Teach Soap

So, my pic includes the ugliest pieces on the ends out of the whole log. The Rosemary EO may have been a little old, but none of my oils are old, nor is the Spearmint. Can an EO cause DOS? I mixed it to light trace with a stick blender. I used a 3% discount.

Basically there is a brown swirl throughout the whole log. Did it overheat? I haven't been able to pinpoint the problem.

Also, I haven't tested pH. Hopefully it will be useable (at least for my family). I REALLY wanted to sell this at my next craft show. Boo hoo!!!

Thanks for your thoughts!

Amy

DOS stands for "dreaded orange spots", I see no orange spots, so I would say no dos. It could be a partial gel mark, but not sure I would say that without more info, but best guess so far anyway. What was your recipe? What % of eo's for what size batch did you use? Did you try to gel? What process did you use, cp? hp? cpop? Have you soaped this recipe before? What colorants did you use and how did you disburse them?

I would zap test it and see what happens with that.

_________________
Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy

That doesn't look like DOS to me either. Why only 3% discount? That can make the soap pretty drying. I don't go below 7%. My all spearmint EO soap gets a grayish discoloration on the bottom of the slab mold. I just cut it off.

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Superfat and lye discount is the same thing. Superfat means that some of your oils do not saponify so the soap can be milder. Lye discount means that you are using less lye so not all of the oils saponify. You take your oils (or butters) and run it through a lye calculator. The calculator will give you the amount of water needed for your recipe and a range of lye, depending on the lye discount. I presume that you are adding all your oils and butters right up front? Lye at trace is still very active and it will take whatever it wants. There is no guarantee that any particular oil or butter will end up as your superfat.

The main chemical components of spearmint oil are a-pinene, b-pinene, carvone, 1,8-cineole, linalool, limonene, myrcene, caryophyllene and menthol. There is no sugar in spearmint oil. I've read a thread on another forum where people complained of the same thing you are experiencing with spearmint oil. So this is not an isolated case.

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I have not experienced this my spearmint, but it has been a while since I purchased new spearmint eo, so maybe it is more of a "one particular crop year" thing, don't know. As for burning, if your loaf super-heated then I would think that you would find cracks or at least a crack. The brown streak is not a sign of over heating that I have ever seen or heard of. And I really don't see how just the eo would burn, it has nothing in it to burn per say. This is an oddity for sure. If Irena has seen other comment about it as well, then I would guess it has something to do with the eo, perhaps the amount of menthol? Really, the why of this is beyond me, sorry.

_________________
Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy