Couldn't essential oils accelerate trace based on oils used?

[kagey]

I've seen lots of post where one person says an EO accelerates trace, while another contradicts this.

Maybe they're both right??

I've recently performed a test where my 12 indiividual soaps in their mold were perfectly well behaving - and then, for grins, I added some EOs to a few of them. I watched Peppermint and Tea Tree cause my soap to seize, where the same amount of Vanilla Select FO and Rosemary EO did nothing at all. I'm told that Peppermint doesn't accelerate trace -(this says it decelerates trace!) yet I watched it do so before my very eyes. (BTW, I used a tspn per 4 oz bar and stirred all of them equally with a bamboo skewer.)

Isn't it possible that EOs affect traces based on how they interact with certain saponifying oils?
Or that maybe how much you add affects the saponification?

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Maybe they're both right??

Yes, of course. All EOs are not created equal. EOs are complicated mixtures of many components, some of which alter the course of saponification in dramatic ways (eugenol in clove EO, but not only there).

There are some (A)'s (for acceleration) in the table at
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/longest-lasting-eos.77315/page-4#post-884722but as well enough EOs without (A) to not justify a generalisation.

YMMV with cultivar, harvest, treatment, age, fractionation (e. g., every peppermint EO is fractionated), blend, quantity, pre-mixing with batch oils, temperature …