Why did this work?

[Dana89]

A few days ago I was making a 4lb batch of Goat milk soap. I used half water/lye concentration then added in concentrated GM to my batch. Everything was going fine, I had added my Kaolin clay and I had a nice light trace going. Then I added my Peach Mango Salsa Fo and BAM! Total separation! I stick blended and hand stirred until my arm felt like it was going to fall off. There was no way I could consider pouring that into a mold. So I pulled out my crock pot and threw it all in there on medium heat.
Within 5 minutes I had great looking batter at a medium trace. I have never Hp,d before and since the batter looked great I took some out, added some Mica and took the remaining batter and poured it into my log mold and did an ITM swirl.
The soap set up fine. That is the last time I use a FO with no reviews, I mean it this time! It smells great.
I don't know why a little time in the Crock pot worked though, Anyone?

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

I'm no scientist, but......

Heat can (if it's not too much) help saponification to start and to carry on. Trace is that point where saponification is beginning and so oils and lye are starting to bind together, which makes it thick. That's why people soap cool when they want more time to play with colours, as more heat would get things going faster.

By adding heat, you helped to get the process going, keeping the lye and oils together instead of separated

 

[Dana89]

Thanks EG. That batch would have gone into the trash, it was separated so badly.If this ever happens again I will throw in the crock pot first. It smells great, but was not worth the stress to use that FO again.

 

[IrishLass]

I agree with TEG. The heat most likely helped your seizing batter to progress along to the gel-stage/liquid-crystalline stage, where the soap gets all soft and fluid, which in turn speeds saponification.


IrishLass

 

[Dana89]

That is what was odd, the batter was not seized. It was completely separated. The oil and water separated the clay was floating around in little balls. It only got back to a medium trace in the crock pot. It never gelled.