jennyannlowe
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I am making a slow moving soap recipe so I can do some swirls ... what percentage of castor oil can I safely add to my recipe without it speeding up trace?
Castor oil
- Thread starter jennyannlowe
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I stay right at 5% myself.
I'm less worried about trace as I am having too much castor dampen lather. A little is good, more not so much.
I'm less worried about trace as I am having too much castor dampen lather. A little is good, more not so much.
jennyannlowe
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If I added some bentonite clay would it accelerate trace?
I've found that how fast castor speeds up trace is very recipe-driven. What does the rest of your recipe look like? For what it's worth, I use 10.5% castor in my tallow/lard formula (which also contains mango butter, PKO, coconut, and olive), and my soap batter can remain swirl-able for up to 1 hour as long as my FO cooperates.
IrishLass
IrishLass
jennyannlowe
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I am about to attempt a soap that has many colors, I want as much time as possible to do swirls. here is the rest of my recipe that I'm going to use:
30% olive oil
20% lard
25% coconut oil
10% rice bran oil
10% canola oil
5% castor oil
my concentration set to 31%
Superfat 5%
I'm not very knowledgeable about lye concentration...but I usually set it at 33%, but I read that if I want to make sure I have enough time to do my swirls, that I could set it lower, if I'm wrong then please correct me.
I was going to add some salt for hardness. I ordered sodium lactate but is not here yet.
Also can I add some sugar for lather or should I eliminate it because it might discolour my soap & speed up trace?
And can I add bentonite clay?
Are any of these items going to be an issue when it comes to dividing up my batch into 8 colors ? Gonna do rainbow swirls.
is 5% castor oil okay? Or could I increase it? Or lower it?
30% olive oil
20% lard
25% coconut oil
10% rice bran oil
10% canola oil
5% castor oil
my concentration set to 31%
Superfat 5%
I'm not very knowledgeable about lye concentration...but I usually set it at 33%, but I read that if I want to make sure I have enough time to do my swirls, that I could set it lower, if I'm wrong then please correct me.
I was going to add some salt for hardness. I ordered sodium lactate but is not here yet.
Also can I add some sugar for lather or should I eliminate it because it might discolour my soap & speed up trace?
And can I add bentonite clay?
Are any of these items going to be an issue when it comes to dividing up my batch into 8 colors ? Gonna do rainbow swirls.
is 5% castor oil okay? Or could I increase it? Or lower it?
I like to keep Castor at 3% when I am doing numerous colors for swirling.
I keep the castor lower too - 2-3% when I am doing anything intricate or need a lot of time. I use sugar, and haven't ever had a problem that I could attribute to that, but if I am at all in doubt and really need the batter to stay fluid for a long time I'll leave it out.
ngian
Well-Known Member
From my observations when I add oatmeal flour or betonite clay in my recipes, then trace seems to be coming a little sooner than usual. My interpretation for this is that maybe clay and flour is sucking some of the recipe's water and thus less water available in the soap batter = faster trace...
I keep castor at 5-7 most times and have no issues with quick trace. I have plenty of time to do what I want design wise. I have used as much as 11% but it was a bit faster moving not really enough to worry about. As they said, it can vary from recipe to recipe.
