trace too fast

[venus78]

Hi everyone,

I just made a batch of kitchen coffee and when I poured the lye into the oils it started thickening in less than 30 seconds! I'm always very careful with the measuring and I don't think it was lye heavy.

I poured the lye into the oils very slow (I have no idea why!) and after I started stirring with the blender it thickened so fast!

I used:

almond 5%

castor 5%

coconut 20%

palm 30%

olive 40%

sf 5%

the only difference in this batch from my previous batches was that I used unrefined olive oil which was a little thick and green.

any idea of what could have gone wrong?

Thanks a lot

[IndulgentCreations]

How warm did you soap? If everything else is the same it sounds like you soaped too hot.

[Meridith]

Could be that you soaped too warm or that your weights of either your oils or your lye were off. I'd check to make sure that your scale is as accurate as possible. Were you soaping with coffee as your liquid?

[venus78]

Hi Meridith, Thanks for your message. I soaped at 120F. I was trying to solve white streaks in my soaps therefore my batch was 0.5ld, I'd read somewhere if your batch is small you should mix the lye and the oils a little bit warmer.

I unmolded today, the ash on the top is gone, but it has white streaks in it again! I have no idea what to do. I made sure the palm is completely melted.

This one has white streaks exactly like the picture you posted. What did you do to solve this problem?

Thanks a lot

[Meridith]

You probably soaped too hot. Try soaping when your oils and butters are cool - like around 90-100.

Before melting your palm, make sure to stir it really good. It's hard to get it all stirred when you have a large container of it. That's why I now buy the no stir from Columbus.

[venus78]

I get it now. my palm is liquid on the top and thick at the bottom. I didn't know that because the container isn't see through. when making my last 4 batches I found it out because the palm was almost finished in the container and I saw that it was thick at the bottom. I'll make sure to stir it well before using it. Thank you so much Meridith for your great help

[CareBear]

120 is really hot for most recipes (except castile maybe).

and was there a fragrance oil involved?

[venus78]

No fragrance, just brewed coffee and coffee ground.