Time from trace to thick

[gdawgs]

I tried another batch yesterday. I backed off the size (2 lb) and tried a different recipe. Here's what I made. I did run it through a couple different calculators as recommended. I'm starting to like the soapcalc one as well as the MMS.

10.5 oz Coconut oil
21 oz olive oil
4.65 oz lye dissolved in 12 oz water

At the time of mixing, I had the lye/water at room temp and the oils at 115°F. After re-reading all your posts, I decided I was going to take it real easy on the stick blending. I gave it 15 to 20 seconds, then quit. I stirred by hand a bit, and then tried the scraping the mixer cowl with a knife trick to check for trace. It didn't flow back and I'm thinking, "it can't be at trace already". This was about 1 minute after pouring the lye in. I did the lifting of the mixer way and watching the surface, and I was at trace. So I was shocked how quick this went compared to my last batch. That took roughly 10-15 minutes with quite a bit of mixing, but it was a much larger batch.

I then added just a sprinkle of the same lilac FO(couldn't resist). I was then able to ladle the mixture into my cupcake molds. It stayed thin for much longer than my first batch. This batch did not go into gel phase and generated very little heat. That last batch got quite hot.

So I'm guessing the gel/no gel thing is caused by a combination of things. Is there a way to judge a recipe up front to be able to tell whether or not it's going to gel? Or is that an experience thing you gain with time and experimentation?

 

[shunt2011]

I tried another batch yesterday. I backed off the size (2 lb) and tried a different recipe. Here's what I made. I did run it through a couple different calculators as recommended. I'm starting to like the soapcalc one as well as the MMS.

10.5 oz Coconut oil
21 oz olive oil
4.65 oz lye dissolved in 12 oz water

At the time of mixing, I had the lye/water at room temp and the oils at 115°F. After re-reading all your posts, I decided I was going to take it real easy on the stick blending. I gave it 15 to 20 seconds, then quit. I stirred by hand a bit, and then tried the scraping the mixer cowl with a knife trick to check for trace. It didn't flow back and I'm thinking, "it can't be at trace already". This was about 1 minute after pouring the lye in. I did the lifting of the mixer way and watching the surface, and I was at trace. So I was shocked how quick this went compared to my last batch. That took roughly 10-15 minutes with quite a bit of mixing, but it was a much larger batch.

I then added just a sprinkle of the same lilac FO(couldn't resist). I was then able to ladle the mixture into my cupcake molds. It stayed thin for much longer than my first batch. This batch did not go into gel phase and generated very little heat. That last batch got quite hot.

So I'm guessing the gel/no gel thing is caused by a combination of things. Is there a way to judge a recipe up front to be able to tell whether or not it's going to gel? Or is that an experience thing you gain with time and experimentation?

Congratulations on your second batch.

As for being able to judge if a recipe will gel or not it depends on several things.

First, high coconut recipes will gel.

High water content (full) will gel more easily.

Some EO/FO's will cause gel as wel.

However, it's difficult to get individual molds like cupcakes to gel without giving them additional heat to help them along.

Gelling isn't necessary, but it will take longer for the saponification process to happen. 3 days or so. It will also take longer to unmold your soaps and you may need to put them in the freezer in the individual molds to get them out.