Did I make a mistake with shaving soap?

[bman0023]

I don't know if I made a mistake or not with making my shaving soap. When I added the lye it immediately began to seize and trace, in a matter of seconds. I used mostly high stearic butters and lard with about 25% castor oil. I threw in a little stearic acid and coconut milk in place of about 50% of the water. The only thing I can think of is that my lye was cold. I tried to heat it up thinking the lye was too cold and it went up to about 150-160 degrees. It looked more like hot processed soap. It did come out of the mold looking ok. I did not try it yet, but concerned that it did not go like all of my other soaps. But with this batch I used a lot of different oils/fats.

Any thoughts or suggestions? This is my first shaving soap and I know a good recipe can be achieved.

Thanks, Brad

 

[chicklet]

I'm no pro, but the only thing I see that might help you pinpoint what happened is where you said you used stearic and coconut milk to replace "about" half the liquid. Maybe you didn't use enough liquid so it traced quickly. Did you use any fragrance or essential oil? They're likely suspects if you did.

 

[bman0023]

I used soap calc and included everything and went according to the recipe. Maybe it just traced fast with the high stearic acids? I used half water and half coconut milk. I had to turn off the stick blender and stirred by hand for a good while. I did put in some EO and that did not seem to be a problem. It was not like the typical soap that I make which is castile with mostly OO and some palm and coconut.

 

[chicklet]

Was it clove EO? It can definitely accelerate trace. But maybe it was the use of so many hard oils. I know that if your lye mix is cool it can cause the hard oils to re-solidify or at least attempt to re-solidify. Maybe that's what happened. I'm sure someone more experienced will come along shortly with the answer.

 

[bman0023]

It did this before I added some EO to it, peppermint and eucalyptus. I tried it and it works good. I will try to make it again with warmer temps?

Thanks