Anyone who’s started a craft project knows there’s a learning curve. We are here to help with the oops and dohhhs in your soap making journey. You’ll get all the information on some common mistakes and ways to salvage a great product.
What is Trace?
Before we talk about how to fix these common issues we first need to know some common soap making language. Trace is when your oils and lye have blended together. Trace can be described as thin (no streaks with the consistency of thin cake batter), medium (thick cake batter or thin pudding consistency), or thick (thick putting and holds its shape when poured). Each type of trace has a purpose. Thin trace is the best time to add colors, fragrances, and swirl your cold process soaps. Medium trace is the best time to add items that need to suspend in the soap such as flowers found in our Easy Floral Decorative Soap Recipe. Thick trace is the best time to layer soaps for designs such as our Mango Honeydew Soap Slices Recipe. It’s important to work quickly when you notice your product coming to trace. I suggest preparing your station with everything needed for your recipe ahead of time.
Common issues and how to fix them:
Hope this helps with any soaping issues you may encounter. Feel free to leave comments with your soaping issues, tips, and tricks!
Soap Making Tips
I am a beginner! my question is why do you have to let the soap sit for 6 weeks? where and how do you store it? should it breathe or be out in air tight containers? I am also looking for a recipe for a soap that has goat milk,honey,oatmeal and lavender that is a soap I had tried for the first time and fell in love with homemade soap! Thanks
My question is recording the lye
I understand you should not get moisture in the lye
So. Would The freezer be a good option for storage
If you purchase our Sodium Hydroxide (LYE), it doesn’t need storage in the freezer.
I just do melt & pour soap — I have the shea butter one but wanta add coco butter & oatmeal. How can I do that with mmessing it up., help
Hi, I am fairly new to soap making. One question about essential oils. Using a cold process, I have noticed that the scent of essential oils weakens considerably after the gel phase and that by the time the soap is cured, even very strong fragrances (I use patchouly or lavender essential oil) can barely be felt and not much at all remains on the skin after washing. I have tried to increase the amount of fragrance poured at trace, but no joy. I have noticed that if I use “fragrant oils” like amber (as opposed to essential oils) the scent is much more stable and long lasting. Is there something I can do or add in order to stabilize the perfume of essential oils, as these tend to be quite expensive and I love them so much.
Thank you!