Lye water seeping out of soap

[Nao]

I made a beeswax and honey themed soap a couple of weeks ago, everything went fine and it reached thick trace pretty much immediately as expected. But then something happened, lye water started seeping out of the batter.

I mixed it a little more than gave up and put it in the mould and into the freezer. I used a ballon whisk the whole time while making the soap. I was also very strict about keeping the temperatures down, after pouring it into the mould I touched the batter with my hand and it was cool rather than lukewarm.

A lot of the lye water has leaked out of the soap and got absorbed by the shoe box I used as mould so there should be quite a big superfat now thought I have tried the soap and it lathers just fine, no waxy/greasy feeling/residue either. But there are a very small number of dark brown kind of small coffee grounds sized dots in the soap that might be lye or something else and there might be some dried up lye water on top of the soap though it doesn't look like it.

So I'm thinking of rebatching or do you think that it sounds like it's not really necessary?

Also what do you think caused the lye water to not want to incorporate into the soap batter? Soaping to cold? The beeswax and/or the stearic acid and/or too much water?

My recipes:
10% beeswax 95g
5% castor 48g
20% Coconut oil 190g
25% olive 238g
25% palm 238g
10% Sunflower HO 95g
5% stearic acid 48g (ended up adding 10% 95g instead)
Lye 25% concentration
Water 50/50 ice/water 252g
NaOH 126g
Superfat 5%
Fragrance 3% 30g
2 tsp honey

 

[shunt2011]

If you soaped cool you got false trace with that much beeswax and stearic. Your mixture didn't mix well enough to emulsify. Likely separated. When using stearic and beeswax you need to soap warm enough to keep things melted

 

[Seawolfe]

Those are higher amounts of beeswax and stearic than I would ever use for soap - is there a reason for them? And why are you using ice in your water?
I think shunt is right, false trace.

 

[SaltedFig]

Nao,

My recipes:
10% beeswax 95g
5% castor 48g
20% Coconut oil 190g
25% olive 238g
25% palm 238g
10% Sunflower HO 95g
5% stearic acid 48g (ended up adding 10% 95g instead)
Lye 25% concentration
Water 50/50 ice/water 252g
NaOH 126g
Superfat 5%
Fragrance 3% 30g
2 tsp honey

 

[SaltedFig]

Stearic, ice, measurements, possible heating in freezer (brown pieces) - I believe there is a combination of issues at play.

 

[Susie]

I am also going with false trace as you were mixing by hand with a whisk, and too many hard oils/wax. Next time, use a stick blender and soap warmer.

 

[SaltedFig]

So I'm thinking of rebatching or do you think that it sounds like it's not really necessary?

If you have cut into it, and there are no lye pockets and the soap doesn't zap, then don't rebatch it (especially if you like it for you).

Your honey soap could end up quite nice.

 

[Nao]

Falce trace it is then, thank you for your help everybody!

 

[dixiedragon]

The little brown flecks could possibly be burned honey.

In the future, when you have separation (google CP soap and separation for pics), KEEP STIRRING!

 

[navigator9]

I also think that the whisk may have contributed to the problem. My guess would be that things didn't get mixed as completely as you may have thought they did. Since you have to scrape the pot after pouring anyway, I would stir with a spatula, and make sure you scrape the sides and bottom of the pot as you do so and mix everything as thoroughly as time and trace will allow you to do so.