# Soap Overheating



## KA Soaps

I have been making soap for a little over a year now with my sister. This winter (we had no problem with this during the summer) we have run into the problem of our cold process soap overheating which makes for a somewhat unattractive marbled look in the bars. I am hoping that I can glean from the expertise of the soapers on here as to what may be causing this and how to correct it.
We make and cure our goat milk soap in our basement which is pretty chilly, about 50 degrees much of the time. We put our unsoftened fats together, mix the lye with the water and add it right in. We use lard, coconut oil, safflower oil, and a little olive oil in our soap. Once emulisfied we beat it about 15 minutes, add the milk, then the fragrance. Pour it in the molds and usually cover them since we were having some trouble with the soap gelling this winter too because of the cool temps. The confusing thing is that only some of the soaps overheat (florals, an Old Spice type fragrance, and a mint fragrance - not an essential oil), and of the ones that have they don't all the time. These fragrances have turned out perfect part of the time and then overheated. The last soap we made was an apple blossom fragrance which only had a partial cover on it for a little and gelled very fast and overheated causing yellowing and marbling.
Looking forward to hearing from you all!


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## Anita Martin

I have never had this happen but you should never have to beat your soap for 15 minutes, even in cooler temps. Are you using a stick blender? If so it should take only a few minutes at the most to come to trace, at which point you can pour. 

If you are not using a stick blender, perhaps the oils and fragrances are not mixing together properly, causing the marbeling. Honestly, even with the soaps that get REALLY hot and volcano and crack at the top, etc. they will go back down into the mold with no affect at all on the finished soap except maybe a crack in the top which just adds to it's rustic appeal.


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## tmfinley

Is the marbling the only thing that leads you to believe your soap is overheating? Any other signs of overheating? I just find it hard to believe your soap is overheating when you start with non-melted oils in a cool basement. I'm more inclined to think maybe the marbling is streaks of the hard oils that didn't get well incorporated in the emulsion? 

I disagree with Anita on the amount of time needed for the soap to come to trace. When I first started making soap I was using a very weak stick blender. It took over 15 minutes for me to reach trace with that blender. Now it takes me less than 5. In my classes I always know which student is going to finish last because she got the crappy stick blender. And of course if you are not using a SB and using a whisk it will take much longer.


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## Guest

I tend to think it is your solid oils not getting blended in good with the cool temps, I am assuming that you don't melt them at all? start by warming them a little and warm your fragrance oil just a tad... adding cold fragrance oil to a warm emulsion can also cause this to happen...


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## Anita Martin

The first batch I made with just a spatula for stirring. Took me about 45 minutes and even then I did not see it come to trace but gave up and poured it anyway. 

A good stick blender is a must, but even with my cheapo walmart blender, trace came much faster than 15 minutes.


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## adillenal

Well, I only use a whisk and it doesn't take 15 minutes to trace. I also agree that it is possibly unmelted oils that did not mix well. overheating would show a crack in the top and caverns inside usually.


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## KA Soaps

Thank you all for your help! I really appreciate it. We do use a stick blender and have cut back our beating time to 10 minutes since learning 15 was more than needed. We started beating it longer last summer when we had trouble with false tracing. The soap was separating and had oil pockets in it because it wasn't properly blended. Beating it longer took care of that.
The marbling was what led us to think that it was overheating and because it happened with fragrances that tend to have a problem with that as a friend told us.
On thinking it over I think the problem is that the fats weren't getting mixed correctly because of the cool temps. as some of you suggested. We have made soap several times now that the weather has warmed up and it turned out beautifully! Thank you all again for helping to solve this problem for me!


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## MF-Alpines

Regarding trace time, how can someone say how long it should or shouldn't take to reach trace if you don't know the percentages of those oils and fats in the batch? I have a Waring Commercial stick blender (I don't have the model no.) and don't know if that's a good one or not, but it takes me at least 15 minutes to get the WM recipe to trace (and not too thick of a trace, either). Often I let it sit, come back and blend, let it sit, blend, etc.

Regarding the marbled look, I've found that with scents that speed trace - it has nothing to do with gel, but does give soap on a stick so when I've poured, it looked marbled. Gel is something completely different and the look is different, IMO. And like the others said, not heating the oils/fats would contribute, too.


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