Little Holes

I was checking my curing bars and noticed these little holes starting to appear. Has anyone else had this or know the cause?

Recipe:
Babassu- 2.4oz
Castor- 4.8oz
Olive Oil Pomace- 12oz
PKO flakes- 6.24oz
Palm Oil- 16.8oz
Rice Bran- 5.76oz

16oz water
6.3oz lye
Silk, sugar, and SL added to lye water and ROE that was added to soybean which was used to premix the colors.

These were made on 1/11/14 and are already rock hard. I planed them a couple of days after unmolding and I don't remember any holes or air pockets on these. No zap or oils leaking. Thanks!

i have never worked with babasu, but there are three items in there that add a bit "Grit" to your soap, the olive oil pumice, sugar, and pko flakes. Usually when that happens, there is the potential for heat. I wonder if that is what happened, it got just a tad hot. but im sure others who know what they are talking about will chime in

Don't really know if this is the case with this soap but i have had ants come and eat holes that look like that into the soap..... did you see any naughty ants around?

Just looks like air bubbles to me. Probably wasn't noticeable at first......but as evaporation happened it opened up those that are closest to the surface by shrinking that very thin layer of soap that was covering the air hole.

pai said:

Don't really know if this is the case with this soap but i have had ants come and eat holes that look like that into the soap..... did you see any naughty ants around?

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Nope, winter kills those little buggers pretty good.

AngelMomma said:

Just looks like air bubbles to me. Probably wasn't noticeable at first......but as evaporation happened it opened up those that are closest to the surface by shrinking that very thin layer of soap that was covering the air hole.

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This is what I was thinking as well. Guess I need to pound those molds down a little harder.

That and sometimes certain kinds of stick blenders tend to do it more than others. The kind I have does it.....:evil: I try to make sure that I "burp" the stick blender.

AngelMomma said:

That and sometimes certain kinds of stick blenders tend to do it more than others. The kind I have does it.....:evil: I try to make sure that I "burp" the stick blender.

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I've heard you can drill the tops of the guard to let the air through as you submerge the head of the blender but haven't tried it yet.

Yep, those just look like air bubbles. I get them once in awhile.

If they don't zap I would say they are just air bubbles. I always get them, although smaller. :crazy:

Little Holes **UPDATE**

Sooo, after experiencing my first run in with lye pockets http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=41968 I got to looking again at these pink ones and started to second guess them. Anytime I read about lye pockets it was always that they had liquid oozing to accommodate them so I brushed off that these were air bubbles. This was until I was checking out the main batch that these came from which were Valentine soaps with heart embeds (pic #1). I left the V-day soaps white except the embeds but everything came from the same recipe but the embeds were made a couple of days previous from these so the only difference was the lye solution used.

Anyway, while looking over the V-day bars I noticed one had a hole that looked crystallized with a discolored ring around it (pic #2 and 3). Insert tounge...ZAP! Ugh, my heart broke (pun intended?) because I knew that I would have to pull all of them off the curing rack and cut them up to see if there were more pockets. These just seemed to appear out of no where since when I cut my bars I always look them over.

I cut them all up and only found this one and I think maybe one or two more small pockets which I cut away and tossed in the trash. Then I went to the pink ones and there seemed to be more in those then the main batch. In pic #4 you can see the crunchy crystallization and also the same discolored ring like the white batch. Once cut through this one seemed a little deep. I think when I said in my first post that there was no zap, I don't think my tongue was getting in enough to feel it. Heart still broken (pun, yup intended) I cut everything up, double checked the little pieces for any more pockets and then shredded with the salad shooter and rebatched. The end result? This pretty pink (last pic). The scent did pull through but I added a small splash to the batch just to make sure it lasts.

I really feel like a donkey because I have now had two batches with pockets recently and cannot figure out for the life of me what caused them. Possibly when I mix my lye solution and add the sugar the lye might get caught in the sugar and if some pieces of sugar wind up in the batch with some lye... thoughts?

I honestly was afraid of posting this because I didn't want the soap community to think I am a dunce and not know what I am doing, but then I thought this is could be a learning tool for someone else :wave:

Its too bad you are having this issue but your rebatch is pretty at least. When I use sugar, I dissolve it in about 2 ounces of water before adding it to the lye solution. I strain the sugar water too, just to make sure no undissolved bits stay behind.

I have no idea if that is the cause of your pockets or not but its worth trying.

Any signs that it was overheating? Just a thought since you use sugar and it tends to get hotter when gelling. If you thought it was overheating and separating, then you can try to control your gelling, I suppose. If I add sugar, I dissolve it separately in water and add it to the oils, not to the lye. I tried lye and sugar together once but it was really strange, so I keep them separate.

I made a 60% sugar solution that i put in a bottle. This way, i just pour some to the batter each time i make soap. It is just easier this way for me. Adding sugar to your lye solution, you gotta wait till it cools down. If you add it to yer hot lye water, the sugar will not dissolve and will congealed.

Perhaps also make it a habit to strain yer lye solution. Just to be on the safe side and no undissolved particles goes into the soap that can do funky things.

Thank you Obsidian, Newbie, and Seven for the support. I am definitely going to A) pre-make my sugar solution, B) get a strainer