Does this look normal?

Hi, I made a 2 lb. batch of lavender soap with lavender pigment mixed in a bit of oil with a mini blender. Everything went really well. I kept it molded for 24 hours and cut it today. I see faint streaks in it and the edges look lighter. Is this normal? It was mixed very well, and was very smooth on pouring in the mold. Idk, maybe I'm just a worry wart. :-( The camera made the bars look blue. sigh.

You've got a gel ring there, it didn't gel all the way to the outside, is all. Plus perhaps your color wasn't mixed in thoroughly, thus the streaks.

Yup, looks like partial gel, and what oils did you use? Could be steric streaks...not to worry tho, the soap looks fine...the ring should fade more as it cures.

Is there anything I should have done different on molding? Oh and I stirred in the pigment then used the SB.

I used
15% Babassu oil
5% Castor
10% coconut 76
20% lard
5% mango butter
30% olive
15% palm kernel flakes

I like gel, so I would have insulated the mold. You could have done that, or put it in the freezer to prevent gel, which some people do. I think the soap looks better and lasts longer when you gel. Interesting recipe, by the way, looks like a nice, hard bar. What superfat did you use, that's a very cleansing formula.

ETA I have been playing with your numbers a bit. I'd leave out the coconut, up the mango to 10% and the lard to 25%. That drops the cleansing to 21 and ups the conditioning but doesn't mess up the bubbles or the creaminess. Just a thought.

I used the 5% that the SoapCalc has at default. I like this recipe too. made it myself It worked well making the soap, didn't trace to fast, very smooth. Hope the soap is as good And I insulated with two towels used a silicone mold.

eta last sentence

I love the color of your soap. I am afraid you may find the soap quite cleansing. You have a total of 40% cleansing oils, that is very high for only a 5% superfat. I would not go over 20% unless you up the superfat considerably. LOL, that is hard to say since I am a low number superfatter. Would recommend you give it a long age

I try to stay within the SoapCalc numbers for soap qualities. Looks like I totally missed the cleansing numbers I had. :shock: I see that now and have learned from all your suggestions. And thank you Reinbeau, I have adjusted the recipe and will try it next!

Aye, the coconut, bobassau (can't spell!) and the pko all add up together. You can use all 3, but keep them at a total % that you would have for just one of them. So 5% of each one gives you 15% in total, which an amount of cleansing oils that a lot of people use. Could use different amounts to get them to a total of 20% by playing a little, if you wanted to go higher.

You know, it may sound funny, but I think it's a great thing you made this soap with the high cleansing number.

Around 20 years ago, when I first started making soap, there was no "online lye calculator". Nothing to give you "cleansing numbers". I read a small post on saponification, which just happened to list the values for olive oil and coconut oil. Seeing how I found those oils really easily I decided to make my first soap out of those two oils. The article went into just enough depth to tell me that the coconut would produce a cleansing bar and the olive would produce conditioning. Sooo, I decided I wanted both cleansing and conditioning and just used 50% of each. hahaha

That had to be one of the most cleansing and drying bars of soap known to mankind. I swear it would have cleaned the smell off of a skunk.

Later, after throwing caution to the wind and buying a book on soapmaking, I learned more about the oils, their properties and how to develop some recipes. But nothing will ever beat the experience and knowledge I gained by actually being able to "feel" the difference in that soap, right next to the other "learning" bars.

To me, having this bar cured out and used to compare to the next recipes you make, will help you understand more of the chemistry than just reading it out as numbers on a lye calculator.

I just wanted to add that I like your bars a lot! Both purple and blue "version"!

I find it hard to get complete gel in just silicone. I put my silicone molds in wood to hold on to the heat - then wrap with towels.