Brand new white soaps turning yellow sticky spots!

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Mary_White

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Mar 19, 2013
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Location
Guntown, MS
What gives?! It is not the water! I bought distilled water to use in place of the rainwater, and guess what? After less than 1 week, I have sticky spots beginning to turn yellow on my Old-Fashioned Lye Soap..... I have been a stickler for sanitation, the AC is going on constantly to keep them cool. They are on clean, plain white paper on an open shelf to cure. This is Crock pot hot process. I cook one hour and a half. This recipe was 2% sf and a 33% water discount. Morrell snow cap Lard, lye, distilled water. Everything is in date. I only use clean materials. I don't know what the heck is going on. Oh, and I figured out that it is only the white soaps that are affected. In the Christmas Spirit soap, which also has oozing sticky yellow spots (which don't smell bad at all)... The affliction is only on the WHITE part of the soap.. Not the colored parts. The Good Vibes soap made with the same base oils, but colored completely, have no spots! Is it the lard? What am I doing wrong?????


Sent from my iPad using Soap Making
 
and u post a picture? I'm sure thy will help
Other a lot in seeing what it is.
My first thought is dos but I've never made an all lard before.

Is it possible you just can't see the discoloration elsewhere since it's colored? An the spots also ooze? Is it tacky like maybe glycerin?
 
I am not sure it is DOS.. This last batch is less than a week old. It is a bit humid, as it has been warm and has rained a few days.. But has now cooled off, and is drying. The areas on the new one are just starting to turn yellow and are sticky... Not perfectly round, but spontaneous. The Christmas Spirit soap with the yellow spots only in the white areas, are oozing a sticky yellow liquid. Feels like glycerin.. But I am not 100%. Does DOS feel sticky and ooze? Photos tomorrow.


Mary White
Southern Simplicity Soaps & More
 
I can not figure out how to upload photos.

The yellow starts as discoloration and then proceeds to ooze, sticky yellow liquid darkening to an amber color. No odor. Although the yellowed areas are somewhat softer than the other. Still no explanation of why only the WHITE area is afflicted.


Mary White
Southern Simplicity Soaps & More
 
I can not see how it could be DOS within a week or two. Especially HP. I always thought it was less likely to DOS.


Mary White
Southern Simplicity Soaps & More
 
Upload your pics to a free site like tinypic.com then paste the IMG code into your post here. Makes me wonder if its not the FO leaking out? DOS isn't sticky or oozy.
 
Obsidian, please tell me there is another way, lol. I am on IPad and not tech savvy. I used EO only, and in the plain bar, there was no fragrance at all. Just lye, water, and lard. Even if it were the EO, why only in the white?


Mary White
Southern Simplicity Soaps & More
 
I don't know how to post pics from a ipad. You could email them to me and I'll post them for you. [email protected]

I'm stumped as to what is going on. I'm not experianced with EO's so I don't know if they can overheat and leak out but that doesn't explain your plain bars. I've made pure unscented lard bars before and didn't get any spots. Any chance you store your bars in a bright location?
 
On the iPad touch the paper clip icon on the post tool bar. Then when the new screen pops up tap the choose file button and pick your pic from your camera roll then click upload. Then you can close window. When you come back to the post screen tap the paper clip again and then tap the img number that appears.

I still can't figure out how to post more than one picture at a time and just a while ago learned to do this so I hope I explained it right. I've asked for help on posting pics before, maybe someone could write a tut. For those like us that are iPad users but don't know how! Lol
 
I have noticed that for some reason pigments can stabilize some oils used in soaps. That must be what is going on here? You said you cooked your soap for an hour and half, do you always do this? If not have the ones you cooked less had this problem? Maybe the long cook time is somehow breaking down the fat? When I do hot process with a 33% solution it only takes me about a half hour maybe because I stir often. Maybe try a shorter cook and see if this strangeness happens again. Keep us posted, this is very interesting.
 
Maybe your lard is adulterated or contaminated?

DOS shouldn't happen within a week or two. And if you got the same problem in the unscented, the EO is not likely the culprit.

On another note, why is the superfat so low? I'd be leery of such a small margin for error.
 
I normally cook an hour, but for some strange reason, my last batches have been testing zappy after an hour, so I added a half. The 'round two' plain lard soap was discounted further to 2% to see if the excess lard ( originally 7%) was causing the spots. The original ones literally turned Dalmatian with yellow oozing spots overnight. Freaked me out. The Christmas Spirit is colored with paparika, and clays. Would that hinder DOS?


Mary White
Southern Simplicity Soaps & More
 
Lard should not be contaminated, unless by buying it in a box, and not a plastic sealed bucket is the cause. That is the only difference, really, and only because they were cheaper. Same brand, still in date.


Mary White
Southern Simplicity Soaps & More
 
Many of my HP batches have taken over an hour, some over 3 hours, to cook. No spots like Mary has! (I also don't use lard fwiw)
 

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