5. How tricky?
... it takes long, long ..... long time to trace
… it takes long time to cure!
... the finished soap does not foam well and
gets slimmy (see my video of foam test below)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTJsZVnkVvM
6. Why?
It is composed mainly of unsaturated fatty
acids, oleic (65-80%) and linoleic (4-10%)
Unsaturated fatty acids give soaps that only
very slowly create tension with water
This directly affects trace and final soap
characteristics
8. 1. Making it trace faster…
Of course, use blender and in addition, choose one of the
methods below (a combination can cause soap seizing)
Discount water. Instead of 38% of oils as recommended by
SoapCalc, use less water to obtain 35% lye solution (e.g. if you
need 125g of NaOH, use 125/35*65=232g of water).
OR
Add to the recipe an essential oil or fragrance, which
accelerate the trace
OR
Dissolve some finished soap in the lye solution. This helps
to emulsify oils with lye faster and thus accelerates the trace
9. 2. Making it foam…
By long cure – castille soaps are cured for more than a year
before being distributed to the shops. The less water, the
better the foam.
Mechanically - use the old, good soap net! It really helps.
In warm and soft water – hard water creates soap scum and
makes soap much more difficult to foam. Warm water boosts
foaming.
Add something containing sugar (sugar, honey, milk,
yogurt…) in your lye solution, … or substitute 5% of your olive
oil by castor oil (but then it is not a 100% olive oil soap ).
! Attention, sugar can cause overheating of your soap, be
careful !
10. 3. Making it less slimy…
Add beeswax – cca 3% of the recipe
OR
Add kitchen salt – dissolve around 1 and 1/2 teaspoon in the
water before dissolving NaOH, for each 1kg of oils in your
recipe
! Avoid sea salt, as the calcium and magnesium ions accelerate
oxidation and can cause your soap get rancid quicker !
11. 4. Making it cure faster…
Discount water (see above )
Ensure your soap goes through the gel phase by
The CPOP technique (cold process in the oven) that will
help the soap gel - in this case, I do NOT recommend the
water discount, as in the oven a part of water tends to
evaporate and you can finish by slowing down the reaction
by evaporating too much water
Insulating your molds too keep it warm
12. See some of my recipes using
these techniques…
100% olive oil soap with cocoa and golden mica decoration
(http://curious-soapmaker.com/100-olive-oil-soap-with-
cocoa-and-golden-mica-decoration.html)
Olive oil soap with grapefruit or how to make soap roses
(http://curious-soapmaker.com/olive-oil-soap-grapefruit-
how-make-soap-rose.html)
13. And how do you make your olive oil
soap?
http://curious-soapmaker.com
Copyright: Eva Budinska (Curious Soapmaker), all rights reserved
