Lye Temp & Trace: what I learned in CP "school" today

[Clarice]

I have been using the RTCP method as I understand it: melt your hard oils, add your soft oils, add your lye mixture - without worrying about the temperature of the oils and the lye.

What I think I learned today is that when your lye is pretty doggone hot (just mixed basically) trace happens faster. Am I right?

In the future, I plan to use my master batch lye, which will of course be at room temperature to address this issue. Today, i was using a recipe from a book and got lazy about translating the recipe water:lye ratio to accommodate my master batch.

Did I finally twig to one of the most basic premises of CP soap making? HAH!

Thanks!

 

[shunt2011]

You are correct. I use room temp or just warm lye solution.

 

[Clarice]

YAY! Thank you! I can go to bed knowing i learned one new thing today!

Oh, and I added to the furious trace by adding ground oatmeal and cinnamon leaf oil. LOL!

My mad scientist came out to play!