Trace overmix?
by Ramona
(Ireland)
I just did my first trial for making soap and my trace became as potato mash very quick and I'm not sure about my soap color too :(
What did I do wrong? The mixing temperatures was 40C oils and lye.
And if all this went wrong can I reuse this "soap"? Please help and thank you!
Answer:Quickly tracing soap can be caused by a number of things.
Too much sodium hydroxide, too much hard oils in the recipe, not enough water, over stirring, sudden drop in temperature, or a reaction to the scents or other optional ingredients.
Start by checking the recipe you used to make sure it is correct. It is always good to try and take notes while making your batch of soap so you can refer back to it later to see where things went wrong...or right.
I don't know if you can do anything with the soap since I don't know what went wrong or what the resulting soaps are like. You should try testing the pH of the soap to see if it is safe to use before you attempt to do anything with it.
Cathy