Time to trace

[Kidron]

I am a newbie and really enjoying making soap. I read about people waiting 10-15 minutes to get to trace, while it takes me 2-3 minutes. I would really like it to go slower, but am not sure how to do this. I use a SB and put it on for about 5-7 seconds, every few minutes. Even when I try and use a spoon and only use the SB once, I still trace very quickly.

I am using palm, olive, coconut, (castor at trace), mixed with milk as the main liquid and a little honey dissolved in water.

 

[busymakinsoap!]

why would you want to go slower? Ive read of others tracing after 10mins and mine only takes about 30secs - I think im lucky!

Ive always kinda wondered why this was, but Im not too worried as I have learnt to work with it and have a fair amount of sucess with my batches

 

[Kidron]

Trace

I guess because I want to know that everything I have to add (castor, honey/water and FO) ae all being blended in properly.

I am getting clumps in my milk see another post http://soapmakingforum.com/forum/viewto ... 155#220155

and I thought that a slower, even stirring, would allow any milk fats that became soap (if that is what it is) to blend in.

I posted some photos of the clumps here http://blackbear.co.il/clumps.html

 

[busymakinsoap!]

If your adding honey or FO or your castor as a superfat, then these are done after trace, so it doesnt matter how quickly it took you to get to trace, as long as you hand stir it well after.

As for your for your milk, Ive posted re that.

I tend to add minimum water to my lye and then add the remainder of the liquid amount as milk at trace. This is much, much easier, no problems with lumps - I cant tell the difference between a 100% milk bar either

 

[lovetosoap]

Mix the lye and oils at a lower temperature. That helps.

 

[Kidron]

Temperature

What tempurature do you suggest? I have been mixing at 100-110 degrees.

After the soaps gel, do you expose them to air or keep them covered till they are ready to unmold?

I have another soap (not made with milk or honey, that is 3-4 days old and is still soft.

 

[busymakinsoap!]

I think your soap temps are fine. I usually soap at 110, but lately have been soaping much lower - it does not effect the time it takes for my soap to trace. Dont worry about it - be thankful that your soap is that much quicker to make

Its if it speeds up after trace that you have to worry lol

If your soap is still soft after a couple of days, it is my guess that it did not gell, which is fine.
Give it another day or two and see what happens, gelled soap always hardens MUCH quicker than non gelled. If its firm enough to remove from your mold you can, but try to wait untill its pretty firm before you cut it.

Post pics when you do!

 

[Kidron]

Gel

The soap that may not have gelled was an experiment. I tried adding powdered red henna to color the soap. when I poured it, it was a dark brown so I could not tell if it gelled, but at the back of my mind, I felt that it did not gell.

When soap does not gel, does it still saponify properly?

 

[busymakinsoap!]

I dont know about using henna, someone else might help with that.

Yes soap that does not gell still saponifies it just takes longer.

 

[Kidron]

Colours

I will have to experiment again. I'm trying to stick to natural colors but am intrigued by the ultramarines. Henna is available locally, while ultramarines and other colors have to be ordered in from abroad.

 

[Miss Buttercup]

There are lots of natural things you can use for coloring. One of my favorites is cacao powder.

About the gelling, I actually don't let my soap gel at all. I put it in the fridge overnight. It works fine, but like busymakinsoap! said, it takes a little bit longer.

 

[Kidron]

Gell

Liz, what is the advantage of not letting it gell and cooling it in the fridge?

I read about using cacoa powder. Does it change the smell? I wonder if it fights the FO? Does it irritate the skin at all? How much do you use?

 

[Elly]

Be careful some people are allergic to henna (I'm one), chocolate is very nice on skin, does not have a scent or interfere with FO's (in my experience) and unlike other natural colorants does not fade. You can also use kitchen spices such as tumeric, paprika, parsley water to mention a few. I don't gel my soaps either because ungelled soaps come out lighter & creamier in color than gelled ones

 

[ToniD]

Going back to the question of getting everything mixed in evenly: I like to mix everything into my oils before I add the lye liquid. Lye is still active at trace so any oils added then won't necessarily stay the sf oils. I add my fragrance beforehand also. I feel things do mix better by doing that. I don't really use any fragrances that cause terrible acceleration, so I don't know if adding the FO before trace is an issue for those cases or not.

I find I have more time to work with my soap by using lower temps. I like to have time to color and do any swirls when the batter is thinner. If I use higher temps, I never seem to have that opportunity.

 

[lovetosoap]

http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/soapg ... Making.htm

Soaping at lowerr temperatures DOES slow trace. there person who told you otherwise is wrong. Here are some other ideas that may help you.
Good luck.

 

[busymakinsoap!]

http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/soapglossary/f/How-To-Affect-Trace-Time-In-Soap-Making.htm

Soaping at lowerr temperatures DOES slow trace. there person who told you otherwise is wrong. Here are some other ideas that may help you.
Good luck.

Well I defy science then, because none of those things effect my initial trace. I never soap higher than 110 and have recently droped my temps to room temp and chilled and still reach trace after 30 seconds. This includes batches that contain no catalysts. I also use full water.
In saying this, I only reach a very light trace because I colour and pattern a lot, once initial trace is reached I still have loads of time to play.

I think the recipe will play a large part in the time it takes to trace. I love my recipe and dont wont change it to increase trace time, I dont see the point.

 

[Elly]

My soap also reaches light trace within a few seconds if I stick blend it quickly moves from emulsification to trace and if I continue stick blending it reaches thick trace pretty quickly I also soap at very very low temps, but if I only use a spoon to stir trace takes much longer, it also depends on EO's or FO's some are known to accelerate trace even without stirring

 

[cerelife]

I was just wondering about trace times this weekend! I tend to soap on the hot side (115-120 degrees for the lye water and my oils warm to the touch) but the fastest I've traced to date is about 7 minutes with a basic palm, coconut, olive and castor oil recipe...if I use lard in place of the palm oil, it takes more than 15 minutes to trace! I use the full water amount, and don't add my FO until light trace. I use my SB in pulses until light trace, then I blend my FOs in with a spatula, so I don't have scent on my SB for the next batch. I also SF at a minimum of 7%, but most of the time at 10%. So far they have turned out wonderful!
Yesterday I made 2 small batches of soap with heavy cream. I discounted the amount of water in my lye mixture by half (172g water to 127g lye) and planned to add 172g heavy cream at light trace. The rest of my 7% SF recipe was CO at 30%, lard 30%, OO 33%, and Castor oil 7%. With both batches my lye water was about 115-120 degrees and quite warm to the touch oils. After 20 minutes stirring and pulsing with the SB, still no sign of trace! 2 more minutes of vigorous stick-blending...still no trace. I gave up and added the heavy cream just to see what would happen, and I got light/medium trace within minutes using only my spatula and then added my FO. Nice medium trace, but still easy to pour! I had the same experience for the next batch...I prefer to gel, so I wrapped both log molds up in beach towels and left them alone until I cut them today...both batches fully gelled, no zap, and they look great and smell divine! Can't wait to try them!!!
But any ideas on why the heck it takes me so long to reach trace???

 

[busymakinsoap!]

This is really interesting. I havnt seen this discussed since I joined the forum.
My recipe uses the same ingredients as yours cerelife, sometimes with cocoa butter. I recently began to subsitute half my olive oil with ricebran (to cut costs) I think this speeds it up a little (hard to tell since it only takes seconds!)

Perhaps its the lye???

Or maybe different measures of what 'trace' is. Mine is really thin, sometimes if Im unsure of the FO or I want lots of time I stick blend till just combined but not quite trace

 

[Kidron]

Trace

Thanks, that was a very good article. I am using honey. I will try adding more water and possibly reducing the honey a bit and see if that makes a difference.