Teach Soap

I just put a batch of soap to bed so I don't REALLY know what it's going to look like in the morning, but something strange happened when I poured into the mold. I did an in the pot swirl with the base and two colors. I used two pigments and titanium dioxide. No problem making it and I could see trace thickening up. Well, when I went to pour it the colored soaps were fine (even through the pour). However, when the bottom of the pot came to the top, it looked like it was starting to separate or curdle or something. The colored soap looked fine it was just the part with the titanium dioxide (also the first I mixed). I know that this recipe traces quickly but I did a couple of different things. First, I hand stirred. I used a whisk and stirred and stirred and stirred until I got a light trace (or I thought). There were lines on the top that sunk back into the batter so I figured I had gotten all the way. I was soaping at 120 so I'm guessing that it wasn't false trace due to oils not being warm enough. I'm finding that when I use a stick blender, it traces WAY too quick, even if I just blend for 15 seconds. I also added FO to the oils rather than at trace since it seems that even if my trace seems good, no matter what FO I use, it traces really quickly afterwards.

I just checked it again and haven't seen any type of liquid seep out or pooling on the top, but then, it's only been sitting for about half an hour. I did a swirl on top and that soap still looks fine. I'll check in the morning to see if there's any type of separation but has this happened to anyone else?

The recipe I used is below (and I made sure everything was melted well and heated up and did my mixing at 120 and even done mixing it was around that same temp).

My approximate recipe is this:

Avocado Oil 5%
Castor Oil 5%
Coconut Oil, 76 deg 19%
Olive Oil pomace 38%
Palm Kernel Oil Flakes, hydrogenated 9%
Palm Oil 19%
Shea Butter 5%

I know I won't really know until I unmold it and can see the inside, but I had to try something. Every time I soap, by the time everything is emulsified the trace has gotten so thick I can't do anything except glop it into a mold.

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Inspiri Body - Bath & Body products Inspired by Life

It's possible that your FO started accelerating trace at the bottom of the pot since you used a whisk. Have you looked for a lower wattage stick blender? I normally soap at around 110. I would leave it be for now.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Ok, I'll leave it for now. I have two stick blenders. One from the late 90s and is much slower and one that I got recently. The older one is much slower and that's what I have been using. I did the exact same recipe before with a different FO and right after it emulsified, it got thick quickly. The only difference with that one is I added the FO after I had already reached trace.

A few weeks ago I soaped at 100 and I had lye leaking. 120 was a little higher than I had wanted, but I was afraid of the palm kernel flakes solidifying since their melt point was around 100-105. I'll see how it is in the morning. There was a little left at the bottom after I was done, mixed it, and it mixed right together again.

Hopefully it's not another flopped batch. I know you don't get it after 10-15 batches, but man, I get frustrated that I've had more recipes not go the way I want than I have go right.

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Inspiri Body - Bath & Body products Inspired by Life

How big was this recipe? Have you used this FO before?

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

The recipe was about 60 oz so not huge. And it was a new FO. It was BB white tea and ginger. They said the fragrance morphed but I didn't see any acceleration mentions in their notes.

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Inspiri Body - Bath & Body products Inspired by Life

I've used White Tea & Ginger FO with no problems. How much fragrance per lb. of soap did you use?

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I used around .75 per lb of oils, so it was around 2 oz total.

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Inspiri Body - Bath & Body products Inspired by Life

I didn't stir the base before I added the colore. In the SQ videos it talks about stirring between pours to prevent them from getting grainy (or something along those lines. Could that be something I should condsider?

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Inspiri Body - Bath & Body products Inspired by Life

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

II checked the soap this morning and there is no liquid on top. I wont really know until I cut it which will be later today, but from above, it looked good. Still warm though, guess my insulation worked last night.

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Inspiri Body - Bath & Body products Inspired by Life

It will likely be ok. Make sure that your soap is completely cooled off before you cut it.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Awesome, thanks so much for your help!!!! And I'll definitely wait until it's cool. Usually overnight it's lost it's heat, but I'll make sure to take the blanket off and just let it sit a few more hours

Can't wait to see that one and show it off. I have a feeling it's going to be my prettiest soap yet.

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Inspiri Body - Bath & Body products Inspired by Life

You're welcome.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.