Slow Tracing Recipe

cmzaha · Jul 14, 2015

While playing with Peacock Swirls I came up with this recipe. I will mention it has more coconut oil than I normally use and I superfatted higher than normal because of the coconut. I found that 1% difference in castor does make a difference in trace times. I have tried this recipe with different castor oil amounts for testing purposes. So it kinda ousts the theory that under 5% oil makes no difference in soap recipes. I have tweaked this recipe using 2% castor, 3% castor and no castor. Adding no castor makes this a formula that will stay fluid for an hour or more. When tweaking it I just add to the lard or soft oil. The second one is not my favorite because it uses more olive oil than I like. I ended up tweaking #2 and splitting the olive and avocado

Lard 35%
Avocado oil 22% (or rice bran, sao, ho sunflower etc)
Olive Oil 22%
Coconut oil 19%
Castor Oil 2%
4% superfat
Water: lye ratio 2:1 or 32% Lye Concentration

No castor recipe
Lard 34%
Olive 34%
Coconut Oil 17%
Avocado Oil 15%
3%superfat
Water to lye 2.69:1 or 27% Lye Concentration
This one can water discount easily. Took forever to trace

Seawolfe · Jul 14, 2015

That jives with my experience - and thats SO funny about the castor oil, but I've seen it too.

This recipe makes a surprisingly nice lather and trace lasts long long time:
Lard 65%
Sweet Almond oil (or could use OO) 20 %
Coconut 15%
5% SF - but given your advice could probably lower to 3%
Havent tried a water discount - just used Soap Calcs default 38% water as percent of oil weight (Water : Lye / 2.72:1)

not_ally · Jul 14, 2015

Sea, my go-to recipe is v. similar to that one, except OO or avocado instead of the SAO and a bit higher in castor (b/w 7-8%). I don't find it traces quickly, though, sometimes it is aggravatingly slow

cmzaha · Jul 14, 2015

not_ally said:
Sea, my go-to recipe is v. similar to that one, except OO or avocado instead of the SAO and a bit higher in castor (b/w 7-8%). I don't find it traces quickly, though, sometimes it is aggravatingly slow

Try it with lower castor and I think you will notice a definite difference in trace. I know I do

Spice · Jul 15, 2015

cmzaha said:
While playing with Peacock Swirls I came up with this recipe. I will mention it has more coconut oil than I normally use and I superfatted higher than normal because of the coconut. I found that 1% difference in castor does make a difference in trace times. I have tried this recipe with different castor oil amounts for testing purposes. So it kinda ousts the theory that under 5% oil makes no difference in soap recipes. I have tweaked this recipe using 2% castor, 3% castor and no castor. Adding no castor makes this a formula that will stay fluid for an hour or more. When tweaking it I just add to the lard or soft oil. The second one is not my favorite because it uses more olive oil than I like. I ended up tweaking #2 and splitting the olive and avocado

Lard 35%
Avocado oil 22% (or rice bran, sao, ho sunflower etc)
Olive Oil 22%
Coconut oil 19%
Castor Oil 2%
4% superfat
Water: lye ratio 2:1 or 32% Lye Concentration

No castor recipe
Lard 34%
Olive 34%
Coconut Oil 17%
Avocado Oil 15%
3%superfat
Water to lye 2.69:1 or 27% Lye Concentration
This one can water discount easily. Took forever to trace

cmzaha said:
Try it with lower castor and I think you will notice a definite difference in trace. I know I do

Now I know why my soap was tracing so quickly....its the Castor oil! This past week I made a 4 lb loft (still doing small lofts), I ran into a snag, I didnt have enough Castor for what my recipe called for.
So I used what I had and increase my oo to compensate for the lack of Castor oil. When I mixed, I was having issues with my TD and had to take more time to get the TD out of my small container to pour and mix. That's when I noticed that the tracing was not as fast. I even stood there looking at the soap batter, thinking.......WTF!
I will worship you forever because tracing has been a problem for me and I know that it wasnt in the beginning, but I couldnt figure out what was going on.
My Castor oil recipe HAS BEEN at 12% of the recipe; when I had to use less, I use 2%. I wondered if the soap was going to be ok, by the way I HP, and it was wonderful. WOW, thank you for taking the time to share:clap:

KristaY · Jul 15, 2015

Thank you for sharing and confirming, Carolyn. My go-to recipe is very similar to your castor-free version and I have no problem with trace acceleration anymore. It even helps temperamental FO's not to be as bratty. When I'm trying a complicated or new swirl technique, I avoid castor all together.

cmzaha · Jul 16, 2015

Spice said:
Now I know why my soap was tracing so quickly....its the Castor oil! This past week I made a 4 lb loft (still doing small lofts), I ran into a snag, I didnt have enough Castor for what my recipe called for.
So I used what I had and increase my oo to compensate for the lack of Castor oil. When I mixed, I was having issues with my TD and had to take more time to get the TD out of my small container to pour and mix. That's when I noticed that the tracing was not as fast. I even stood there looking at the soap batter, thinking.......WTF!
I will worship you forever because tracing has been a problem for me and I know that it wasnt in the beginning, but I couldnt figure out what was going on.
My Castor oil recipe HAS BEEN at 12% of the recipe; when I had to use less, I use 2%. I wondered if the soap was going to be ok, by the way I HP, and it was wonderful. WOW, thank you for taking the time to share:clap:

You are very welcome. Of course it still will not solve the tracing problem if using a lot of butters

KristaY said:
Thank you for sharing and confirming, Carolyn. My go-to recipe is very similar to your castor-free version and I have no problem with trace acceleration anymore. It even helps temperamental FO's not to be as bratty. When I'm trying a complicated or new swirl technique, I avoid castor all together.

I also avoid it when I want to play with lots of swirls. I just up the powdered sugar to help with bubbles, since people still like bubbles

bodybym · Jul 16, 2015

cmzaha said:
While playing with Peacock Swirls I came up with this recipe. I will mention it has more coconut oil than I normally use and I superfatted higher than normal because of the coconut. I found that 1% difference in castor does make a difference in trace times. I have tried this recipe with different castor oil amounts for testing purposes. So it kinda ousts the theory that under 5% oil makes no difference in soap recipes. I have tweaked this recipe using 2% castor, 3% castor and no castor. Adding no castor makes this a formula that will stay fluid for an hour or more. When tweaking it I just add to the lard or soft oil. The second one is not my favorite because it uses more olive oil than I like. I ended up tweaking #2 and splitting the olive and avocado

Lard 35%
Avocado oil 22% (or rice bran, sao, ho sunflower etc)
Olive Oil 22%
Coconut oil 19%
Castor Oil 2%
4% superfat
Water: lye ratio 2:1 or 32% Lye Concentration

No castor recipe
Lard 34%
Olive 34%
Coconut Oil 17%
Avocado Oil 15%
3%superfat
Water to lye 2.69:1 or 27% Lye Concentration
This one can water discount easily. Took forever to trace

I don't use castor oil much, so I haven't noticed it affecting trace. I will have to try it and see how it chanes the trace in the recipe that I use. Thank you!

Petraji · Aug 6, 2019

Thanks everyone for your input. Since I do not use Lard, I tried this recipe and the small amount of castor really does make a difference to lowing trace.

1. Coconut Oil, 76 40%
2. Castor Oil 2.5 %
3. Olive Oil 42.5 %
4. Almond Oil, sweet 10%
5. Avocado Oil 5 %
Totals. 100 %

glendam · Aug 7, 2019

cmzaha said:
While playing with Peacock Swirls I came up with this recipe. I will mention it has more coconut oil than I normally use and I superfatted higher than normal because of the coconut. I found that 1% difference in castor does make a difference in trace times. I have tried this recipe with different castor oil amounts for testing purposes. So it kinda ousts the theory that under 5% oil makes no difference in soap recipes. I have tweaked this recipe using 2% castor, 3% castor and no castor. Adding no castor makes this a formula that will stay fluid for an hour or more. When tweaking it I just add to the lard or soft oil. The second one is not my favorite because it uses more olive oil than I like. I ended up tweaking #2 and splitting the olive and avocado

Lard 35%
Avocado oil 22% (or rice bran, sao, ho sunflower etc)
Olive Oil 22%
Coconut oil 19%
Castor Oil 2%
4% superfat
Water: lye ratio 2:1 or 32% Lye Concentration

No castor recipe
Lard 34%
Olive 34%
Coconut Oil 17%
Avocado Oil 15%
3%superfat
Water to lye 2.69:1 or 27% Lye Concentration
This one can water discount easily. Took forever to trace

Thank you for sharing, I will give it a try next time I need a slow moving recipe

Slow Tracing Recipe

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