!%*! - F.O. Keeps Seizing Soap - HELP

[netje]

I have created (in my mind) the most perfect f.o. for a new bar of soap. It consist of 4 f.o.s and 1 e.o.

The second I put it in my very mildly traced soap - it gels up so fast it is almost like I have wiggly jello in my pot.

Why does it do this? For a 2.5 lb soap recipe, I only used 2 1/2 T of this f.o/e.o. blend.

I want to create a beautiful swirls in this bar with 4 colors, but there is no way to do this with the fragrance ruining my soap.

Is there any way to stop this from happening? I mixed oils and lyes at 105 degrees. Maybe I should go higher? Maybe lower? Maybe I am not holding my lip right when pouring.

I am so frusterating and tired of wasting soap.

Please help anyone. Thanks

[Meridith]

You can soap at a lower temp and hand stir if you are using a SB. Also adding your FO/EOs to the oils before adding your lye may help. Or you can HP this scent blend.

[idacandlelady]

I am not by any means a pro, but I really don't think there is any way around an FO that seizes. I think you could probably lower your temps, say 90-95deg. But that still may not help. Are you discounting your water at all. I would do full water and very low temps, and if that doesn't work then nothing probably will .

[idacandlelady]

Must have posted at the same time as Meridith.

Forgot about suggesting HP.

[netje]

Meredith - if I add my f.o. & e.o. to my oils, before adding the lye - don't you think the same thing would happen? Have you tried this? I would love to try it and it does sound like it would work, but I don't want to loose more soap. Any ideas?

IDACANDLELADY - I will definatly lower my temp next time to around 95 degrees.

Thanks

[Carrie]

Do you know which FO makes it seize? Maybe you could find a replacement that doesn't seize.

[pjb31apb]

I agree with soaping at cooler temps, but perhaps if you were willing to list the FO's someone could even tell you if it is a seizer and then you could try to tweak from there.

OR you could try pulling out your swirl soap before adding the colors, using less of your fragrance selection and swirling with unscented soap. No one will ever know that the swirls are unscented unless you choose to tell them.

Good lucj though and I hope you can work it out!

[netje]

Here are my fragrances:

Forest Pine

Aloe & Green Clover

Frankincense & Myrrh

Musk

Ylang Ylang E.O.

I have used all of these in soap before except Frankincense & Myrrh, Musk, & Ylang Ylang - so maybe it is one of these.

Anyone know?

Thanks so much

[Meridith]

Meredith - if I add my f.o. & e.o. to my oils, before adding the lye - don't you think the same thing would happen? Have you tried this? I would love to try it and it does sound like it would work, but I don't want to loose more soap. Any ideas?

IDACANDLELADY - I will definatly lower my temp next time to around 95 degrees.

Thanks

I've only done it once but others on this board do it regularily and say it can help. I'd personally try soaping w/out a water discount, lye and oils cool, and hand stirring to see if that helps. Sometimes you just have an FO that will seize no matter what you do. Sometimes, making some adjustments will help.

[Rachael]

The F&M may be the bad guy I let hubbie try to make a batch of soap and he loves this scent in candles so we added it and it started to seize then went to rice pudding , I beat it to death with SB and plopped it in to the mold , next morning it was seeping oil so I rebatched it in crock pot .

Also he didnt have the patience to wait for cooler temps so it may very well move a lil slower if soaped cooler.

[Meridith]

I've soaped the F&M from OT and did not have any problems with it. Where did you get yours?

[netje]

Wow. The Frankincense & Myrrh F.O.

Well, I have a F/M E.O. blend that I will use instead. I was using the F.O., because it wasn't an all natural soap but I will substitute the E.O. if that will help.

I'm gonna try this batch one more time in a few hours with all of the suggestions. If it doesn't work this time - I give up.

[Rachael]

I got mine from A Garden Eastward .

But like I said hubbie was way to impatient so it may have been to warm to soap any FO LOL

He kept bugging me * is it ready yet* * is it ready yet * LOL

Men.... just like lil boys sometimes LOL

[netje]

I bought mine at "The Chemistry Store".

It wouldn't hurt to swap the f.o. for the e.o., but if it doesn't work - well then I am out more cost. F/M E.O. is not cheap.

However, I have never wasted a failed batch of soap. I will find someway to use them. Maybe cut up chunks of the colored stuff and put it in a solid white bar.

[kidsngarden]

Soap at ROOM TEMP, no water discount, then add the FO at light trace with a whisk just like meredith said.

It could also be your soap recipe as some trace quicker than others.

[netje]

Could someone please give me a 2.5 pound recipe that does not case this problem?

I was using Wheatgerm Oil, White Palm Oil, Avocado Oil, Coconut Oil & Vegetable oil.

[netje]

Gosh, before I finally get this soap right - I am going to have to rename the bar to "CraftServer Tried & Tested Bath Bar".

Everyone has been so helpful.

This is just the nicest board ever.

[kidsngarden]

I don't know how open you are to using animal oils but lard is a nice slow tracing oil.

You could try a real basic recipe of 50% lard, 20% coconut, 5% castor, and 25% liquid oil like sunflower. Put it through soapcalc with a 2.5 pound batch to get the lye amounts.

[netje]

I am not at all opposed to using anything.

Thanks so much.

I'll definatly try what you said.

After I get the kids from school, I will give this another whirl.

I'll let you know how it came out.

[netje]

Well - here are the results of the soap.

I changed the recipe to the new one and added oils/lye at 95 degrees. I pulled out the mixture and added to my fragrance oil.

Then I started hand mixing the oil/lye towards trace. Before even near trace, I started dropping in just a few drops of the f.o. at a time. If I had not have done this - I would have had the same seized mess on my hands, because the soap started tracing real real fast.

So, I guess changing the recipe didn't matter nor changing the frank/myrrh f.o. to f/m e.o.

It is just one of those recipes where something just isn't going to work.

HOWEVER, I was able to dump my colors into my white soap before a hard trace and dumped it in my mold super fast. I was able to get some colored swirls this way - just not the ones I wanted. I wanted the really really pretty ones where you take a chop stick and design them.

Oh well. This is disappointing, because I have NEVER been able to swirl anything with chopsticks. It just never seems to work out for me.

[sudsnwicks]

I have not soaped any of the FOs/EO on your list but have heard others saying Green Clover is a difficult one. My solution for difficult FOs is to do a 100% lard soap, as lard is slow to trace. You could always give that a try if this particular scent blend is something you want to keep.

[eugenia]

You can try even lower, I always do room temp oil and lye, FO/EO blended into the oils first (you can use the SB for that part), and stir with the whisk. If it's a seizer, the S/B should never get near it.

[pjb31apb]

Keep tweaking! Don't give up! So you have tried one thing different and gotten the same results, but you learned to play with your recipes. Olive oil is another good slow tracing oil. Perhaps this time try it without the clover FO and see what happens. If that doesn't work try adding OO to the mix and switching out another component of the blend until you find it! Also consider commiting this blend to the crock pot. you can still get some very beautiful effects from the crock pot ya know. It isn't wasted soap either it is still good maybe just not pretty in your opinion. :embarasse

[netje]

Eugenia - what is SB?

[netje]

What I have been trying to do for about 3 years now is this - http://www.beauxeaux.com/swirltutorial/howtoswirl.htm

But I can't. I don't know why. The closest I can come is dumping the color directly into the pot of traced soap and then dump them into the mold.

I have never been able to add the colors into the soap, after is has been poured into the mold, and then swirl them with chop sticks.

My soap always gets too hard and the colors won't swirl.