Insight into fast trace for shaving soap recipe..will it be safe?

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pittielove

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Hi there,

I am relatively new to CP soap (a few months) and to this forum, but I have been lurking without an account for a while. I have been able to find excellent advice and insight into soap making and have made 6 batches of soap (it's soo addicting!) so far, including salt soap, which is curing right now but seems to have turned out quite well from the small test pieces I've tried ;-)

My boyfriend is very supportive of my soap making and we thought it would be a nice gift to make some shaving soap for his dad. I am aware there is an art and takes several attempts/years to make a GOOD shaving soap that is approved by those on shaving forums; I wouldn't be selling this and it would be for personal use or family/close friend gifts. I've done a lot of research into what makes a decent, creamy and stable, long lasting lathered shaving soap, and I know I'm missing a high stearic number and other certain components to make it a true shaving soap. My boyfriend's dad is a pretty old school, low maintenence guy who shaves with regular bar soap, so I thought it would be nice to make him something that was at least a little bit better, with more slip and better lather!

Here is the recipe I used and ran through soap calc:

Castor oil (20%) - 3.2 oz
Coconut oil (5%) - 0.8 oz
Palm oil (40%) - 6.4 oz
Shea butter (35%) - 5.6 oz

This made one pound of soap that I put into a 3 inch PVC mold (which, as I type this, I realize I forgot to spray with PAM or mineral oil). My lye was 2.07oz and water was 4.2oz, roughly a 2:1 water to lye ratio. I superfatted this recipe at 5%.

My soap quality numbers were:
Hardness: 40
Cleansing: 4
Conditioning: 59
Bubbly: 22
Creamy 54
Iodine: 60
INS: 131

and my Stearic number was 16. (I know this is supposed to be much, much higher, but sadly, my first $230 and 39lb shipment did not include stearic acid).

I also added 1 tsp of bentonite clay and to increase the bubbles, I added 1 tsp of granulated sugar in with my lye-water mixture.

I mixed my oils and lye mixture at around 50 degrees celcius and used my old Robot Marie to start blending. At light trace I added lemongrass and cedarwood EOs (not sure how much but definitely not more than 0.5 oz), and then stopped blending to measure out my clay. In the time that it took me to measure out the clay, the mixture had thickened to a very thick trace. What I am worried about is that I don't think I blended for more than 20 seconds in total...does this compromise the soap in the final product? Will the lye not be evenly mixed in with the soap? I tried to search the forum for answers but I couldn't come up with anything in terms of safety. I know that high percentages of shea butter and palm oil accelerate trace, but I've never had a problem in terms of "sufficient mixing" before now. This was probably thicker than my salt soap recipe, although that one did not seem to thicken up too too much compared to what other's have experienced.

Any feedback would be very helpful!
 
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20 seconds can be longer than you might think. It's possible it mixed sufficiently and at this point, molded, you will find out when you unmold! You should zap test everything as you cut, but I would bet, as long as it doesn't separate, that it will be okay.
 
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It's probably fine. EO's and FO's can really speed things up.
Try adding them to your oils next time and make sure you have everything measured out before you start.
Soaping at room temp will give you more time too.
 
Excellent thank you.
My soaps don't seem too lye heavy. My boyfriend licked a few bars..for a little too long! They seem to have hardened up very nicely. I can't wait to try them out :razz:
 
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