Teach Soap

Two of my favorite fragrance oils accelerate trace. One is the famous Sea Moss!

I've soap every which way from Sunday and have had the most success with CPHP. Cooking the soap letting it cool then adding fragrances and colors. I don't like the process or the texture of the soaps although it does make nice soap!

I've heard of 40% water to help in the standard CP method which helps as well as using soft oils in the majority.

Adding fragrance to oils before the lye.

Adding fragrance to oils after light trace. At medium trace!

Do you have any other methods you use to work with fast fragrances that I might try?

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~bytheSEAsoap~ Mella bythesea, bythesea, bythebeautiful sea

海の皂

I add my FO to my oils and my colourant as well, unless its TD then I add it to my lye water. I don't use a stick blender at all with the FOs I know will accelerate, just a whisk. The majority of the FOs I use are floral, and every darn one of them accelerates! My whisk is my best friend when working with these.

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

Hesty thank you! The florals are so compelling!

I stick blend my melted and soft oils together.

Do I understand that you put your TD into your lye solution?

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~bytheSEAsoap~ Mella bythesea, bythesea, bythebeautiful sea

海の皂

Yep! My TD is water soluble, so I add it to the lye solution if I want it in the entire batch. I stick blend the FO, colourant and colloidal oatmeal into my oils before I add my lye solution.

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

Heather, are you adding the TD to the water before the lye? And I take it the lye leaves it alone?

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

Heather thanks! Isn't it interesting what all we can get into our oils before the active lye!

When you are doing two colors I suppose you pour off part of your batch after the lye then do the addatives. I do that sometimes. Oatmeal in just part of the batch it adds interest and texture in a given area.

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~bytheSEAsoap~ Mella bythesea, bythesea, bythebeautiful sea

海の皂

I add my TD after the lye water has become clear again and has cooled some. I always add the colloidal oatmeal to my oils, in every batch! If I am doing multiple colours I add the oatmeal and FO, then the lye water, whisk until just combined then separate and colour. I love how an ITP swirl turns out when the trace is a little thicker, I add the colours back to the pot then swirl it once with my whisk, pour and tap like mad to get the air out LOL With my experience using rose FOs I would recommend against anything but a single colour with them, whoa they move fast!

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

I just finished an experiment with my recipe that always seems to rice on me.... used a peony fO and darned if it did not behave very well...not at all what I was expecting. My best advice to to experiment and keep good notes!

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

Peony seems feisty! When I did my batch with it the larger portion that had just TD accelerated VERY quickly, but the 2 smaller portions with pink and green oxide respectively didn't accelerate at all. The end result was still an awesome ITP swirl though!

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

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

That batch had about 1/4 tsp TD in 1.5 lb soap.

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

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

Thanks I didn't know that!

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

Accelerating trace is one of my specialties. Here is how I handle it.

Use the higher rate of water. Since I always let my soap cure of 8 weeks this isn't a problem.
Never ever combine lye and oil above 110 degrees. I will go a little cool before I go a little warm
I dilute my fragrance with a little oil.
Color before fragrance
Unless you are real familiar with a fragrance ALWAYS whisk not stick blender.

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