Teach Soap

Hi!! I'm new to the board and new to soaping. My name is Katie, 30, live in South Dakota, married last year and we raise red angus cows. I love horses, border collies, agates, and now...soap making!

My mother bought me a soap making kit for Christmas and after lurking on this board for months and reading as much as I could...I finally got brave enough to make a batch 2 days ago. Today I unmmolded and cut. Soo much fun!

I do have a few questions, it seemed like my soap went from thin to heavy trace really quickly. I was able to scrape it out of my pot ok but it was starting to get pretty gloopy. I colored it with a dark pink tea made from dried hibiscus petals...good thing I read what that lye would do first and knew not to expect a pretty pink soap. lol. I scented it heavily with a mix of sweet orange EO, tangerine EO, grapefruit EO and a dash of lemon EO. I also ground dried orange peels into a powder and used this in the soap and also to top them off a little. Would any of this make it trace quicker than normal? Of course...being my first batch maybe I just don't know what normal is.

It's certainly not as pretty as all of the gorgeous soap you ladies post, but I'm pretty happy with my first try...and it smells great!!

That's gorgeous soap. Amazing for a first batch, that's for sure! I'd be dancing around if I were you.

When trace speeds up on me dramatically, it almost always happens when I add fragrance or essential oils at light trace. So my first thought would be the citrus essential oils.

What was the formula that you used? Some base oils will speed trace, so some recipes are particularly prone to fast trace. The amount of water used in the formula is important for speed to trace also. The most common recipe I use has a couple of fast trace oils in it, so I always have to move quickly. You can actually choose oils which will slow down trace like olive or canola oil, if this is the problem.

How much did you use your stick blender? Once I reach very light trace, I stop stick blending and hand mix from then on. I overused my stick blender a lot early on.

What temperatures did you mix the oils & lye at? The temperature you mix at will affect how quickly it comes to trace. The hotter, the faster. Generally you want to mix between 110-130 degrees F, with the oils & lye being within 10 degrees of each other.

Additives, including your essential oil, your tea, your orange peel, may all have affected how quickly it traced. Some folks say that citrus essential oils accelerates trace, though more commonly, people point at spice and floral essential oils as speeding trace.

Awesome job!

Welcome! Depending at what temp you soaped at and what the actual % of the essential oils that you used, either of those can contribute to a faster trace. Good job!

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

Beautiful first soap! Congrats!

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

Thank you so much for the compliments and advice! It was so much fun and I can't wait to start another batch.

The instructions with the kit I got http://www.organic-creations.com/servle ... ing/Detail
had detailed intructions so I followed those. The recipe was:

18.48 oz water
7.98 oz lye

4.8 oz scent. This was for a heavy scent and I chose not to go with less for a light or medium scent since I'd read the citrus can fade quite a little.

Coconut oil -- 16 oz
castor oil -- 4 oz
palm kernal flakes -- 16 oz
olive oil -- 8 oz
shea butter -- 4 oz
rice bran oil -- 4 oz

I mixed the lye and the oils when they were right around 100 degrees. My instructions said to make sure they were within 10 degrees of each other and they should both be within 90-100 degrees.

So do most people mix the two together at a warmer temp? I had to wait a looong time and put both pots in a cool water bath before I could get them cooled down enough to mix.

And I might have used my stick blender too much. I used it even after thin trace and it seems like it took about 6 swishes with that blender and it was at heavy trace. So if mixed by hand after thin trace, it'll slow the process a little?

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

The first soap I ever made was with that same kit.
I really liked the soap after 2 months cure.
I used a blend of lavender, orange, and ylang ylang from the kit.
I mixed mine at 110 and poured at a thin trace.

I really liked the kit to start out with, it was nice to have everything all picked out and it seemed like you got a fair amount of ingredients for the money. I was wanting to try the ylang ylang scent but I was home sick with a nasty cold when I made my soap and I couldn't smell a thing. I had to play it safe and stick to the citrus smells since I couldn't sniff anything. lol

Did you get two full batches out of the kit? Or did your second batch come up a little short on the ingredients. It LOOKED like I used more than half of some of the liquid oils, but it might have just been me worrying too much.

Katie, I sent you a private message, but this last post looks like you divided the batch. Please keep that in mind when you read my message.

And welcome to the forum and to the addiction that is soaping!

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

Thank you!
I just saw I had a message.

The recipe I gave was the amounts I put into the 1st batch I made a few days ago. I have enough ingredients to make another batch of the same size which I haven't made yet.

Yes, I got exactly 2 batches out of the kit.

Ok good! I was worried I'd wind up short for my 2nd one.

So just in case...if I'd wind up short on something can I substitute a different oil? Go heavier on the olive oil? Otherwise I also have sunflower oil & sweet almond oil.

I think I remeber scraping out the shea bag.....but,
you shoundn't run short, but if you do sub, make sure
to put it through soapcalc for correct lye amount.