Short hx. Been making cp soap with same recipe for past 3 years. The following is recipe: olive oil 30%; coconut oil 30%; palm oil 20%; castor 5% and Shea butter 15% and using frozen goats milk as 100% of the liquid. Soaping temp under 100 degrees with 15 degrees of each other. No problems. Scaling up, went to masterbatching oils with exception of Shea butter. Adding that separately. Using 50/50 lye solution and using fresh goat’s milk for the remaining liquid. Using fragrance oils I have used before with no problems but now the batter is seizing up… so I throw it into crock pot and do hot processed. I love hp but like to have the option…. Does anyone use lye and oil tanks and have you had similar issues when switching from small to bigger production? Even though I use the scales with the tanks, I remeasure everything onto my small scale before combining…. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated…. So frustrated…
Seizing and tracing too soon
- Thread starter Crazy Goat
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How old are your oils? do you use any antioxidants or preservatives like BHT or EDTA? As fatty acids age and break down, they can cause soap to move into full saponification at lightning speed. The oils may still be fine to use, but not great for intricate designs.
Everything within 1 month old. I live near a soap and candle making distributor so my supplies are easily obtainable. The only additives are the fragrance oil and goats milk… thank you for replying!
I add my goats milk to my oils when my oils are around 100 degrees to bring down my oil temp
I add my goats milk to my oils when my oils are around 100 degrees to bring down my oil temp
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Are your solid/liquid oils well mixed before starting to soap? Are you heating the oils before adding the lye solution? Are you still using percentages, PPO when figuring the amount of FO?
I have the oils (except Shea butter) in heated tank. I heat to 130 degrees and then melt my Shea butter in the heated oils. My recipe calls for 1.5 oz of fragrance per soap maker 3. I like it a bit stronger so I bump it up to 2oz. Here is a pic of the first batch that began to seize. I was able to get it into the mold. I can see some of the lumps… would you use as is or should I rebatch? The fragrance I used was Bali breeze from Brambleberry . Didn’t react this way the last time I used it…
Here is pic of recipe if that helps
I’m going to try recipe again but leave out milk. I’m going to heat oils to 130 and then add Shea butter and let it melt. What temp should I soap?
Here is pic of recipe if that helps
I’m going to try recipe again but leave out milk. I’m going to heat oils to 130 and then add Shea butter and let it melt. What temp should I soap?
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You could soap from around 100*F to 110*F. Try melting the shea butter separately. Unless your liquid oils are hot, the solid shea butter will cool down the temp of the other oils, especially if the shea butter has been refrigerated. I usually don't go above .75 OZ of FO per pound of oils.
Unlike lsg I always soap at 1.1oz ppo because my customers like strong fragrances. I did not worry about my oil temps unless I had to melt down some of my hard oils and they felt hotter than usual because I tended to soap at room temp with cloudy oils. I soaped with either a high % of tallow/lard or Palm with Shea depending on vegan or non-vegan.
I like to soap around 85-90 degrees. When and how are you adding the fresh goat milk? Frozen cubes to your 50/50 MB lye and allowing it to cool back down? I tried a few ways before I found my best way. When my extra liquid (AJV with GMP) is added to my oils before my 50/50 lye solution, my trace speeds up a lot. I find it’s better for me allow the extra liquid to react to the MB lye and cool back down.
What is AJV? I have been adding the fresh goats milk to my oils when they are at 100 degrees (to help my oils cool to 90 degrees), then my 50/50 lye which is usually at room temp. I have been putting my FO at same time. I never thot about the fresh milk and the sugars reacting with the lye at that temp but the more I read, the more I see the possibility! If I understand you correctly, you add your frozen goat milk cubes to your 50/50 lye? Is your lye at room temp?
AVJ is Aloe Vera Juice (for increasing bubbles) 
If I was lucky enough to have fresh goats milk, I’d freeze it (as you said you do) and try adding the extra liquid amount of frozen cubes to my MB lye. You might find that you don’t need all of it frozen to counter the lyes reaction (heating up again) to new liquid, so experiment and see what works best for you.
If I was lucky enough to have fresh goats milk, I’d freeze it (as you said you do) and try adding the extra liquid amount of frozen cubes to my MB lye. You might find that you don’t need all of it frozen to counter the lyes reaction (heating up again) to new liquid, so experiment and see what works best for you.
Thank you!
130 seems awfully hot. I don’t know, maybe because I use the heat transfer method. The only thing I melt or “pre-heat” is my cocoa butter because it is so hard. The rest of my oils and butters I just pop in my container and then mix my lye water, stir till clear and then add it to my oils. I think the hotter the batter, the faster it will come to trace.
Thank you! i made another batch today and let everything settle to room temp ( lye/ water solution 75 degrees, oils 89 and froze the goats milk, then let it melt in the lye water). Hand mixed the fragrance oil in by hand and it worked!!! Going to take the Shea butter out of the recipe, to lighten the hard oils. I appreciate all of the great suggestions and support. Funny thing, I learned more through this experience than the previous 3 years of soap making….
Tried the iced goats milk and adding it to the 50/50 lye solution and cooling to room temp. Worked wonderfully!!! Thank you!!!
I’m so glad @Crazy Goat - be sure to post pictures once you cut it. We love pictures!
Pretty!
