Too much Castor Oil? Soap traces too fast.

[Sharryn]

Every recipe I make seems to trace too quickly, no matter what I do. Here's the one that I made today:

35% Coconut Oil 76 degree
30% Olive Oil
20% Castor Oil
15% Lard

I tried to keep the stick blending to a minimum so I could keep it thin enough to do swirls, but it still traced too fast for me. It was an improvement from previous batches, but still too fast. I like a bubbly soap, so I like to add the castor oil for that reason mostly.

 

[Saponomancer]

Way too much castor and coconut oil, but I'm not sure that's whats causing the fast trace. Whats your water situation like? Did you use fragrance oil? What were your temperatures like?

 

[Steve85569]

Take the Coconut oil to 15%, the castor to 5 % and put the rest into lard.
50% Lard
30% olive oil
15% Coconut oil
5% castor oil.
Run that through a lye calculator. It should not trace too fast to work with unless you are using an accelerating fragrance of essential oil.

Welcome to the lard side.

 

[Dahila]

it is going to be very drying and sticky ans soft soap

 

[Arimara]

All of the above. NEVER add more than 10% Castor oil to a batch. I'm being extra nice only for those who can successfully make a recipe with more than 5% castor oil. Steve's suggestion will give a plenty bubbly soap that won't be too drying or sticky.

 

[Susie]

If you could post your recipe in weights (including fragrances and any additives), we can troubleshoot better. Also include your soaping temperatures if you took them.

I agree about the recipe being not so hot, though. Sorry.

 

[IrishLass]

I'm going to be different and say that a high amount of castor if fine.......depending on your other fats in the recipe, that is. I have 2 formulas that use a high amount of castor- my shaving soap/croap (20% castor) and my 65% tallow recipe (23% castor). The high amount does great in those formulas. I wouldn't use it as high as that in formulas with a high amount of liquid oils, though. That would be a bad plan.

In order for us to be able to more thoroughly troubleshoot, it would be very helpful to know your recipe weights, especially your water amount and the FO or EO (if you used any).


IrishLass

 

[Sharryn]

Okay, sorry I should have included more.
Water 38% of oil, 5% superfat, and lye at 27.487% concentration. All were the standard given in SoapCalc.
Coconut Oil 1361 gm.
Olive Oil 1166 gm.
Castor Oil 777 gm.
Lard 583 gm.
I used 1 tsp/pound Titanium Dioxide or 8 1/2 tsp.
Also used one ounce each of three different FO's, Ocean, Patchouli, and now I can't remember the third. They all smelled like fragrances for a man's soap. To be honest, I had these one ounce bottles and wanted to use them up. I really didn't care if the soap smelled pretty, just to have some fragrance that wasn't girlie
I also used a red oxide to color 1/3 of the batch, but it was already beginning to get thick at that point.
I soaped really cool, around 95-100F

 

[IrishLass]

With all things considered, my bet is on the ocean FO that you added. Ocean FO's are notorious for causing speedy trace and even worse- i.e., soap-on-a-stick. I'm very curious to know what the 3rd FO was.


IrishLass

 

[Sharryn]

Just dug around in my trash and the 3rd FO was Asian Sandlewood. I can barely smell anything in the soap because I only put the three one-ounce bottles in the 8.5 lb. batch.

 

[IrishLass]

The soap is still young yet. You'd be surprised how many seemingly disappearing scents revive during cure. That's not to say they all revive, but don't discount the possibility just yet.


IrishLass