what did I do wrong???

[idacandlelady]

I just made Quiet girl's basic recipe, except subbed RBO for the safflower. For some reason as the oil mixture cooled it started getting cloudy, lumpy spots. Then when I added the lye solution it was immediately thick and lumpy. I had to mix by hand to add the FO. I have never used PKO in a recipe until now. Is this how it behaves? Or did I maybe do something else wrong. As it was I had to add the lye sol. when the oils were @120 deg, instead of 100deg, because I was afraid to wait any longer due to the clouding & lumps. Hope this makes sense. And I hope someone can tell me what may have happened. TIA

[CareBear]

Sounds a bit odd. Maybe you didn't mix your oil mixture well so the PKO was able to solidify out. Make sure you mixe the melted PKO into the oils really well. In fact you may want to make sure all the oils are a little warm when you add this into them. Then let them cool.

I have made a few batches with the recipe and don't recall it tracing particularly fast, though I wasn't looking for it (and it seems ALL my FOs accelerate, even the ones that say they don't).

[LovelyLathers]

I agree that is sounds like the pko didn't heat up enough to mix in with the other oils. Did you use a thermometer? If so it may be broke or not reading right? Was lye at the same temp? I use rbo a lot in my soaps and don't find that it with pko accelerates. Esspecially if you have not added the fo yet. Another thing I though of is did you add all of your oils and measure them right, maybe you missed one for it to come to trace so fast? I have done that before!

[CareBear]

Even if you melted it really well it could have solidified if you poured it into cool oils.

[Carrie]

I use a high percentage of RBO in my recipe. I also use PKO. I melt the hard oils until they are almost completely melted then add them to my soap pot and stick blend them. This gets it melted and insures they are mixed well. Then I add my liquid, RBO & Castor, and stick blend again. Only when they are completely mixed and melted do I add my hot lye solution. My soap traces pretty fast but I always figured it was because of the hot lye.

[CareBear]

So you SB them before adding in the lye. That's an idea I never thought of. I hate melting mine so hot to make sure they are all mixed up - this might just solve one of my annoyances.

I've read that some use the hot lye sol'n to actually melt the butters but I think that's pretty risky unless you know your recipe really well.

[sudsy]

I SB my oils every time and it works well.

[Carrie]

Many, many soapers do it that way, it melts the oils. I'm always worried it won't get hot enough to melt the pko so....

[idacandlelady]

I did SB a little with just the oils but I was afraid to do it too much. It just seems like my PKO tried to solidify first. And as soon as I added the lye sol it(chunks of PKO) was instantly solid. I unmolded and cut my soap this morning and there are spots in it, which I think are chunks of PKO. Smells really good though and no zap.

[eugenia]

I melt my oils and mix my lye the day before and soap room temp. Even the hardest oils stay melted. Soaping this way is less eventful for me.

[Scent Cellar]

Last year I bought a 10 lb bag of Palm Kernal Flakes and had a terrible time trying to melt them because as the temp cooled down in the pot on the stove the PK flakes started getting solid again. After 2 batches where I could see part of the flakes in the finished bar I called the supplier and asked if any one else had called to complain about the flakes and of course she said no. She went on to tell me that after I had more batches of soap under my belt I would realize the flakes were OK. I have been soaping for 4 years and never had PK flakes like that so I threw the bag in the garbage and will only order PKO flakes from Columbus Foods where I know the PKO flakes are a good product.