Help needed

[Annabella]

I have made 2 batches so far and both of them failed even a light trace so i slowly heated the mixture and kept stirring with stick blender. the soap volcanoed when poured into mould and then turned into a transparent gelatinous mess.

could it be the olive oil? thats the only common denominator between the 2 batches i made apart fro the lye which seemed to work perfectly.

i am getting very frustrated at this moment in time but i am prepared to give it one more go.

this time i will substitute the olive oil with sustainable palm oil.

any suggestions would be gladly received

annabelle

last recipe was

100g shae butter
600g olive oil
150g caster oil
400g coconut oil

177g lye
400mls/g distilled water.

 

[Dorymae]

I believe it was the heat. Olive oil soaps naturally trace slowly, by forcing the heat you accelerated trace but also accelerated the heat generated by saponification. Normally the heat starts slowly building on itself. The way you did it, you started much hotter and it built on that until it volcanoed.

Trace is not necessary to mold, you only need emulsion. As long as the oils and water do not separate you are good to go.

 

[Annabella]

Thank you

Dorymae, thank you so much, that explanation is very clear and helpful. :-D

 

[Annabella]

temperature

Dorymae, i live in a tropical climate and it is 30 degrees celsius at the moment.

Could i cool the oil water mixture to room temperature before i combined them?

Thank you for the note on not having to have a trace, only emulsification, i did have that but went way too far.

 

[shunt2011]

Not Dorymae, but yes, you can soap relatively cool. Let your lye cool totally and have your oils just barely warm. That should help with your overheating problem. Don't give up, you'll get it.

 

[Annabella]

Shunt2011

Thank you Shunt2011 - i really appreciate the advice.