Soap Tracing Too Fast

[Saponista]

I have made hundreds and hundreds of bars of soap using my same recipe and never had a problem with it tracing way too quickly, but this month it has been a nightmare. My recipe is just Palm, olive, sunflower and coconut oil. I thought at first it was the olive oil as I had changed supplier, but I swapped back to the original supplier and nothing has improved. This leads me to think it must be the palm or coconut that is causing the problem. I went back to basics so it's not fragrance or any other additives, just plain regular soap batter. I thought it might be winter temperatures causing false trace as I soap at room temperature, but I tried carefully measuring temperature and soaping warmer and that made no difference. I am going to have to buy new palm and coconut oil to see if I can resolve the problem, but I was wondering if anyone else had ever had a bad batch of either of these oils that had caused them issues?

 

[Kittish]

Have you checked your scales? If they're battery operated and the batteries are getting low, you might be getting incorrect measurements for oils, water and lye.

 

[Saponista]

They are plugged into the wall so run on mains power and I calibrated them recently so it's definitely not that. It's so odd!

 

[Obsidian]

I would blame the palm. The first batch I ever used made my soap trace really fast. The palm I have now isn't near as bad.

 

[penelopejane]

Are you using pomace?
It's extracted with chemicals from the left over mash and leaves and twigs and can also be mixed with other oils to pad it out. It's a known accelerator and because each batch is different results can be unpredictable.

Both the original supplier and the new OO could be reacting similarly. I always wonder is there a main wholesale supplier who supplies all the others so everyone gets a "contaminated" batch. Could be paranoia on my part.

 

[toxikon]

That's interesting. I don't suppose you have a new, more powerful stickblender causing the issue? Most of the time I only stick blend for about 10 seconds then switch to a spatula to extend my working time.

 

[Saponista]

I don't use pomace as it always seems to cause crazy amounts of acceleration, it is regular olive oil. The new lot was cheaper so I thought it might have been misrepresented and actually pomace, but the stuff I went back to was the usual stuff which I know works as I used that batch number and it worked previously.

 

[Saponista]

Same old stock blender too! I am going to buy more palm tomorrow and specifically check for a different batch code on the boxes. Wish me luck!

 

[toxikon]

Another stab in the dark... Are you fully melting your palm oil and shaking it up before using it? I believe it can separate into layers with different fatty acid profiles, so if you're just scooping it solid, that could cause your unusual results.

 

[shunt2011]

I agree that it's likely the palm oil. When I used it all the time I found it varied from lot to lot. Sometimes it sped things up really quickly.

 

[jcandleattic]

Due to weather changes, has the ambient temperature in the room you soap in dropped? That could cause the oils to be cooler, and possibly trace faster. I know for me, in the winter time I have a similar problem, so I soap about 5° warmer, and it eliminates the problem.

Just a thought...