lye pockets?

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Jul 21, 2014
Messages
1,680
Reaction score
1,130
I froze my batch for 17 hrs, and refrigerated it for 5. I just pulled it out and turned it upside down. It is very zappy everywhere, but obviously that's because it was cooled which slows saponofication. There's 4 tiny bright white spots on the bottom. I used TD and premixed it in water (bb water and oil soluble TD), and it was in the majority of the batter. Majority as in this was an ITP swirl, and the TD batter was "the pot" I poured into.

Is it most likely lye pockets? I suppose once I cut into it, it may be more telling. Can it be undissolved TD?

I am only concerned because I did my lye different. I put my sugar into my water, fully dissolved, added lye and stirred and I swear I made sure it was dissolved...but it turned kind of amber (a lot of sugar I suppose), so I had a harder than usual time seeing. I also let it cool longer than usual, and it was less than 100 deg definitely...and so a lot of the white floaties occured (what is that? I totally forgot). So I fear I didn't dissolve completely, though I swore I had :?
Here's a pic of it. I will zap test it after another 24 hrs or so to be sure the entire thing saponifies. Is this the only real way to see if it's lye or TD? Thx so much!
Side note, just pulled it out a while ago so it's sweating as it warms to room temp. Forgive the glistening, and on the upper left corner it is glistening on the activated charcoal. The spots in question are all in the middle, where I poured the batter.

IMAG1870.jpg


IMAG1872.jpg


IMAG1873.jpg
 
I would totally say undissolved TD. I get those once in awhile. Especially if I don't strain my TD first. Zap test a spot once you cut it. Though it can be zappy for 3 days without gel. Another thing you could try is once it's cut touch one of the white spots and see if it smears. My TD spots will do that sometimes too.
 
Back
Top