Thick batter

[Papasmurf]

Am I doing something wrong?

I just finished my fourth batch of soap and am looking to do some more interesting designs like woodgrain. My batter is always thick. I stick blend until I see trace. Drips from the stick blender just start to leave patterns that stay in the batter. Consistency is slightly thicker than a milk/cream. Not thick as butter or sour cream. Then within a minute the batter is like soft butter. How do you get your batters to stay more liquid after achieving trace?

 

[Babyshoes]

A number of things can cause trace to accelerate, such as:

• Your recipe - some oils and butters thicken up faster than others. Post your full recipe to check.
• Over blending. You could stop at emulsion and hand stir to trace.
• Temperature, of oils and/or your room
• Fragrance oils
• Other additives like clays etc

 

[Cat&Oak]

You actually do not need to reach trace to do swirls you just need to be able to recognize what emulsion is. Once you have stable emulsion you can separate out and do colors and swirls. Also it's common to overuse the stick blender when you are new which speeds up the whole process. You just want to pulse. Pulse, stir, watch. It takes some time and experience to recognize the stages. There are YouTube videos that explain what stable emulsion is.

 

[Papasmurf]

A number of things can cause trace to accelerate, such as:

• Your recipe - some oils and butters thicken up faster than others. Post your full recipe to check.
• Over blending. You could stop at emulsion and hand stir to trace.
• Temperature, of oils and/or your room
• Fragrance oils
• Other additives like clays etc

Room temp is about 68°. Oils at room temp, Lye at about 110° when added to oils.

Added sandalwood and pachouli about half-way through mixing.

Only color is a brown mica I add to about 15% of the batter. Both batters act about the same.

I am stick blending for the whole mixing process. After posting I read a few posts that indicate that may be my culprit. Thoughts?

You actually do not need to reach trace to do swirls you just need to be able to recognize what emulsion is. Once you have stable emulsion you can separate out and do colors and swirls. Also it's common to overuse the stick blender when you are new which speeds up the whole process. You just want to pulse. Pulse, stir, watch. It takes some time and experience to recognize the stages. There are YouTube videos that explain what stable emulsion is.

If I stop at emulsion does that effect how long the soap should stay in the mold before cutting? Should it be ready to cut in 24-48 hours?

 

[Babyshoes]

Room temp is about 68°. Oils at room temp, Lye at about 110° when added to oils.

Added sandalwood and pachouli about half-way through mixing.

Only color is a brown mica I add to about 15% of the batter. Both batters act about the same.

I am stick blending for the whole mixing process. After posting I read a few posts that indicate that may be my culprit. Thoughts?

View attachment 63201

Most likely over blending, yes. I agree with the suggestion above to watch some good videos. Lisa at I Dream in Soap has a good one.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

If I stop at emulsion does that effect how long the soap should stay in the mold before cutting? Should it be ready to cut in 24-48 hours?

You stop at emulsion (stable emulsion to be precise), and then wait until the batter moves wherever you want it to be. It will get into trace all by itself; when you want to have thicker trace, just wait. Slow-moving recipes might need an hour or two for that (also a good test if the emulsion really was stable, lol). After you have scented/coloured/swirled it, it makes no difference if trace has come from 6 minutes of continuous SBing, or from 2×20 seconds + half an hour of waiting time. Mould, (optionally CPOP), and unmould whenever the batter appears firm enough for it.

Lisa at I Dream in Soap has a good one.

This

 

[Becky1024]

What type of olive oil do you use? Pomace will speed up trace.