Alien Brain?

I was making a 100% olive oil soap with a liquid to lye ratio of 1.1 : 1. I added the lye water at 100° and my olive oil was room temperature. I stick blended it to a light trace, and set aside enough to fill a squeeze bottle about 3/4 of the way. To that, I added 2 tsp of turmeric for color, put the plain batch in my loaf mold, and drizzled the turmeric batter over the top. The idea is to break through the plain layer and look somewhat like droplets, or streaks. I have no idea how it will turn out. This is only my seventh batch of soap. I sprayed it with alcohol, cleaned up my dishes, and when I looked back at it, it had developed what looks like alien brain texture. The sides of my mold don't feel as hot as the honey and goat milk soap gets, and I've never had problems with them before. I didn't insulate or cover it. Could it be the turmeric? Did I add too much? On a side note, I think it kind of looks like bacon.

I just had the same thing happen. I never spray my wet soap with alcohol, but a few days ago I made some colored bars to shred and use for confetti. Since they were in individual molds, which never gel for me and tend to develop significant ash, I decided to spray the tops. Within a minutes, this is what I got. I am blaming the alcohol since these were made from reserved batter, and the unsprayed loaf from the same batch is just fine.

Thanks! I will try skipping the alcohol next time and see what it does.

Brik said:

I was making a 100% olive oil soap with a liquid to lye ratio of 1.1 : 1. I added the lye water at 100° and my olive oil was room temperature. I stick blended it to a light trace, and set aside enough to fill a squeeze bottle about 3/4 of the way. To that, I added 2 tsp of turmeric for color, put the plain batch in my loaf mold, and drizzled the turmeric batter over the top. The idea is to break through the plain layer and look somewhat like droplets, or streaks. I have no idea how it will turn out. This is only my seventh batch of soap. I sprayed it with alcohol, cleaned up my dishes, and when I looked back at it, it had developed what looks like alien brain texture. The sides of my mold don't feel as hot as the honey and goat milk soap gets, and I've never had problems with them before. I didn't insulate or cover it. Could it be the turmeric? Did I add too much? On a side note, I think it kind of looks like bacon.

View attachment 25946

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Update: I like how it turned out, though.

Brik said:

I was making a 100% olive oil soap with a liquid to lye ratio of 1.1 : 1. I added the lye water at 100° and my olive oil was room temperature. I stick blended it to a light trace, and set aside enough to fill a squeeze bottle about 3/4 of the way. To that, I added 2 tsp of turmeric for color, put the plain batch in my loaf mold, and drizzled the turmeric batter over the top. The idea is to break through the plain layer and look somewhat like droplets, or streaks. I have no idea how it will turn out. This is only my seventh batch of soap. I sprayed it with alcohol, cleaned up my dishes, and when I looked back at it, it had developed what looks like alien brain texture. The sides of my mold don't feel as hot as the honey and goat milk soap gets, and I've never had problems with them before. I didn't insulate or cover it. Could it be the turmeric? Did I add too much? On a side note, I think it kind of looks like bacon.

View attachment 25946

Click to expand...

Here's a picture of the cut.

Here's a picture of the cut.

Very nice.

Those are really pretty!