Teach Soap

So, I'm very new to CP and have only done a few test batches. One of these was a 100% olive oil batch made 10 days ago. This is probably going to sound ridiculous, but I'm actually concerned about how well it behaved.

Reading through all of the old posts in this CP forum, I'm seeing many comments about how 100% castile will "take forever to reach trace", will be soft for a long time, etc. I didn't notice these problems when making mine. It seemed to take a tiny bit longer to reach trace with a stick blender, but by that I mean an extra 30 seconds - 1 minute. I unmolded the soap and cut it two days later, just like my other batches (which were the more typical coconut + palm + olive + castor type recipes).

While I've noticed that the castile bars are a little soft to the touch (they nick/dent/smear more easily), they were definitely firm enough to have cut and all that. So now I'm concerned that maybe I soaped at false trace? Wouldn't there be some obvious signs of that? Or maybe the FO I used sped things up a little? (Perfect Pumpkin FO: http://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/Pr ... ce+Oil+452)

Thank you all! I know this is a weird question and I would probably be seeing signs if my batch was bad. But I'd love some input on why there seems to be such a disparity between my experience and everyone else's.

Here are a couple of quick pictures taken with my phone:

Freshly (and sloppily) poured:


Today, 10 days into cure (lots of ash and that vanillin has been doing its work):


Just a fun detail, you can definitely see the ash difference between a bar fully exposed to air and one partially covered. I was interrupted when putting these on the curing rack and absent-mindedly put a circular bar on top of those two in the bottom row (so half the circle was on each bar). The difference is less apparent now, but when I moved that circular bar to the side a couple of days later, there was a stark difference in how the ash had developed around but not under it.

I have olive oil act like a perfect gentleman. Once cut and out of the mold, they harden up pretty fast. If it doesn't zap, put it away for a long while. If it was false trace, you would definitely know. The soap might have been zappy or crumbled in places.

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

You're welcome! Go hide them for a while.

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

So far, I haven't had any problems with my olive oil soap, even the ones made using goat's milk in place of water. I do a steep water discount and usually reach trace in under 5 minutes. They do take longer to reach gel with the discounted water but other than that, no problem.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!