Soda ash issue

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Loves2Soap84

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Hi- I have been soaping for awhile now and use my recipe that has a water discount and I superfat at 8% which works beautifully in my wooden molds. I have been trying to make soaps with silicone molds and they do not gel which is fine/normal. However, they are getting thick coatings of ash. I am wondering why this keeps happening! I soaped at a cooler temp to see if that would work and it hasn't. My soap is higher in coconut oil and has palm oil in it as well. Could this be a factor? I'm starting to get annoyed with all these visual fails! lol Also should I just CPOP these soaps in silicone molds to see if I can force gel phase to avoid the ash? It seems to happen where the molds are touching the soap. The ash is so thick I can't really just wash it off or steam it off and cutting it off is a nightmare! I have tried googling but don't really get any advice other than cover your soap or spray with alcohol. None of these methods have worked. Please help! Thanks! :mrgreen:
 
I do find that my gelled soap gets far less ash than my ungelled. I have also gotten the worst ash with recipes that were high in shea.

You could try spritzing the top of your soap with 91% isopropyl alcohol to cut down on the ash.

You also don't need to CPOP to get full gel. If you are using wood molds, insulating them with towels should be fine.

You should also try waiting longer to cut your soap. I find that only the exposed surface will ash because of contact with air. However, if saponification is not complete or mostly so when you cut, the cut surfaces might also develop ash.
 
Judymoody, this is happening strictly in my sillicone only molds. Not wooden. Sorry if you thought I meant silicone liners. It also happens where the air doesn't touch on the sides that are in the mold because when I take the soap out it's all covered. I don't use a lot of shea for small batches. I was thinking of CPOPing those silicone only molds to reach gel because I'm getting ash so bad on the ones that aren't gelling. I'm not using loaf molds but silicone bar molds.
 
If you're getting unmanageable ash in what should be a normal process you might want to adjust your recipe. I do t know why you would be getting such a heavy ash. Maybe the mold isnt good, so you're getting some kind of reaction. I don't know but it doesn't sound right to have thick layers of ash like that.
 

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