Teach Soap

Soaping woes. I make palm free soap and haven't had any issues until this second batch here that has white spots which look like stearic acid to me. When I run my recipe through soapcalc my stearic acid number is 4. I soap at room temperature all the time but got out my thermometer and my lye/water and oil temps were 5 degrees apart with oil being about 77 F. I always set my water as percent of oil weight lower then the recommended amount on soapcalc. The only change I've made is I've started using Olive oil from Costco which is the Kirkland brand (I'm in Canada) that says 100% pure olive oil and then it says it's a mix of refined Olive oil and virgin oil. Micas are the same I've always used, EO's are the same as well. This was gelled as well although the previous batch I made was not gelled and the same thing happened.

Temps have changed where I live as well going from nice warm weather too dreary damp weather so that could have something to do with it. This batch and my previous batch seem a bit softer too.

These are guest soaps in the photo that I just cut. Any idea of how I can get rid of it? I just bought a bunch more of this Kirkland Olive Oil but may have to take it back if I can figure this out. Soap smells and lathers great etc. I just don't like this look that's all. It's not fully cured either. I made a previous batch that had no scent at all that was also palm free and got the same problem throughout the bars.

I also used Cocoa Butter in this batch and the no scent no colour batch. I always use cocoa butter but this batch is fairly new as in the last few months and it's a disk wafer form of Organic Cocoa Butter so I'm wondering if the spots are from that or are they air bubbles? I use a wire cutter also but this hasn't happened before.

My bet is on the cocoa butter as it needs a high temp to melt.

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

Looks pretty cool as is ....

I'd try it again and soap a little hotter..say around 100 to make certain that cocoa butter is melted completely..I'm curious if your oils appear even 'slightly' cloudy before you add your lye water? If so, its probably because the cocoa butter is already trying to set back up..try hotter and see if you get the same results.

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~Jani

Thanks everyone these were just a few guest soaps with extra soap I had. Thankfully the three logs I cut are okay with only one or two bars with a slight streak. My oils don't seem cloudy when adding lye water but once oils are melted I do put the pot in cold water to cool it down. It's never been a problem in the past but I'm thinking with these new cocoa butter wafers that they need a bit more heat. Will soap hotter next time.

Welcome, and let us know how the next one turns out

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~Jani