Goat Milk Soap/White Spots

[kayscheible]

I recently have gotten back into soap making. I make only goat milk soaps. I have made several batches recently with no issue. Yesterday I made a batch as I usually would, but instead of using sodium lactate to my milk/lye mixture I added table salt (I read that in a pinch it can be used, and I ran out of sodium lactate). Today I cut the bars and they have tiny white spots. Could this be the salt? or are they just stearic spots or air bubbles.

 

[AliOop]

Did you dissolve the salt in your water before adding the NaOH? Once you add the NaOH, it's really difficult to fully dissolve anything else. Sodium lactate in solution isn't an issue because it is pre-dissolved, but table salt isn't and must be dissolved.

Bottom line, if you didn't predissolve the salt, those are probably undissolved salt crystals. The soap is still safe to use, but the crystals might be a little scratchy during use.

 

[kayscheible]

Did you dissolve the salt in your water before adding the NaOH? Once you add the NaOH, it's really difficult to fully dissolve anything else. Sodium lactate in solution isn't an issue because it is pre-dissolved, but table salt isn't and must be dissolved.

Bottom line, if you didn't predissolve the salt, those are probably undissolved salt crystals. The soap is still safe to use, but the crystals might be a little scratchy during use.

I use 100% raw goat milk for my "water". I did not dissolve first because I soap with frozen milk cubes instead of a liquid to mix lye with.

 

[cmzaha]

If you are going to soap with frozen gm then you would have had to have melted your salt well into the gm before freezing the gm. As Ali mentioned above Salt will not dissolve after the fact, you must use a salt solution. So I am guessing these are salt crystals.

This is why I soap with powdered gm, no hassling frozen milk, and vinegar solution with extra lye to neutralize the vinegar. It nicely hardens my bars for demolding with no extra expense of SL. But that is for another thread altogether.

 

[AliOop]

You can always dissolve your salt in an extra little bit of warmed water (or a melted GM cube, as @cmzaha suggested). It doesn't take much if it has been warmed. Then add that salt/water solution or salt/gm solution to the rest of your cubes before you start dissolving the NaOH in them.

 

[SmoothBodyByEden]

If you are going to soap with frozen gm then you would have had to have melted your salt well into the gm before freezing the gm. As Ali mentioned above Salt will not dissolve after the fact, you must use a salt solution. So I am guessing these are salt crystals.

This is why I soap with powdered gm, no hassling frozen milk, and vinegar solution with extra lye to neutralize the vinegar. It nicely hardens my bars for demolding with no extra expense of SL. But that is for another thread altogether.

@cmzaha: Can I ask you what the vinegar does for the soap? I use sodium lactate, dissolved salt when needed, sugar, and goat milk powder when making soap. I have never put vinegar in them. If it will add any benefits to soap, I'm all for it. looking forward to the answer.