Best Recipes for Swirling

[chuck_35550]

I am having difficulty judging when to stop stick blending my batter at thin trace. By the time I am satisfied the oils are fully incorporated there is little or no time left to swirl. Top has pointed out that my formulas leave little time for the window of opportunity and suggested that I leave out castor, in order to slow the saponification process down. Does anyone have a tip or two about this aspect of swirling?

Thanks,

Steve

[LovelyLathers]

Have you tried using the stick blender just to mix the oils and lye for a minute to get them stirred good and then use a whisk to get to a light trace? It works good for me. I find beef tallow and olive oil take longer to trace. I use castor in all my recipes at 5% so I soap cooler it helps. Here's a link for properties of oils and how they trace.

http://www.soapnuts.com/indexoils.html

[moon01945]

I have found that soaping cooler will slow it down, or give you a slower to trace time.

I have found it is just a matter of practicing when to stop. I always want to over blend.

Also your FO are going to effect the trace... so every batch will be different.

[chuck_35550]

That's what makes me so unsure about true and not false trace is soaping at cooler temps and using the sb. I can see where using a whisk would be more reliable and you wouldn't have to worry about separation. I always watch the temp when working the batter and normally it jumps two to four degrees when fully incorporated. I guess it will just have to be gut instinct and stop being so anal about the whole thing. Thanks for your help.

Steve

[moon01945]

yeah.. it is definitly a gut thing.

I tend to blend too long also.. I also over cook (burn) everything at home! :rolleyes2 Maybe there is a pattern.

[eugenia]

Chuck,

For the best swirling, you want to stay thin. I found that soaping room temp with no water discount in a slab mold works the best for me. Pulse your S/B for 5 seconds at a time and alternate with hand stirring with the S/B. As soon as your batter turns from clear to opaque, STOP! Pour off your portions to color for swirl and first stir them manually. I use pitchers and give them a S/B shot of 5-10 seconds only.

Go back to your main pot and check if it needs a bit more. If you pour too thin on the base color, the only problem that I have ever found is that the layer cannot support the swirl and it sinks right in. The swirl colors should be very thin. Once saponification has started, it's not going to stop, I have never had a batch not turn into soap.

Here are samples:

[Kitn]

RT CP works the best for me to have time to swirl. I pour my lye into my oils, SB off and on for just a few seconds, then I take out the soap to color , I do not SB it, i then go back to the main pot , get it to thin trace, pour it in the slab and SB the colors well, pour them over the main soap and swirl with a 1/2 inch dowel, then do fine swirls with a wooden skewer.

[Scented]

You know here we go with this oil stuff again and apparently I'm the exception to the rule. I have a fairly slow tracing recipe that uses OMG castor lol.

I do soap at RT, but that was because when the partner was helping out and slapping around in the batter instead of stirring, he could at least get the raw soap washed off before he thought he was going to die of getting burned ... he's still learning to stir too.

That's beside the point though. I wait for a good cake batter like consistency I guess is the best way for me to describe it. I pulse the sb, stir with it, pulse it again for longer periods. Stir, add color etc. and pour.

I was told be a Bunny who used to be on here to stop being so heavy fingered on the sb. She told me 3-5 pulses was enough and that oils were mixed then (saying one moves the sb around while it's on etc.) I just don't go that route any more, because I want my colors to keep together (for how I use them), particularly blacks which used to bead if I didn't stop playing in the stuff too.

[chuck_35550]

Thanks for all the great advice. I attempted a mantra swirl yesterday and it gave me a little more insight. I took the advice about using the whisk. Instead of using the sb, I whisk from start to finish. This works really well for me and the soap has an excellent texture. I used a basic recipe of olive, palm, coconut and castor and soaped at about 82 degrees. My plan was to use blueberry pop for sky and green apple pop for earth and place red pop in the center for a sunrise kind of effect. I used some of my water to pre-mix the micas and whisked the base into the colors. The red went into a squeeze bottle and I shook it to mix. I should have poured up my soap like Eugenia told me to but waited just a tad late. The soap was thin but already beginning to head toward medium trace. By the time I went to pour the red in the center it was too thick but I forced it in the soap and swirled. I cut it this morning (Blue Skies fo) and it is very nice but the swirl did not look right. I think Barbara is right about using water for the gels. I'll try to get some pics but most of these soaps are embarassing. They are sound soaps structurally but aesthetically they stink. I'll learn it or die trying.

Steve

[Barbara AL]

I tried to put the gels directly into the soap batter and got all these beads everywhere it wouldn't mix so I started to put a tablespoon of water into the color before adding it to the soap batter and it worked.

Steve keep trying don't give up.

Barbara AL

[chuck_35550]

Thanks for the moral support Barbara, lol. I know this kind of posting drives everyone crazy and I think my dw is about to throw me out of the house but it's the artistic component of soapmaking that has me hooked. I can make a plain bar of soap that does the job but that eventually becomes so boring. The video tutorials are so helpful; I wish a few of you would consider filming one and putting it on youtube.

Steve

[Barbara AL]

DH has promised me a camcorder for Xmas so I will probably do a couple of my swirls on youtube.

Barbara AL

[Loulougirl]

These are great tips everyone!

Barbara, that would be amazing.. your soaps always looks so beautiful!