Teach Soap

Hi;
New to this soapmaking thing.
Have been trying to get the hang of it, been really hung up on fast saponification times. Got lots of reject stuff that I just didn't have time to play with before it set up on me.
Finally, I did get a good batch the other day, thought I'd figured it out, but this morning the fast setup time got me again.
Here's a couple pics of my good batch the other day.........
Hmmm, this thing sure doesn't allow me to upload very big pics <25kb ........
Oh well, here goes ....................

Welcome!
What oils and butters are you using? At what temp do you combine you oils and lye? Are you using a stick blender or a whisk? Some fragrances can accelerate trace.

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

Hi Soapbuddy;
Appreciate the reply, below are some more betters of the one recipe that I had sucess with.
And the reason I believe I had plenty of time before thick saponification set in was because I'd forgot to add the superfat.
First pic is my specs etc ..........
I combine lye and oils at 90 degrees. Yes I use stick blender.
I have stopped adding the EO/FO in efforts to lengthen set up time. I have just recently read on this forum that
even the superfat butters can cause accelerated saponification, so, I deduce that this particular recipe worked
well because I forgot to add the superfat.
Like, yesterday's batch, I added it (superfats), and, it all set up toooooo quickly on me.

I watch these videos and everybody seems to have plenty of time making all these beautiful soaps.
I'm finding it a bit difficult, BUT, sure am proud of this batch ......
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You need to calculate your superfat right up front so your soap isn't lye heavy. Add everything right up front and calculate the superfat together through a lye calculator. Lye is very active and it will take whatever it wants. There is no guarantee that your butter will end up as your superfat. My bet is on the 3% stearic acid. Stearic acid can accelerate trace. I would soap higher, somewhere around 110 degrees for both oils and lye. Stearic acid needs a higher temperature to completely melt.

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

Tx's for that.....
I did figure out about the melting point for stearic acid = I put it into my base oils and microwave
them at thirty second intervals until it (stearic) is totally disolved into the oils, etc, etc ....
Yes, I saw where you or someone has stated that to just throw all your stuff in together then
add the lye, rather than the standard approach of waiting for trace before adding, etc .........
And yep, I include the superfats (and stearic) in the lye calculator formulations ........

Now I'm down to leaving out the fragrance, the superfats, and the stearic, just to buy time to
do the swirls stuff.
Something is not right with this proceedure, after watching how easy it looks in the videos ........
There's just something missing here I'm not getting ..........

Recalc the recipe and leave out the stearic acid. If there is a longer trace time, then you know it's the stearic.

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

Tx's,
I've been reading many other post concerning this very issue.
More study = I'll get it ..........

Interesting thread. Irena, would stearic acid even be necessary since palm is in the recipe? Under what circumstances would you want to add stearic acid to soap?

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Jennifer
Doing my best to blow up my kitchen. In style!

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

Gorgeous red and black swirls, Oxbo!!

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Olivia :)