Strange white swirls and edges

[marghewitt]

Help! I just unmolded a simple, unscented and uncolored, soap made with castor, coconut, olive, palm and shea butter that has white swirls and edges in it. It is NOT soap ash it is deep in the soap and seems almost brittle. What the heck is it. All of my ingredients are brand new. I'll try to take a photo and upload it but I am not really sure how.[/img]

 

[IrishLass]

Just going by your description, it sounds like it could be stearic spots. Stearic spots occur when a batch is soaped too cool for the solid fats to stay in liquid suspension long enough for the lye to react properly with them. What happens is that the stearic acid present in solid fats such as shea or palm re-solidify or precipitate out of the mix if soaped too cool below their melting points and show up as white splotches/areas in the finished bars. The remedy is to soap warmer when using such fats.


IrishLass

 

[marghewitt]

Thank you that makes sense to me. The lye water was about 110 degrees and the oils were about 105 degrees. Do you know if there is anything I can do with these bars to fix them besides grating them and remelting them?

 

[IrishLass]

Nope. Sorry. On the bright side, though, they're just an aesthetic problem. As long as your soap does not zap, it is perfectly safe to use, albeit unsightly to look upon.

IrishLass

 

[Hestey]

I second IrishLass, sounds like stearic deposits. I try to soap between 110 115*F when using palm and the stearic acid tends to re-solidify at a decently high temperature. This is what causes those darned deposits! The soap still works great! Just doesn't look "perfect".