Yikes! What are those horrid looking things in my soap? Warning: Scary pictures

[Francis]

I finally managed to soap again today. Here’s the recipe I used from Trew, S. W. & Zonella, B. G. (2010). The Complete Idiot's Guide to Making Natural Soaps.

Total oil weight: 22 oz with 3% SF

Water as % of Oil: 38%

Castor Oil 25%

PKO 20%

OO 10%

PO 45%

1.2 oz of EO (70% Fir needle, 10% peppermint, 10% rosemary, 10% Eucalyptus added at light trace)

about 4 g of Cocoa butter as superfat (added it in its solid form to melted oil mixture, this was in addition to the above recipe, got nervous with 3% SF, so last minute decided to throw it in there)

I soaped when oil was 106 F and lye water was 105 F.

I had to use PKO instead of CO, because I didn’t have any. I did CPOP at 170 degrees for about 1 hour and turned the oven off and left it in there for about 5 hours. Anyway, I just pulled it out to take a peek and here it is! I’ll cut tomorrow. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that they are just on the top. Please help me. What are those ugly things?

http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/3292/uglydots.jpg' alt='uglydots.jpg'>

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Edited December 25, 2011 by Francis
clarification

[asheebeans]

Right off the bat, that sounds like an awful lot of essential oil for a 22 oz batch of soap. My 4 lb batch of lavender soap I use 2 oz of essential oil and I'm a bit heavy-handed with it! When I put your recipe through SoapCalc, at .5 oz per pound of soap your recipe should contain a total of 0.688 oz of essential oil for that batch size. How much lye did you use? I didn't see that in your numbers. I was thinking it could be either ash or lye that was making your soap look wonky, but I would need to know how much lye you used.

Here's the Soapcalc info I got when I plugged in your recipe: you should have used 3.024 oz of lye.

I hope this helps you a little. Did you use the amount of lye stated above?

ETA: I tried to c/p the Soapcalc info but translated onto the forum in a bunch of garbled text. Weird! Anyhoo, if you plug your recipe into SoapCalc you can determine the right amount of lye, water, etc. that you need and the qualities you are looking for. I plug in recipes all the time and play with the amounts to my satisfaction. Happy soaping!

Edited December 25, 2011 by asheebeans

[Stella1952]

Looks like ash to me on the top... if the bars have speckles in the middle, I'd be guessing stearic acid spots. If the spots are only on the top, have you tried to wipe them off with a wet cloth?

[TallTayl]

Do the little lumps zap? Are they just on the surface, or are they also down in the soap loaf? They look a little like lye crystals on my monitor.

3% is a pretty low SF. The EO% seems fine (less than 1ozPPO)

How how much of each ingredient (weights, not %) including water and lye did you actually use? did you adjust the amount of lye to compensate for the change from CO to PKO?

Total oil weight22 Water as percent of oil weight38 % Super Fat/Discount3 % Lye Concentration26.974 %Water : Lye Ratio2.707:1 Sat : Unsat Ratio40 : 60 Iodine 58 INS 145 Fragrance Ratio1 Fragrance Weight 1.375 Oz IngredientPoundsOuncesGrams Water0.5238.36237.002Lye - NaOH0.1933.08887.544 #√Oil/Fat%PoundsOuncesGrams 1Castor Oil250.3445.5155.9222Palm Kernel Oil200.2754.4124.7383Palm Oil450.6199.9280.664Olive Oil100.1382.262.369 Totals1001.37522623.689

[Barbara AL]

Yeah looks like Stearic spots did you soap cool? 1.2 ounces is alot of fragrance E.O. for 22 ounces of oils.

[Scented]

Do the little lumps zap? Are they just on the surface, or are they also down in the soap loaf? They look a little like lye crystals on my monitor.

My thought too

[Stella1952]

They look a little like lye crystals on my monitor.

They sure do look like regular little crystals... testing for zap is an excellent idea!

[singleyellowrose]

My best guess is it's not lye... it's stearic. That's a wee bit cool IMHO to be soaping with PKO. I get them on occasion too if I get my temps too low.

[Kitn]

It looks like it might have overheated to me.

[Francis]

I would need to know how much lye you used.

Here's the Soapcalc info I got when I plugged in your recipe: you should have used 3.024 oz of lye.

I hope this helps you a little. Did you use the amount of lye stated above?

Thanks asheebeans, I used exactly 3 oz of lye, and ran all the numbers correctly on Soapcal. I licked and licked and there's no zap. After cutting, the ugly white spots are not in the soap. Thank goodness. :smiley2:

[Francis]

It looks like it might have overheated to me.

That's what some people thought on another forum. I am scared to do CPOP now. I may be better off just sticking to good old CP until I get better at this. Thanks Kitn.

[Francis]

That's a wee bit cool IMHO to be soaping with PKO.

On a previous batch, I got lots of stearic acid spots and I used PKO on that one, too. So what temp do you soap at? I try to keep it as low as possible because I just need the extra time as a newbie.

[Francis]

If the spots are only on the top, have you tried to wipe them off with a wet cloth?

I tried wiping with wet cloth, but it won't come off. Luckily, they are only on the top.

[Francis]

How how much of each ingredient (weights, not %) including water and lye did you actually use? did you adjust the amount of lye to compensate for the change from CO to PKO?

Thanks TallTayl, Here are the exact ingredients all in oz:

Castor Oil 5.5

Palm Kernel Oil Flakes, hydrogenated 4.4

Olive Oil 2.2

Palm Oil 9.9

Water 8.36

Lye - NaOH 3.08

At the end, after all the oils were heated and melted I also added 2-4 grams of Cocoa butter because I felt that 3% SF was a bit too low.

[Kitn]

That's what some people thought on another forum. I am scared to do CPOP now. I may be better off just sticking to good old CP until I get better at this. Thanks Kitn.

You are welcome.

When I CPOP I turn the oven off after the soap goes in, I leave the oven light on tho..I have had them get to hot in the oven..

[Francis]

You are welcome.

When I CPOP I turn the oven off after the soap goes in, I leave the oven light on tho..I have had them get to hot in the oven..

Kitn, that's what seems to have happened in this case. The thing overheated and somehow got air bubbles. Anyhow, here they are cut. I cheated a little and hid the ugly side. Third attempt to swirl and yet another failure! But I'm still happy as long as the soap is usable.

[Kitn]

They look great cut. I have used a mandolin slicer to cut the uglies off if they really bothered me.

[chuck_35550]

The soap is beautiful but you might have to trim off your nicely textured top (if it really bothers you). I believe some folks cover their soap with plastic wrap to avoid ash and some just don't worry about it. Nice job on your soap.

Steve

[Carrie]

I never put my soap in a warm/hot oven, it always ends up with white speckles and a wonky texture on top.

My first thought was also stearic. Did the cocoa butter melt completely? You said you threw it in after all the oils were melted but was the cocoa butter still rock hard? I don't know if that would affect your soap or not.

Do you use a stick blender? Some stick blenders make bubbles in the soap, if you had bubbles in the soap batter they could rise to the top while you had it in the oven.