Brown Spots on 100% lard soaps?

[GoddessMama]

I made made small batch of 100% lard soap and it has been curing for a couple days. I have stared to notice that the color is changing from the pretty pink I colored it, to a light brown color. Is it the FO? Its the cherry one from Peak.

 

[bombus]

Hi GM
It could be your FO. I have had something like that happen more than once!
I have had instant "snowballs" when I add an FO too late.

If it gets much past medium trace and the FO is an accelerator, as soon as
the scent is added, it seems to seize around the drops of FO. Then as the
soap cures, you get brown spots. I have ruined whole batches that way.
But, at least that gives you some perfectly good bars to felt!

Now, I usually add the FO to the oils. If it's a non-accelerator, no problem.
If it looks like the batter is going to seize, I turn off the stick blender and
hand stir to trace. Some FOs seem to cause the batter around the SB to
get to heavy trace while there is still free oil in the pot. Then, it is difficult
to incorporate the thinner and thicker parts even with hand stirring. When
that happens, I sometimes get translucent streaks in the soap. It saponifies
fine, but it is a different look. I'd rather not have it.

 

[GoddessMama]

Hmm,well I added the FO at thin trace and it took about 5 minutes to a real trace in the blender, which is longer than usual. It looked totally normal until a day after cutting and then this. The sides of the bars are ashing but not the cut parts. I ended up cutting it a little hard because it was too soft to cut before I went to bed, but too hard once I woke up. Now three days later its as hard as a rock with zero zap what so ever and no lather either.

 

[carebear]

exactly what FO is it, and did it gel?

 

[GoddessMama]

NO it did not gel, and it was this one http://www.peakcandle.com/products/Wild ... F1130.aspx

 

[carebear]

I don't know about that one in particular, but many cherry fragrances discolor. And in a soap very high in solid oils you are very likely to get ash if the soap doesn't gel.

 

[GoddessMama]

ahh ok that explains the ash. I wanted to go with a very hard bar because my kids tend to leave the soap sitting in the tub and letting it melt.

 

[carebear]

yep - THAT at least is an easy fix moving forward. cutting back on water will also help. but handmade soap will melt faster than commercial no matter what we do.