace you would want more soft oils. A Bastille or Castille would take a good amount of time. Interested in what others think.

 

[Obsidian]

I agree, that looks like a fast tracing recipe. If you want to slow it down, soap cool, use full water and mix by hand. More olive oil and lard instead of palm will help with slower trace.

 

[hlee]

I don't think you have to worry. It looks good so far.

 

[DJHollyJ]

Forgot to mention... I purposely didn't insulate because it traced so quick. I peeked and the loaf was getting to gel 2 hours in anyway. I have another batch of this to burn through, probably should do as suggested and use fill water, lower temp ... and perhaps a very stable fragrance...

.... the more I think about this, the more I don't think I could soap it much lower without the oils solidifying-- too much hard fat up in this joint. Hmmmmmmm... hand stirring may be my only option using this recipe up...

 

[AnnaMarie]

I wouldn't necessarily worry unless you have a specific reason for wanting a slow trace. All of my soaps have traced in 1-2 min and sometimes less. If I want to slow it down then I mix in short spurts. It really depends on what you are looking to achieve. I mix as high as 125 and as low as 90 degrees depending on the recipe. Once I had a high powered Oster hand mixer and my soap would trace within 10-20 sec!
Cheers!
Anna Marie

 

[judymoody]

Your soap looks fine. Pomace will speed trace, as will CO and those butters. If you want to slow it down, switch to regular OO and alternate pulsing with SB and stirring.

 

[DJHollyJ]

Thanks everyone! I have just never had a trace that quickly-- I had a mind-blown moment. :Kitten Love:

I mean... logically knew it was going to be quicker, but seeing it happen? Yea. I don't even think it took a full minute. LOL all I could think was, "no, that can't be right."

Depending on how this looks in another 12 hours, I may consider taking the rest of the master batch and adding some plain oo to adjust the percentages. Either that or I'll just crock pot it and make an HP. :smile:

I'll get hubs to zap test it. ;-)

 

[lpstephy85]

Your soap looks fine. Pomace will speed trace, as will CO and those butters. If you want to slow it down, switch to regular OO and alternate pulsing with SB and stirring.

Thanks Judy for the info because I was not aware Pomace speeds up trace as well as that is what I use most of the time

 

[DJHollyJ]

So... minor update.

This soap is curing fine so far (photo), and I did the second half of the batch at 80 degrees and it traced sooooo much slower. I probably could have even swirled it went so slow. ha! low was the way to go.