Can anyone tell me what this might be?

[cerelife]

Sorry for being needy tonight!
A friend/fellow soapmaker sent me this pic today with the message that they made 4 identical batches of soap and this happened with the last one.
Our thoughts were:
- unsaponified lye
- hard oils/butters solidified
- funky soda ash
I don't know their recipe or method, so I'm of no help there. I just thought I'd see if anyone has had something similar happen and could chime in. This was a large batch so fingers crossed that it's just weird ash going on here!!

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Get them to join up so we can actually get the details. Proxy helping with incomplete information will be taking a lot of shots in the dark

 

[cerelife]

Good point, TEG! I'll send them a link to the forum.