1st batch

[Dirtygirlssoap]

30% olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil, and 10% sweet almond oil
Fragranced with essential oils and ground almonds for exfoliation.
What happened????? Is that lye in looking at?

 

[IrishLass]

Welcome!

To better help you troubleshoot, can you tell us how you went about things, i.e., how hot or cool were your temps, how did you mix, did you insulate the mold, etc.?

For what it's worth, just based on the pictures alone (which unfortunately are not always enough to tell every story of what could have gone wrong), it looks to me like your soap went through partial gel, and the white spots look like classic stearic spots from the palm. Stearic spots from palm and other high-stearic fats are common if the batter is soaped too cool.

Did you use any colorants? If not, that red could be from not having mixed the scent as well as you may have thought you did (I have had that happen before).

How old is the soap, and have you checked for zap?


IrishLass

 

[Dirtygirlssoap]

Oils were used at room temperature. I didn't insolate the mold. I used a stick blender to mix oils and a spatula to mix in essential oils and Clay. Is it ok to mix clay in with stick blender or does it quicken to trace? I did use red clay as a colourant and it looks like I didn't mix very well
I haven't done a zap test.... Waiting till my ph strips arrive over using my tongue.
Thank you for the quick response!!!

 

[KristaMarie]

Your ph strips are pretty close to useless for testing the safety of soap. It'll tell you the ph level, but not if the soap is lye heavy. I was afraid of zap testing too, but I promise it's not that bad! I was actually excited when I got my first zap lol. It's all a learning experience and learning what zap feels like is just part of it


ETA: Yes, you can stick blend clay. I would never trust myself to incorporate it fully without the SB

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

I also would think twice about just shoving a potentially caustic bar of soap in to my mouth, so I do this -

Wet my fingers and get some soap on it, rub my fingers together and wait for tingle. No tingle, put the fingers to the tip of my tongue to check for zap. No zap, grab a bar and touch my tongue to it in a few places.

In my mind, if the soap would be so caustic as to cause an issue, it would show in the first two slightly watered down tests so I really have no issues at all.

 

[Dirtygirlssoap]

Palm problems

I made a bath of soap using palm and now I have palm spots. If I rebatch will they go away or is there a way to remove them ?

 

[Obsidian]

If you completely melt the soap when you rebatch the spots should get mixed in.

 

[Dirtygirlssoap]

Re-batch to remove palm spots? How do you resolve this problem

Will the spots be visible thoroughouy the bar if I rebatch or can I met and strain to remove

 

[MrsSpaceship]

Are they just on the top of the soap? If so, you could just plane them off rather than going through the re-batch process.

Edit: It's been a long day, and for some reason I just saw the second picture and not the first, so ignore this comment. I see now that the spots are throughout the soap.

 

[Obsidian]

Will the spots be visible thoroughouy the bar if I rebatch or can I met and strain to remove

You can't strain rebatch, it will be thick like mashed potatoes. Its very possible the spots will still be visible, just depends on how well they melt down.
Rebatch soap isn't very pretty. If your soaps are usable, I recommend using them as is.

 

[cmzaha]

When using palm you need to completely melt the oils and I find it good to stick blend the oils so they are well mixed before adding in your lye solution. If those are stearic spots which they probably are it will not hurt the soap other than visually. If you add in clay to soap batter it will not mix in well. It is best to make a slurry of the clay and add it into your oils before adding in your lye. Some people add the clay to the lye solution. Usually unmixed clay will cause dry spots in the soap if not thoroughly mixed in. I usually wet my finger swipe it across the soap then touch my tongue with my finger to zap test

 

[lsg]

Please not that I have changed your username to Dirtygirlssoap without all the caps.