Tried Something New Today...

[eugenia]

I use a lot of hard oils in my recipes, at least 50%. Today I made a perfect RT batch. I added my FO to my base oils and blended the lye in with my whisk. I did not use my SB for quite a while.

I waited until I had separated my coloring soap and it was hand blended, them took my SB to the main batch, and lastly, to the colored portion. It seems common to overlook the power of the stick blenders. I will definitely try this again.

e

[Kaybee23]

What an interesting idea. Rather than bringing it to trace, then seperating the soap out for color, you are just mixing the lye in well enough with the oils, then seperating and hand blending and stick blending when adding the color in. That would seem to give you more time for getting the color mixed in. I seem to have that problem quite a bit, getting it to trace, then seperating then trying to get color mixed in before it gets too thick on me. I am making a batch tomorrow, I think I will try that out. Thanks for sharing.

[LovelyLathers]

That sounds like a really nice idea. I am going to try it tomarrow. My tallow soaps seem to set up a little to fast for a good swirl. ITP swirls are coming out very muted as if I stir them too much, this will help me out with the heavy wrist when pouring them in the mold. Thanks for sharing that hint.

[heirloomoriginals]

That is interesting. Lately my soaps have been going pretty quick on me, so I may try this.

Thanks, E!

Steph

[Crafty1_AJ]

That's what I do. I get the soap to the point of being well-blended/emulsified, then separate my portions out before reaching trace. Then I sb my color in.

[RobinInOR]

Yup, me too. But I find I don't really need to sb in my color - I keep my color pretty thin so it's more wispy. And the main batch can sit longer while I fuss with the color. I use my stick blender all of a minute on a batch.

[heirloomoriginals]

I just tried this and it worked great! Thanks for the tip, E!

Steph

[diamondk]

I have a question and I may have misunderstood too but here goes. If you put your fo in the oils and after you put the lye solution in and then divide for your colors what if the fo discolors the soap will it make the colors go bad too? Ok I hope I ask right and I know it is probably dumb. TIA

[dublon]

I have a question and I may have misunderstood too but here goes. If you put your fo in the oils and after you put the lye solution in and then divide for your colors what if the fo discolors the soap will it make the colors go bad too? Ok I hope I ask right and I know it is probably dumb. TIA

Yup ditto for me on the question!! Excellent question!! The rest of the tip sounds fantastic!!:highfive:

[eugenia]

I add the FO to the oils UNLESS I know it will discolor, then I take some out for coloring at light trace, then add the FO to the rest.

As far as the stick blender thing, I am going to use mine a whole lot less! It's easy to underestimate the power and trace is one of those things that you cannot take back, LOL.

e