tracing very fast need help understanding why

[dirrdee]

I tried a castile soap last week that turned out great. I tried to make a version of that with coconut oil for suds and mango butter. I tried soaping with my oils at 135 F and my lye mixture at 100F. It accelerated so quick I didnt have time to do the swirl and plopped everything in the mold. I didnt use any EO's or FO's...the recipe is below, can you help me figure out why the super fast trace?

24 oz. OO (pomace)
6 oz. CO
3 oz. Mango butter

Lye: 4.48
Water: 8.33

I did do a 35% water discount

 

[IrishLass]

I see you used pomace olive oil. Pomace is quite notorious for causing a quick trace. I've never used pomace myself for that very reason.

I have a regular formula that uses olive oil, mango, coconut oil, pko, and some other oils, and I always soap it on the warm side (120 - 125F, and sometimes 130F) with no fast tracing issues at all unless it's FO-related, but my olive is just regular OO from Costco (not pomace).

Hopefully those who do use pomace will chime in with their expertise.


IrishLass

 

[KD]

I had pomace oil ONCE. Never again for the same reason.

 

[green soap]

I use pomace and it works out fine for me.

From what you say, using 100% pomace was good. Adding the hard oils at the same lye concentration made trace go faster. You need to add more water (or decrease the lye % same thing) to get trace at the same time. How much more water to add is a matter of experimenting. I have not used mango butter in soap so can't give you a ballpark. Someone here must have though.

 

[eleraine]

I used 25% mango butter in a formula with EVOO and it went into pseudo trace. I figured it was the mango butter.

 

[MeadowHillFarmCT]

I use Pomace from Soapers Choice and have never had a fast trace but I soap cooler because I use GM. I have never used Mango so can't say.

 

[dirrdee]

I just remembered that I put 1 T. of sugar in the lye mixture to help with bubbles...could that have caused the fast trace?

This morning when cutting, I was expecting to see a hard bar but it is very soft. Almost as soft as the castile without water discounting. The castile I soaped with a water discount was very hard, and I had to cut it right out of the mold.

If its not the sugar, it has to be the pomace. When I soaped the previously mentioned batch it accelerated but not at the speed of this recent batch and the only difference was the temps...120F vs. 135F of my oils. Lye was also different 120F vs. 100.

 

[carebear]

i find that pomace traces much faster than other olive oils.
in addition to that you have only hard oils - hard often means faster
you soap pretty hot which can contribute to fast trace
your lye concentration is 35% which is on the high side with the other things taken into consideration, which again can contribute to fast trace.

all in all, I cannot pin it down for you.

 

[dirrdee]

thanks everyone for your help...I think I will abandon the pomace..I never had any trouble till I started using it. Im going back to the good ole olive oil from Costco then continue my experiments.

 

[debbism]

I make a mango butter soap that includes a good amount of pomace and it traces unbelievably fast

 

[dirrdee]

thats what it did...really fast! Not good for swirling..lol