TD is going to send me over the edge!

[Hermanam]

I'm sorry everyone, I know that TD issues are my favorite post topic, but I seriously think I might cry if I don't get this figured out. I get glycerin rivers/crackling nearly every time I use TD. I have tried preventing gel, but I honestly prefer to gel. Here's the soap I unmolded and cut today. Can someone please give me some idea of what else to do differently?

My recipe was:

5% castor
5% Shea butter
10% avocado oil
25% CO
25% PO
30% OO

I soaped around 100 degrees, poured into an ED silicone mold, covered with a shoe box and two towels overnight. This is the result...



Is it my recipe? My process? Too many towels? Ughhh...I am all ears

 

[lsg]

I really didn't have an answer, but I did googled it and came up with this. Don't know if it helps, but the way I read it controling temp. may be the key to preventing crackle.

http://www.newenglandsoaps.com/?p=745

 

[osso]

I have found using less td helps. If you use a light olive oil then your soap shouldn't be too far off white. I have used a similar recipe and used to be really heavy handed with the TD, but found that even uncolored the soap is pretty light and using less td has yielded satisfactory results for me. You could also try white mica instead of td.

Also look at temp as mentioned already.

Your soap is beautiful by the way!!

 

[Saponista]

That is a beautiful soap, can't help with the TD problems though! I hope you find a solution

 

[AKjulz]

Not sure how this may help, but I have the same problem but it typically only happens in the center of my logs not in the bars that are cut nearer the ends. That is, when I just
Cover with a box. I believe I have less problems with with crackling when I do CPOP.
Your soap is gorgeous! Love those greens.

 

[newbie]

That's a kick-*** soap!

I get what you mean about TD. I don't think this solves the issue entirely but I have pre-mixed mine (water-soluble) about 50:50 with water and have left it in a glass bottle. I pull some out when I want it but I feel like the full saturation over time has helped decrease crackle. Other people have noted that if they have oil-soluble TD, pre-mixing and making sure it sits for hours or overnight has helped a lot. A recent poster said that they add theirs to the lye water and have not had issues. I have no idea why that would help but they say it does. Using less and trying to make certain the soap doesn't get too hot along with the other tricks may nail it for you.

Noted that I used my TD out of the bottle in a soap recently that ended up with terrible crackle in parts but very minimal to none in the white portion, so I don't think the long saturation thing is bunk.

 

[CSL]

Your soap is beautiful!
I have had similar issues with TD and have tried everything I can think of or that has been suggested and I only have one suggestion for you: MIX. Mix the TD with a good bit of glycerin and then mix it like there's no tomorrow. Then add a bit of your soap batter and mix some more. Mix it like mental and continue to mix and when it looks like it is pretty smooth and there are no TD globules left, mix some more and keep going until you think you would rather become a baker than a soaper, and then mix it one tiny bit more. I have mixed a small bit of TD'd soap batter to the point where it has gone beyond thick trace and then added it to the rest of the batter and mixed again and it is the only thing that has prevented the white dots.
Also, I use a tiny little dish (the kind you use to serve dips or chutneys) and use a teaspoon and instead of it just swirling it around to mix it, I use the bottom curved part of the teaspoon to kind of mash it down.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

............Mix the TD with a good bit of glycerin ...............

But the OP doesn't have glycerin in the recipe - would some oil be just as good? You also said soap batter - would that be another alternative to adding glycerin?

 

[neeners]

from what I've read (and I still need to test this out again), is to hydrate your TD well in advance (I read 30 min, but longer the better). assuming yours is water soluble, put it in a container before you start any other prep for soaping. then, before you pour, stir the batter again so the TD powder doesn't settle and separate. the last Christmas soap I made I did this and no crackle on that one (I gelled it)

I have a next soap in mind that has TD in it....I'm going to try all of the above, and hope it works. I will also gel the soap (I love gelled soap texture).

 

[Saponista]

I tried mixing my TD with glycerine and it didn't want to mix very well at all so the next time I used a bit of OO from my already weighed out ingredients and it dissolved much better. I haven't experienced the patchy TD problem very often. The only time I had it was when my soap half gelled as I let it overheat and the white portions looked really patchy.

 

[Saponista]

What method did you use for your swirls if you don't mind me asking? They are beautiful.

 

[seven]

am i the only 1 who loves td? i use it in almost every batch. yes, it gave me funky stuff in the past, but there's a way around it. just gotta watch for overheating me thinks.

 

[Hermanam]

I was away from my computer last night...thanks to everyone for all the kind words about my soap and suggestions to try. I have tried mixing like crazy, premixing ahead of time, dissolving in both oil or water (my TD is from BB and is supposed to be soluble in both, but it seems to dissolve more fully in water). I am determined to get this figured out, at least to the point where I only get crackle on a rare occasion. Although I must admit I didn't feel like messing with it yesterday and made another batch using BB Super White Pearly Mica...we'll see how that turns out.

Saponista, the swirl technique is a tiger stripe swirl. It is very easy...just alternate pouring lines of alternating color soap batter in a log mold. Here is a good tutorial video:

[ame]http://youtu.be/_sRe9_W_8R8[/ame]

 

[judymoody]

Lovely soap!

How much TD are you using? Maybe you are using too much?

I use the oil soluble TD and have almost never gotten crackling except in the occasional batch that threatened to overheat and went into a hot fast gel. Mine is from the Conservatorie and I dissolve it in oil first. Perhaps the TD that dissolves in either oil or water is your problem. Maybe one-size-fits-all really doesn't.

For what it's worth, when I've dissolved oxides of any color into liquid glycerine, the colorant disperses in little globules in my soap batter and requires a good blast with the SB to incorporate. I find that using olive oil as my medium to premix my TD is more successful.

 

[shunt2011]

I too use TD in most of my batches and find that the only time I get that crackling look is if my soap gels too hot. That's been my experience anywho. I mix my TD in OO in a squeeze bottle pre mixed and just give it a shake ever so often. That has certainly helped with the clumping I was experiencing.

 

[Hermanam]

I am really bad at gauging temperature while gelling. Can someone please help me learn what to look for while controlling temps? I tried this once, and uncovered when it looked gelled all the way through...ended up with partial gel, which I hate more than crackle! So what should I be looking for and doing to help make sure things don't get too hot?

 

[seven]

I dunno, but i got kinda used to it just by touching the sides of my molds. I use wooden ones most of the time and can tell if it's getting a bit too hot inside.

Usually, an hour or so after pouring, i check again. That's when i can feel if there are signs of funky stuff about to happen.

Sorry i'm no help...

 

[Seawolfe]

If I made soap with a pretty crackle like that I would be insufferably smug. I think its really pretty and much nicer than plain old white.

 

[CSL]

But the OP doesn't have glycerin in the recipe - would some oil be just as good? You also said soap batter - would that be another alternative to adding glycerin?

A tablespoon of oil would be just as good, maybe even better. I would recommend not using some of the oil you weigh out for the soap, but an additional tablespoon. This is because you might upset the lye balance if you take oil out of your pre-weighed oils, especially if you're just looking to have part of your soap white.

And yes, you could absolutely use some of your soap batter and just mix it into that, but like I said, with the amount of mixing I'm suggesting, it may make that bit of soap batter come to a very thick trace.

You could also get a ziploc type plastic bag and put the TD and oil into that and then give it a good mush around with your fingers.

 

[Hermanam]

If I made soap with a pretty crackle like that I would be insufferably smug. I think its really pretty and much nicer than plain old white.

Lol, thanks Seawolfe...maybe I will just tell people that was the look I was going for