Question about false trace

[NATURALDADDY]

Hey everyone I was wondering if someone here could help me. I’m new to cp soap making and just finished my fourth batch. When mixing my lye and oil I seem to have gotten what I think is false trace although I made sure both the oils and lye were around 123F and 127. I was also wondering if this soap will still be useable although it traced so quickly. It appears as though everything is mixed but was a pain to get it into the mold as it was hardening.
This was the recipe
Olive oil 40%
coconut oil 30%
palm oil 20%
castor oil 10%
I did a 5% superfat and lye concentration of 35
Also used tea tree oil at 0.5 oz per lb.
Thanks if anyone reads this.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Given your starting temps, the batter probably reached traced quickly. False trace happens when the hard fats start to thicken because the batter cools below the melting points of the fats. Your starting temps were more than warm enough for the palm and coconut oils. I would probably start your recipe at 90-95 F and expect it to behave well due to the 40% olive oil and low percentage of palm, and even at a 35% lye concentration. For the next batch, you might want to try alternating stick blending in little bursts of a few seconds each with stirring for a minute or two. That should give you time to observe how the batter is behaving. Dropping the lye concentration might slow things down further, but lowering the starting temperature and controlled/restrained stick blending should make the biggest difference. The tea tree oil could also be a problem. A few folks have reported issues with tea tree oil that turned out to be an FO blend rather than pure EO.

 

[cmzaha]

Take the castor down to no more than 5%. Castor does accelerate and does not make bubbles, it supports bubbles and 5% will do the job just fine. I did testing when I was working on a slow trace recipe and found even a 2% difference in castor made a difference in my trace time. Mobjack is correct you accelerate trace with the high temp, you absolutely did not get a false trace. I soap very cool sometimes my oils are still cloudy using either a high palm or high tallow/lard recipe and I always get a false trace because of my temps. The warmer temps will accelerate trace, that is why hp goes into saponification during the cook process, everything is just accelerated with hp.

 

[NATURALDADDY]

Given your starting temps, the batter probably reached traced quickly. False trace happens when the hard fats start to thicken because the batter cools below the melting points of the fats. Your starting temps were more than warm enough for the palm and coconut oils. I would probably start your recipe at 90-95 F and expect it to behave well due to the 40% olive oil and low percentage of palm, and even at a 35% lye concentration. For the next batch, you might want to try alternating stick blending in little bursts of a few seconds each with stirring for a minute or two. That should give you time to observe how the batter is behaving. Dropping the lye concentration might slow things down further, but lowering the starting temperature and controlled/restrained stick blending should make the biggest difference. The tea tree oil could also be a problem. A few folks have reported issues with tea tree oil that turned out to be an FO blend rather than pure EO.

Thank you so much for the info I really appreciate it! Will try the suggestions next batch!

Take the castor down to no more than 5%. Castor does accelerate and does not make bubbles, it supports bubbles and 5% will do the job just fine. I did testing when I was working on a slow trace recipe and found even a 2% difference in castor made a difference in my trace time. Mobjack is correct you accelerate trace with the high temp, you absolutely did not get a false trace. I soap very cool sometimes my oils are still cloudy using either a high palm or high tallow/lard recipe and I always get a false trace because of my temps. The warmer temps will accelerate trace, that is why hp goes into saponification during the cook process, everything is just accelerated with hp.

Thank you so much! Will try 5 % castor oil next batch!

 

[DeeAnna]

+1 about what the others have said!

I'm also wondering if you might want to refine your stick blending skills a bit -- that seems to be another sticky point for many new soap makers (including myself back in the day).

If you're stick blending a lot and also if you're waiting for the batter to show obvious signs of trace, you might want to try SBing less and hand stirring more. You may get a lot more "working time" before the soap batter gets too thick.

I have links to good videos about stick blending in this article -- Stick Blender | Soapy Stuff

 

[NATURALDADDY]

+1 about what the others have said!

I'm also wondering if you might want to refine your stick blending skills a bit -- that seems to be another sticky point for many new soap makers (including myself back in the day).

If you're stick blending a lot and also if you're waiting for the batter to show obvious signs of trace, you might want to try SBing less and hand stirring more. You may get a lot more "working time" before the soap batter gets too thick.

I have links to good videos about stick blending in this article -- Stick Blender | Soapy Stuff

Thank you! Will try that out.

 

[Ford]

I have replaced stick blender. With a hand whisk for the most part.