Bubbly, Bumpy Sides

[ABJennie]

The last 5 batches of soaps I’ve made seem to always have bubbles or just some weird trypophobia inducing texture. When it first happened I assumed I had been careless and allowed a bunch of bubbles to get in to my batter somehow (even though there was none in the bars themselves, just the sides and bottom that touch the mold). In the following batches I was certain to not allow any/many bubbles in but still experienced the bubbly texture.

• Using the same recipe with ingredients from the same batches and suppliers as many other ‘successful’ batches
• Using trusted fragrance oils and colorants
• 3 of 5 have been made with my typical lye brand, the other 2 were a different brand
• Always force gel

Any idea what could be causing this or how I could fix it?

 

[mx5inpenn]

Are you using silicone molds? Sounds like silicone rash. Posting a picture or 2 would help (and we allllllllways encourage soapy pictures).

 

[MellonFriend]

Can we have a picture? It might help to diagnose.

 

[KiwiMoose]

Yep _ reckon the same as @mx5inpenn . If you force gel and they stay too hot for too long you can get bumpy sides

 

[Zing]

Welcome to the forum!
How old is your stickblender? I realized it was time to replace my blender when all kinds of bubbles appeared despite normal levels of anti-bubble prevention activities.

 

[TheGecko]

Always force gel

It's called 'silicone rash'

 

[artemis]

Ya. It sounds like silicone rash. Just search the forum for that phrase and you'll find all kinds of information on how, what, why, and how to prevent it.

 

[cmzaha]

I agree with the silicone rash if you are using silicone molds. This is one of several reasons I stayed away from silicone molds since my recipes required me to force gel, and I never minded lining my molds.

 

[hanaherrera]

Yep _ reckon the same as @mx5inpenn . If you force gel and they stay too hot for too long you can get bumpy sides

Maybe I should expect bubbles and some silicone rash when I unmold tomorrow. I didn't force gel this batch. It just reached 110-113F on its own, and I brought it into a cooler room with an AC unit since I don't have a fridge for soap. I have never seen gel phase this pronounced until today. There's some sort of liquid on some of the ridges and suspect they're glycerin? I have yogurt and oat flour in there...

 

[KiwiMoose]

Maybe I should expect bubbles and some silicone rash when I unmold tomorrow. I didn't force gel this batch. It just reached 110-113F on its own, and I brought it into a cooler room with an AC unit since I don't have a fridge for soap. I have never seen gel phase this pronounced until today. There's some sort of liquid on some of the ridges and suspect they're glycerin? I have yogurt and oat flour in there...

View attachment 71633

Looks great! Those are probably oils come to the surface but they will re-absorb in a day or two.

 

[BWt]

Maybe I should expect bubbles and some silicone rash when I unmold tomorrow. I didn't force gel this batch. It just reached 110-113F on its own, and I brought it into a cooler room with an AC unit since I don't have a fridge for soap. I have never seen gel phase this pronounced until today. There's some sort of liquid on some of the ridges and suspect they're glycerin? I have yogurt and oat flour in there...

View attachment 71633

@hanaherrera your soap and topping is beautiful!

 

[hanaherrera]

Looks great! Those are probably oils come to the surface but they will re-absorb in a day or two.

Thank you! The oils did get reabsorbed but I wasn't expecting the gelled color to stay. It was milky white in the beginning and when it when it gelled, it stayed gelled with a honey-like color. It's still pretty, but I wish it had stayed milky white. I was hesitant about adding TD and thought maybe I could just do without it, next time I'll know what to do

About the bubbles that OP had enquired about, I had them too but they were very minimal and they were just on a few edges where I thought glycerin had formed. I just took a peeler and beveled the edge. A previous post on a similar topic, I'm sorry I wasn't able to get the link, but if I remember one of the comments correctly, someone had said that the bubbles form on batches in silicone molds due to high temps? Does this apply to all silicone molds?

 

[hanaherrera]

@hanaherrera your soap and topping is beautiful!

Thank you! I put any excess batter in those little silicone molds used for making chocolates? And then just use them to top some soaps. I'm learning piping, which seems to be the new fad in making soap tops for party favors.