Disappearing Orange Spots

[commoncenz]

I made a soap two weeks ago that a lot of things went wrong while making it. This was the one that my daughter helped me with and I was pretty distracted trying to explain what I was doing to her while actually doing it.

Anyway, the soap had been curing very well after unmolding and cutting. Then 2 days ago I started noticing these little pinpoint dots of orange in an otherwise beige soap.

"OH CRAP, DOS", I thought. Freaking out because I have never had a batch contract that particular ailment.

I watched the soap to see how many bars came down with these spots and pretty much every single one did. I checked them constantly (I'm sure you know the feeling).

Well, today, I had a bunch of other stuff to do and didn't get to stand guard over my soap. Finally looked at it a few minutes ago and ... it seems like the spots are disappearing.

So, not DOS? If not, what would cause the orange spots to appear and disappear? Fragrance Oil "weeping"?

 

[galaxyMLP]

It may be the fragrance oil! I had this happen to my soap once and the spots faded. I'm pretty sure it was due to fragrance oil because is showed up after only a day or so and then dissipated slowly. The spots seemed to "diffuse" into the rest of the soap which led me to believe it was fragrance. You can see a picture that I posted. It can also be a colorant bleeding. What additives did you have?

Eta: its not the black spots, those are poppy seeds. Its the orange in the beige area.

 

[commoncenz]

I actually didn't have any additives. Just an almond cookie fragrance oil. But, while trying to talk to my daughter and explain what I was doing, I had a whole lot go "difficult". I ended up mixing in the fragrance oil (not the one I intended for that batch) while the batter was in the mold. This caused my green, blue and tan batters to "co-mingle" and produced a brown/tan colored soap.

I figured it might be the fragrance oil because mixing into the batter in the mold wouldn't have give as thorough a mix as if I had done it beforehand. The soap still smells like almond cookie with no trace of a foul odor. So, I don't think it was DOS. Plus, for the last few days the spots have come and gone on different bars of soap. Just strange ... lol

 

[galaxyMLP]

I remember reading that thread! I thought you did a great job salvaging it. Then yes, it sounds like the FO. I wouldn't worry. I find that the FOs tend to disperse well even if they might be spotty at first. that batch in the picture also cleared up by the end of cure.

 

[commoncenz]

Well, that takes a load of my mind! I'll continue monitoring them, of course. But, so far, so good.

Thanks for taking the time to ease my mind.

Btw, it occurs to me that I don't think I wiped my lye-water container out before remaking the lye-water with distilled water. I wonder if it's possible that residual impurities from the super hard water are causing the orange dots (which are actually about the size and shape of the black dots in your soap; if not a little smaller)?

 

[galaxyMLP]

I don't think so, I used to make soap using my hard water instead of distilled water before I knew it made a difference (and I should've known). I would think that would effect the lathering capability. If there are additional minerals, as is the case with hard water, when the soap is made it will make insoluble salts that will decrease lather.

It *may* be possible that using hard tap water could cause soap to go rancid faster if it has a high metal content. Although, it is usually elemental metals that cause rancidity to catalyze and I wouldn't think that the salts of those metals would have the same effect. If you used it as all of your water it may have been an issue but just the residual in the pitcher from rinsing? Probably not!

 

[LBussy]

I had the same thing happen with a batch - I posted pics here as well a while back. After they sat forgotten for a few months they are back to gorgeous creamy white.