Discoloration - is this still usable?

[sasse3824]

Hello everyone,

I made my first batch of soap a month ago and they have been sitting out to cure. I added color and frangrance to one part of the batch but left the rest without any additives. The bars with color and fragrance look great but the ones without have developed some discoloration over the past few days. I have read about DOS - is that what this is? The bars smell perfectly fine to me and I would hate to throw anything away but I am unsure if they are still alright to use. If they are not usable anymore, do I also have to discard the colored ones, even though they look fine (so far)?

I would appreciate any help!

 

[DeeAnna]

The orange spots do look like rancidity to me. It's possible the bars with color and fragrance will also become visibly rancid. Your added color may be hiding the change in appearance.

I do not think there is anything dangerous about using soap that has some rancidity, but if there's an obvious odor to the soap, that odor can transfer to your skin.

You don't say anything about your recipe or method, so it's impossible to give advice about any changes you might make to minimize the chance of rancidity in your soap.

 

[sasse3824]

The orange spots do look like rancidity to me. It's possible the bars with color and fragrance will also become visibly rancid. Your added color may be hiding the change in appearance.

I do not think there is anything dangerous about using soap that has some rancidity, but if there's an obvious odor to the soap, that odor can transfer to your skin.

You don't say anything about your recipe or method, so it's impossible to give advice about any changes you might make to minimize the chance of rancidity in your soap.

thank you for replying! I'll stay on the lookout for any smells.
Also sorry about the lack of information.
It's cold process soap and I bought a kit from a local soap manufactory. The recipe is 250g of each coconut oil, sheabutter, almond oil and canola oil and then 335g destilled water and 134g sodium hydroxide. According to the label, none of the oils should have gone bad yet and I made sure the room they cure in is well ventilated.

 

[Zing]

Welcome to the Forum and congratulations on your first batch! I got DOS a couple times. The smell is very distinctive -- like old crayons. For what it's worth, I keep my oils and butters in the refrigerator. We look forward to hearing about your next batch!

 

[Jorah]

Welcome, @sasse3824 ! I'm a fellow newb, having started back on April Fool's day. I got DOS on a ton of my early soaps; so far it hasn't hurt anything but the appearance of the soap. I learned through hard experience that letting your uncured soap touch anything but stainless steel,* plastic, silicone, or waxed paper risks having it develop DOS. Keeping a low-humidity environment helps, but I even got DOS from using an acrylic soap stamp! Now my bars come out of the mold, get cut if they need to be cut, then rest on two layers of parchment paper or waxed paper until they're cured. If I stamp, I put a layer of cling wrap between the soap and the stamp!

Best of luck with your new soapmaking hobby!

-=-

*don't assume shiny metal is stainless steel; I have some drying racks that I thought were stainless, but they caused DOS right through a layer of parchment paper! I assume now that they have chrome or some other metal as a coating.

 

[sasse3824]

Welcome, @sasse3824 ! I'm a fellow newb, having started back on April Fool's day. I got DOS on a ton of my early soaps; so far it hasn't hurt anything but the appearance of the soap. I learned through hard experience that letting your uncured soap touch anything but stainless steel, plastic, silicone, or waxed paper risks having it develop DOS. Keeping a low-humidity environment helps, but I even got DOS from using an acrylic soap stamp! Now my bars come out of the mold, get cut if they need to be cut, then rest on two layers of parchment paper or waxed paper until they're cured. If I stamp, I put a layer of cling wrap between the soap and the stamp!

Best of luck with your new soapmaking hobby!

thank you for your comment!
I just had the soap curing on a large piece of cardboard, which seems like a pretty bad idea in hindsight because it probably retains a lot of moisture. I'll figure out something better for next time!

Welcome to the Forum and congratulations on your first batch! I got DOS a couple times. The smell is very distinctive -- like old crayons. For what it's worth, I keep my oils and butters in the refrigerator. We look forward to hearing about your next batch!

thank you!! I'll definitely keep that in mind for storing the ingredients.

 

[2lilboots]

I had several batches that had DOS and I tossed them. It made me sad.

 

[Becky1024]

thank you for your comment!
I just had the soap curing on a large piece of cardboard, which seems like a pretty bad idea in hindsight because it probably retains a lot of moisture. I'll figure out something better for next time!


thank you!! I'll definitely keep that in mind for storing the ingredients.

Parchment paper is a better option than cardboard. Most cardboard is made of recycled paper and could contain particles that would affect the soap.