Ever Seen This Before? (pic)

BrewerGeorge · Nov 30, 2015

This is a pic of the soap I unmolded Friday.

See that bright yellow top? It's not supposed to be there. It's just the color of soap batter and zapped like crazy. You can see from the missing piece that's it's a bit soft, too.

I assume this is just a layer of unsaponified soap on the bottom, and as the yellow has slowly disappeared over the last three days that assumption has been born out. Do you agree?

I'm also wondering what might have caused it? This soap was in the mold for three days before I unmolded it, and the flowers in silicone that came from the same batch didn't have this problem. This loaf was semi-planned leftovers from those flowers, and I used a drawer divider from Bed, Bath & Beyond as the mold. It's plastic with what feels like a silicone liner on the bottom (with the nubs). The unsaponified part exactly follows this liner, too.

Could it be heat related? The soap didn't gel, but the rest of the mass seems fully saponified. That is the bottom of the mold, which was sitting on the metal tray in the cool garage - but then why would the effect so perfectly coincide with the liner if it were just the cold?

Saponomancer · Nov 30, 2015

I don't know if this is it but: I've had an experience where if I don't wash out silicone before I use it, sometimes the soap turns yellow; I think they put something on it that reacts with the soap. I found that out putting extra batter in a couple of little embed molds I had just gotten in

dixiedragon · Nov 30, 2015

Based on the fact that the yellow part isn't swirled and the bottom is? I assume you poured some soap, then colored some of it and poured a swirl?

fuzz-juzz · Nov 30, 2015

I think dixiedragon is onto something.
If you poured that yellow batter before swirled one, it could have been at false trace. The rest of the batter had a chance to thicken up while you were swirling and adding colours maybe?
I had false trace happening the other day when I was testing fragrances. My mini soaps were similar texture to the yellow layer on your soap, soft and crumbly.

BrewerGeorge · Nov 30, 2015

It was an ITP swirl, just one pour. I'd actually poured the flowers first before dumping the remainder into the loaf. The loaf is a bit less swirly because I didn't drop the purple from high enough to reach all the way to the bottom of the pot, apparently, so most of the color went into the flowers. But there is SOME color in the loaf, even at the bottom; it's just hard to see because the yellow is overpowering it (and the glitter is distracting). On the edge facing the camera, you can see some of the purple continue into the yellow. Now that the top has turned mostly white/cream the purple is more noticable, too.

It WAS all poured at a very thin trace, though, just one short step past emulsified. That's why the purple is all whispy and diffused.

I'll probably cut it tonight if it passes zap. I'll post a pic of the cuts.

ETA: Not quite ready to cut tonight. I decided to try the removing soda ash from the whole loaf at once thing, and want to let it firm back up. Pics tomorrow.

BrewerGeorge · Dec 2, 2015

Ok, here are the pics after the cut. A lot less swirl that I'd hoped, but nice enough. (Did the top 'manually' with leftover purple) All the yellow is completely gone.