Teach Soap

I have made 3 batches of soap recently, and all 3 have these specks in them. I did a zap test, and no zap. In one batch, I added cream at trace. In another batch I added a goats milk slurry at trace, and the 3rd batch I did not add anything. I use the same recipe, discount water for my additives, and superfat at 3%.

My soap recipe is working just fine, but when I go to cut them, I see these little specks. Could they be small air bubbles? If so, how do I get rid of them? I do pour my lye over my stick blender, and I tap my soaps a few times on the counter after I pour in the mold.

I was having an issue with titanium dioxide streaking and leaving white specks. I started to micronize my TD in a coffee grinder. No more streaking or white dots, but the specks are still there in my colors.

Any suggestions?

Superfatting your soaps at only 3% will make them drying. I would do a minimum of 5%. I do 7%.
As far as the TD, depending if it's water soluble or oil soluble, you can pre-dissolve it in some water or glycerin for the water soluble and a little bit of oil for the oil soluble.

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

Thank you, Irena! After I micronize the TD in the coffee grinder (grind it on the fine setting), I add it to a light oil before I mix with the soap. Maybe the specks are from my soaps being superfatted at only 3%? I will try 5% and see if that makes a difference. I use a double cream recipe and add cream to trace. The soap is very nice and creamy in the shower and makes tons of suds. My only beef is those darn specks or air bubbles.

do you know if your TD is oil or water soluble if you mix oil soluble with water or vise-versa you can get speckles

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Anna Rose @-}--
blog

Here is what you can try; put a little bit of the TD on your finger. Run that finger under running water. If it dissolves, it's water soluble, if it beads up on your finger it's oil soluble.

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

My TD is both oil and water soluble. I get it from BB.

I will do the test on it though to make sure.

I am just correcting myself in my recipe I use. I meant to type, "double butter" and not "double cream."

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Anna Rose @-}--
blog

Do you do a water discount when mixing TD with water then? Also, how much water would you use to mix it with?

Thanks for the advice! You all here are awesome!

Hi! I'm new to this forum and probably should have read this before posting my very first post (under Welcome, duh). I messed up an entire loaf of Wine Twist with td that didn't disperse well. The td I used seemed clumpier than usual, but I just gave it a few more zips with the mini mixer. I cut it this morning, and I had lots of white specks throughout the entire loaf, otherwise it was beautiful. I like the idea of putting it in the coffee grinder that I only use to make soap, and was thinking of that very thought before I saw this post. I'm glad to get confirmation on that move before I try it. Thanks!

Now, what to do with another embarrassing 4 lbs. of soap?

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Cheryl H.

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

Thanks, Soapbuddy. I rebatched once and was not happy with the result; I don't think I'll ever do that again. I think they're good enough as freebees. They are really pretty despite the specks all over the place. It just seems that lately I get one good one out of three batches made. The good one is only 3 lbs. and the two bad ones are 4 lbs. each. BUMMER!

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Cheryl H.

Do you use palm oil in your recipe? If so the specs could be from the stearic acid in the palm oil and not from the TD at all.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

The oils were pre-mixed by BB. I'm certain it was the td. As I was scraping the bowl, the td was smearing on the bowl. It was just very clumpy td. I did almost toss it aside to use my own, but in the end decided to use everything that was premeasured in the kit. I will definitely micronize anything that looks like that in the future knowing now that the mini mixer won't cut it. Thanks.

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Cheryl H.

Linda, I use palm oil in my recipes and was told the same thing recently from BB. I need to start soaping with my oils a little warmer to see if the palm is the reason for my specks in my soaps. I redid my recipe with using less palm to see if that will make a difference. If not, then I will try a palm free recipe. If this solves the specks issue, I wonder how people soap at room temperature and not get these specks in their soaps.

There were definite white streaks and white specks from the Titanium Dioxide. They really stand out. They almost look like they are on the surface when the soap is cut. Now they are gone since I finely grounded the TD with a coffee grinder, but the clear specks are still there.