Swirling recipe

[Todd Ziegler]

Any suggestions for improving this swirling recipe? I didn't want to deviate to far from one of my standard recipes but I had a request for a tye-dye soap.

My standard recipe moves to fast for more than 1 color. I'm open to any suggestions. When I searched for swirling recipes, I didn't expect to find so many different recipes.

 

[dibbles]

45% lard should give you lots of time. If you want to be extra sure, you could leave out or reduce the castor, and add a little sugar to give the bubbles a boost. I don't know your preferred soaping temps, but I start at about 90-95. I use HO sunflower instead of RBO. Take your time getting your batter to emulsion, and it should give you lots of time.

 

[Todd Ziegler]

45% lard should give you lots of time. If you want to be extra sure, you could leave out or reduce the castor, and add a little sugar to give the bubbles a boost. I don't know your preferred soaping temps, but I start at about 90-95. I use HO sunflower instead of RBO. Take your time getting your batter to emulsion, and it should give you lots of time.

I will definitely do the sugar instead of castor oil. How much sugar should I use? And what should I do with the extra 5% from the castor, add it to my lard? I don't have enough HO sunflower oil. Will HO safflower oil work?

I usually soap at 105F but since I created my gelling box, I think I will do it at room temperature. My heated gelling box works great. It allows me to gel my soaps no matter what the starting temperature is or what the recipe is.

 

[Jersey Girl]

I use 1 TBSP sugar ppo I would probably add the omitted castor to the lard.

 

[Todd Ziegler]

I use 1 TBSP sugar ppo I would probably add the omitted castor to the lard.

Thanks. That is what I thought I should do but having someone else to confirm it, makes me feel better lol.

 

[Todd Ziegler]

I forgot to mention that I am using sodium lactate. Does that change the use of sugar in any way?

 

[dibbles]

I always use sodium lactate and sugar. No problems there. HO safflower will work - it's just expensive for me to buy locally vs HO sunflower. You can add the 5% from the castor to any of your other oils.

 

[shunt2011]

I have a recipe similar to yours and have lots of time to work. I use SL in all my soaps.

 

[Todd Ziegler]

I always use sodium lactate and sugar. No problems there. HO safflower will work - it's just expensive for me to buy locally vs HO sunflower. You can add the 5% from the castor to any of your other oils.

Thanks

I have a recipe similar to yours and have lots of time to work. I use SL in all my soaps.

Thanks I am going to try it this weekend.

 

[cmzaha]

I would soap a few degrees cooler. Even if your oils are a little cloudy or they thicken immediately, just trust me the batter will thin as soon as the lye begins reacting. I soap with 45/25 tallow/lard 17% CO with more than enough time to swirl at temps as low as 70° F, but that low is not necessarily for the faint at heart. I do not soap with at much CO so I am no help there. You can cut the castor to 3%. It is quite surprising the difference it will make.

 

[Todd Ziegler]

I would soap a few degrees cooler. Even if your oils are a little cloudy or they thicken immediately, just trust me the batter will thin as soon as the lye begins reacting. I soap with 45/25 tallow/lard 17% CO with more than enough time to swirl at temps as low as 70° F, but that low is not necessarily for the faint at heart. I do not soap with at much CO so I am no help there. You can cut the castor to 3%. It is quite surprising the difference it will make.

My OO percentage is based on a few swirl recipes that I found online. I don't normally use OO but I have a lot and I figured this would be a good way to use up some of it.

I based my coconut oil on an average of the same online recipes for the OO above.

The one thing left to do now is, go back through my notes and find a FO that didn't accelerate trace quickly.

 

[dibbles]

Thanks
Thanks I am going to try it this weekend.

Todd, I meant to also tell you that I use 1 tsp PPO sugar with 25% CO and find it to be bubbly enough. Nothing wrong with 1 Tbsp PPO, just letting you know you have options there. I do have softened water though, so that also helps with bubbles.

 

[Todd Ziegler]

Todd, I meant to also tell you that I use 1 tsp PPO sugar with 25% CO and find it to be bubbly enough. Nothing wrong with 1 Tbsp PPO, just letting you know you have options there. I do have softened water though, so that also helps with bubbles.

Thanks, this is going to be a 10lb slab and I was wanting to do 5-7 colors @ 3oz's per color. Is that doable with this recipe or would I be stretching it to far? This would be my first batch of more than 3 colors. I'm doing a skittles candy soap and I even have a skittles FO.

 

[dibbles]

I think so, but 10 lbs might make things behave differently than my little 2-3 pound batches. I think 7 lbs is the biggest batch I've made, and the recipe used palm which moves faster. Lard is so slow, my feeling is you will be okay. If it were me, I'd be sure to have the colors ready to go, add the FO or EO right before pouring unless you know it is one that doesn't act up at all, and split at emulsion, or when you can see that everything will hold together well enough. It is better to have to stir and wait and stir and wait for the batter to be ready than to have to hurry. What swirl were you planning to do?

 

[AliOop]

Good timing on the question!

I just made a 7lb batch last night, with 75% lard, 20% CO, and 5% castor. I accidentally added 4 TBSP of sugar instead of 4 tsp to my lye liquid, which was vinegar for 100% of the water required. I usually use SL but was out last night.

I used the heat transfer method to melt the room-temp lard and CO, and then blended in my goat milk powder. The batter ended up at just under 120º after stirring and a bit of stick-blending. The extra heat was probably due in part to all the extra sugar I added!

Still, even at 120º, I had over 30 minutes to split my batter into four different pours: two colors going into a small loaf mold for the June Unchallenge, and a few others for variations (colors, scents) on my usual lard-GM bars for friends and family. It was just reaching light-to-medium trace at about 40 minutes.

This recipe is very consistent for me: lots of swirl time, hard bars, and very nice creamy bubbles after about 8 weeks cure. It's good at 6 weeks, but definitely nicer at 8 .... and really nice at 10 if you can hold out that long.

All that to say, I think you will be fine with either castor, or sugar, or both. I don't find that 5% castor or 20% CO affects my swirl time at all. Then again, I didn't stick-blend it too far past emulsion, either. Let us know how it works out for you!

 

[Susie]

I use sugar and castor both. Be sure to masterbatch your NaOH and H2O the day before so that it is at room temperature. I masterbatch my oils also so that I can have them ready to go. Then, just barely heat the oils enough to get them all liquid. I wouldn't stress perfectly clear, just get them melted. It has been my experience that masterbatched oils melt faster than non-pre-melted-and-mixed oils do. Then, just mix to emulsion. If I am leery of an FO, I mix my FO with my micas right before using them. Then just SB enough to mix that color in. Pour and swirl. I might would try this on a 2 or 3 lb batch before committing myself to a 10 lb batch right off the bat. Especially if the FO is unfamiliar.

 

[Todd Ziegler]

I have a master batch of lye already done and I will prepare my colors while I wait for everything to reach room temperature. I might even raise my lard to 60% while lowering the OO.

 

[Catscankim]

I would like to see your finished product!

 

[Todd Ziegler]

I would like to see your finished product!

I will post it on Sunday when I cut the bars.

 

[Todd Ziegler]

Here is the recipe that I settled on. I lowered the batch size to 5 pounds instead of 10 pounds.

I wanted to try my new 10 pound slab mold but for this recipe I decided on 5 pounds. That way I don't have a 10 pound batch that doesn't look like I want it to. I'm still going to use my 10Lb mold this weekend but I am going to do a single swirl color for the 10Lb mold.