Problem with swirling: batch too thick

[rougemarie]

I've got some problem in swirling and I wonder if anyone could help me out. I soap using olive oil, palm, pko, and traces of luxury oils (like avocado/castor) and each time I'm having problem with swirling because the batch gets too thick at trace. I use normal amount of water/no water discount (lye * 2.33), and some FO that has been tested not to seize, but when I stick blend the batch, it won't come to trace until suddenly, I've got trace then it's moving very quickly. Do you think the temperature has something to do with this? Should I lower it? (I think it should be around 120F. Sometimes, I have room temperature oil + hot lye-->right after mixing with water).

On the other hand, if I keep the trace thin, the soap actually separates into oily part & chunky lye part.

Any suggestions? thanks!

[RobinInOR]

That's the hard part about swirling, getting the trace just right, not too thick, not too thin.

Lowering temps might help - maybe keep them around 105 or even lower. I've never tried swirling when I did RT w/ hot lye.

I'd SB until it looks like it's pretty well emulsified. Not necessarily seeing a trace, but until it starts to look opaque and not as shiny and you feel a bit more drag on the SB, a bit thicker. For me that just takes a few minutes, not sure how long that would take with olive oil.

And when you add your FO, don't use a SB after that, just stir. You should just be able to see a trace of soap when you drip from the spoon for a sec, but it goes back flat pretty quickly. But it does have a "body" to it, it's not thin looking/feeling.

Did any of that make sense? Hard to describe.

[rougemarie]

Many thanks, Robin. I think it all made perfect sense: I usually emulsify until it reached the consistency of thin salad dressing/aioli but then when I put my FO in, I still SB it. Next time I'll definitely just hand-stir the FO and see if this make a difference.

I also found that when I SB, depending on the combination of my oil, I've got tons of tiny bubbles in my soap esp. after I cut it. Any idea on how I can reduce this as well? Thanks

[cindym]

Keep your stick blender at the bottom of the pan at all times. That is the only thing I can think of, what size batch are you doing. You will get the hang of it. This soaping stuff is tricky but you'll be surprise how much just a little tweak of this or that will do.

[rougemarie]

Keep your stick blender at the bottom of the pan at all times. That is the only thing I can think of, what size batch are you doing. You will get the hang of it. This soaping stuff is tricky but you'll be surprise how much just a little tweak of this or that will do.

I did that, my batches are small, 1-2 lbs max, but I do use deep bowls. Maybe I'll take a good care not to move my SB up/down.

[siberia]

Many thanks, Robin. I think it all made perfect sense: I usually emulsify until it reached the consistency of thin salad dressing/aioli but then when I put my FO in, I still SB it. Next time I'll definitely just hand-stir the FO and see if this make a difference.

I think that once you try this method you will be pleased. 99.99% of the time after adding the FO I switch to a wire whisk from the SB. I find that it helps to avoid a too-quick trace.

[Sherie]

I had a problem with a milk batch tracing extremely fast. I soaped it at 100-105. I've since lowered my temps on milk soaps to 80-90. My other batches I soap between 95-100.

[rougemarie]

O.k. I tried Robin's method and it works on one of the batches that I color using liquid M&P colorant. However, ran into another problem of coloring a batch using cocoa powder: the powder does not color the batch uniformly, I got clumps of cocoa here and there. Any tricks to avoid this? Should I thin the cocoa powder with a little bit of oil? but if I do that, wouldn't it throw the balance between the existing oil-lye?

[RobinInOR]

Yes, you've got to mix the cocoa powder with some oil (about a teaspoon) and mix it until smooth (no eating!). After you measure your liquid oils, just use some of that. *Then* add lightly traced soap to that.

Do that with any of the dry colorants you use to reduce speckles and clumps.

[siberia]

I take a smidgen of my heated oils and mix them with any powdered colorant I am using. Some of the colorants, oil dispersible TD comes to mind, can be stubborn. In such a case I use a pestle to help break up the clumpys.