Teach Soap

Being a newbie I've only made three batches of CP soap thus far. For the first batch I didn't put in any color or fragrance, but the last two batches I did add both and when I added the fragrance the batter got so thick so fast that I didn't have much time to attempt to swirl. I'm not the fastest horse in the race because I like to be accurate, so maybe I just need to "giddy-up" a bit more too. Do most of the fragrance oils perform like this? Should I switch to essential oils or give up on scents until I become more comfortable and speed up a little (or a lot) more?

Some do, some don't. Lots of florals and spicy FO's accelerate trace. Which fragrance did you use, where did it come from and is it soap/skin safe? How much did you use per lb. of oils?

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

I used Honeysuckle and Hyacinth from Peak. My recipe was around 4 pounds and I used a total of two ounces. They were both shown to be good with CP soap.

Oh and I added it at the end, right before I poured it into the mold. By the time I was done I was scooping it into the molds.

I've learned to add my floral FOs to my warmed oils before adding they lye solution - this way I know they are fully incorporated. When I added the FOs at trace, sometimes they got thick so fast I couldn't get the FO stirred in all the way. Also when working with a floral, I use the full water amount and try to soap at a cooler temp.

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

I would add the floral fragrance to your cooled off oils and use a whisk. If you add the fragrance at a trace, you might end up with "cement" in the pot.

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

Wow thanks for the replies. I was on the cool side to begin with because I forgot to get my solid oils melted so I set them where it was cool and they cooled too much. So then I had to cool the lye water down even more so they were both around 90F when they were combined. When I added the one FO it did what I think they call ricing and I SB'd it until it was pretty well blended, which probably didn't help much either.

So next time I'll try adding the FO's to the oils before adding the lye water. Thanks a whole bunch. You guys are so helpful and I really appreciate it!

It's also possible that you got a false trace what looked like acceleration because your oils were too cool and they started to solidify.

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

l didn't think of that either. Can you heat up lye water a little if it gets too cool? I know that I could heat up the oils but not so sure about the lye water.

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

I am also new to soaping, so when reading these posts about florals it seems to me it might be a good idea to make a habit of putting the FO's in with the oils before lye. Would there be a reason not to make this part of the 'steps'? Are floral the main culprit of accelerating? Would there be a reason NOT to add fragrance and color before putting in the lye?

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www.fostersfields.ca
https://www.facebook.com/FostersFields

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

does it make sense to also add color before lye?

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www.fostersfields.ca
https://www.facebook.com/FostersFields

If you plan to do the entire batch one colour, sure! You can add oil soluble colourant to your oils, or water soluble to your lye water.

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

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