Those are beautiful designs. I wish I could keep my recipe that fluid for so long. I may need to try that recipe out. I will let you know how it goes. It would be perfect for my pop bottle pours I do.
Swirling
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CpnDouchette
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I use about 50% lard. I spend a good amount of time stirring with a few short bursts on the blender. If I stop at emulsion I have a good 20 mins to faff around with measuring out, colouring etc before it starts to reach trace, sometimes longer depending on what temperature I'm soaping at and the temp in the room. I use this time to tidy up - I find once a batter starts speeding along, it keeps going and you can't really slow it down. I have a bigger problem with my solid oils thickening up (aka false trace) than accelerating batter. I have, on occasion, loosened a batter by giving it a quick blitz in the microwave (e.g. the final layer on a 7 layered pointy layered design which took a good while to pour).
If, after I've cleared up, portioned out my batter and I want to crack on but it's not quite there, I will give it a quick blend. I think I can get away with this due to the high amounts of lard (other solid oils might not be so forgiving) but smaller amounts of batter need less stick blending so it does need to be a very quick whizz.
IIRC having a higher lye concentration means less water, meaning less heat and therefore slower to trace (maybe someone more experienced can weigh in here as I'm not sure how true this is). I used to also soap at 40% but settled on 33% (no idea why).
If, after I've cleared up, portioned out my batter and I want to crack on but it's not quite there, I will give it a quick blend. I think I can get away with this due to the high amounts of lard (other solid oils might not be so forgiving) but smaller amounts of batter need less stick blending so it does need to be a very quick whizz.
IIRC having a higher lye concentration means less water, meaning less heat and therefore slower to trace (maybe someone more experienced can weigh in here as I'm not sure how true this is). I used to also soap at 40% but settled on 33% (no idea why).
You're not using more lye, you are using less water....which is not a "discount". Put your recipe in a Calculator with a 33% Lye Concentration (standard LC) and note the amounts of NaOH and Water that the Calculator gives you. Then run the recipe again at 35%, 37% and 40%...again noting the amounts of NaOH and Water. You will see that the amount of NaOH NEVER changes...on the water amount does.
If I give your my recipe with a 33% Lye Concentration and oh by the way, I use a 10% water discount then I am NOT using a 33% Lye Concentration...I am using a 35.5% Lye Concentration.
I know that its semantics, but while I may kid around and say the color of your undies affects how you make soap I take soap making pretty seriously and there is no such thing as a 'water discount', just a different Lye Concentration.
When I make my Chocolate Espresso soap, I barely mix my oils and Lye Solution...just enough so that I can pour off an amount for the 'whip cream' before it separates because it isn't stable. And I do the same for Mrs Zing's Christmas Crack when separating for layers as it gives me extra work time without having to make separate batches of soap.Thank you so much. Im just still learning to control my soap batter and was worried if I was bringing my soap to a proper emulsion because my recipe takes so long to trace and also try to keep my batter a bit thicker so I can have thicker stripes on my Zebra soap I'm trying to make lol.
At the moment, I don’t remember where I read some thing about the rate of trace being related to the rate of acceleration. My take away from the article that I do remember was that using the stick blender to quickly get up to trace meant that the acceleration of getting to trace continued through the working time available. So if I use the stick blender to get up to emulsion quickly, I set in motion a higher percentage of molecules continuing rapidly to full saponification. If I’m using a whisk, the soap may take longer to reach trace, but the advantage is that the open window for working time is longer. My take away from whatever I read may not be accurate and I’m sure I’m not explaining it well because I am not a chemist. I will go look for the article.
And @CLMP, those Zebra swirls are amazing!!! Whatever you did, do it again.
(Edit to add)
Once again, the best information I’m finding comes from @DeeAnna’s Soapy Things. Check out the page on Trace and Stick Blender Basics. She also brings up the water discount discussion, for which she has another page
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Hi again everybody sorry I've been so busy this week to reply I've had one appointment after another and so on but I want to thank everyone I have learned alot from everyone on this thread and I'm going to try soaping my Zebra soap again this weekend and I will let everyone know how it goes. You guys and gals are the best! 
OMG seriously?!? That's BEAUTIFUL! I still have issues with my soap batter tracing much faster than I would like & am always doing my best to get *just* to the emulsion stage. Part of my issue, I'm sure, is my heavy use of clays as colorants.
I am going to test out your recipe because wow, I would love to have more time to play!
And THIS is something I still struggle with, although I use a lot of clays in my soap, which I notice changes things drastically.
I have tried clay with 10% canola and 5% caster and was able to do a tiger swirl I'm not sure how long it was for though so I'm sure it will last longer if you use 15% caster instead. I'm excited your going to try it! I'm going to pour my supplies tonight so I can try it again tomorrow hopefully this time I will be able to get a thicker trace this time with everyones advice!
Oh that would be awesome to figure out I could have a whole zoo collection lol
@dmcgee5034 Oh my check this out
I would love to be able to do this for fun I looked up giraffe soap and found Zoo soap like my idea already made LOL Oh I wonder how lol.
Oh I wonder how lol.
Hi everybody I'm so sorry something came up yesterday and I didn't have time to try this again, but if everything goes as planned I will attempt it again today. 
Hi everybody I know I said I was going to try my soap again yesterday but something bad happened to me yesterday and I had to rest for the day it's nothing to worry about now though I'm doing good now. So today I tried making my Zebra soap again with every ones advice I got it done perfect this time and I can't wait to cut it to show everyone I will post it on my gallery tomorrow. So this time I soaped at 95°F And I really think that made a good difference this time. Then I blended for 10 sec 3X and then 5 sec 1X and then I split it and added my Colloidal Oatmeal, Color, EO and let it sit for 30. Then I gave them a 5 sec buzz and a few minutes later it was ready and I had a nice thick trace that lasted for the 30 min it took me to pour and swirl and I could have kept swirl for longer but I shoved it in the oven. So this recipe is so wonderful to use and I'm really happy with it. Also I thought I should share with you the technique I used it's . You have to make sure when you start your pour that your soap is thick enough or it just swirls together. Also I didn't use her recipe I used my own recipe that I shared with in this thread. I hope you guys try this some time. So till tomorrow when I cut here is a pic I'm so happy I got the nice thick Zebra stripes that I wanted .
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Hi everybody I know I said I was going to try my soap again yesterday but something bad happened to me yesterday and I had to rest for the day it's nothing to worry about now though I'm doing good now. So today I tried making my Zebra soap again with every ones advice I got it done perfect this time and I can't wait to cut it to show everyone I will post it on my gallery tomorrow. So this time I soaped at 95°F And I really think that made a good difference this time. Then I blended for 10 sec 3X and then 5 sec 1X and then I split it and added my Colloidal Oatmeal, Color, EO and let it sit for 30. Then I gave them a 5 sec buzz and a few minutes later it was ready and I had a nice thick trace that lasted for the 30 min it took me to pour and swirl and I could have kept swirl for longer but I shoved it in the oven. So this recipe is so wonderful to use and I'm really happy with it. Also I thought I should share with you the technique I used it's . You have to make sure when you start your pour that your soap is thick enough or it just swirls together. Also I didn't use her recipe I used my own recipe that I shared with in this thread. I hope you guys try this some time. So till tomorrow when I cut here is a pic I'm so happy I got the nice thick Zebra stripes that I wanted
Keeping all of the original just because it looks so cool
Yes, I do want to try this but wish to swap out the canola as it's something I stopped buying many years ago, for so many reasons. When I get around to looking into a good swap for the canola, I will definitely be trying this.
My other issue will be making this work for a slab mold
I am rarely using any loaf molds anymore, so this may be a lot more challenging. Hoping for the best 
Thanks for sharing your soap, super beautiful
This is amazing - this person stopped posting in 2018 - I wonder how in the world she made the giraffe soap! Also the cheetah soap - I’ve seen that posted by 108 lab and can’t figure out how they do it. So many soap geniuses out there!@dmcgee5034 Oh my check this outView attachment 74020 I would love to be able to do this for fun I looked up giraffe soap and found Zoo soap like my idea already made LOL
Hi @Vicki C I did find a video on YouTube a while back on how to make leopard soap but it looks a little tricky to do. . I might try this in the future I think it would work for cheetah soap too! Also last night I got a idea for the giraffe soap I was thinking of trying a dancing funnel technique with some brown and orange with white or something along that line I will let everyone know if I decide to try it in the future. Right now I need to work on a soap for the challenge this month Lol
